Will Pres Obama cause more pro gunners to retake congress?

Will Pres Obama cause more pro gunners to retake congress?


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Everyone is ignoring the possibility of the "Clinton" effect on congress if Obama wins. Remember that? When two years into Clinton's administration, pro gunners swept into congress (then passed the Lautenberg ban two years later but that's another issue :mad:)
 
I do not think it will. I think people on gun boards really, really overestimate how much the rest of the country even thinks about gun issues when voting.
 
Then please DO tell what the reason was.
That is not an easy thing to condense into one post. It ran the gambit from the rise of christian fundamentalists in politics and the demonization by a vast right wing sub-media to an enormous witch hunt (and waste of taxpayer money) into a presidents personal life.

This was the height of the Rush era and people had not quite figured out the intentional bias of Fox News and AM radio talking heads. It allowed the far right to take power.

The bad side it is did not allow true conservatives to take power. It allowed corporate shills to be placed into power.

It is also a prime example of why I always argue with people that try to use dirty games in politics and posts on here. They never pay off in the long run. People like Rush and networks like Fox managed to make short term gains but now the majority people would not believe Rush if he told them the sky was blue and take everything Fox News says with a grain of salt. They gained short term power but did long lasting damage to the party.

Go ahead and start searching the net and find one single independent poll from around that time frame where "gun rights" ever even made the top five concerns of voters.
 
Playboypenguin

You must listen to Rush and Hannity more than anyone else on this forum. You always know their talking points, and mention their names often.
 
I do listen to them on occasion...and you only have to listen to one to now exactly what the others are saying. It is very well orchestrated.

Listening to them is one thing, but if you find yourself listening to them and believing them you really need to ask yourself why. What is missing in your thought process that you need to be fed your opinions.

But like I said, find one single independent poll that has ever put gun rights near the top of the concerns list at an election.
 
Clinton sure thought the 1994 GOP wins were mainly because of guns.

Said so himself.

Said it again in 2000 when Gore lost.

Obama being elected probably won't be enough to trigger that kind of reaction. The last time it happened it was in response to gun control legislation being passed into law.

I don't know about you guys, but I'd prefer not to wait until that happens.
 
Clinton sure thought the 1994 GOP wins were mainly because of guns.

Said so himself.

Said it again in 2000 when Gore lost.
Sources, please. :)

PS: Where are all these "pro-gun"politicians anyway and what have they done for anyone? Seems to me the major victories for gun rights n the last decade or two have been primarily from ordinary citizens who stood up and fought the law and won major court decisions.
 
It's amazing what you can find when you look for it...

http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?ID=40

A few weeks after the November, 1994, elections, President Clinton admitted to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer that "the fight for the assault-weapons ban cost 20 members their seats in Congress...The NRA is the reason the Republicans control the house." 3 Washington pundits attributed the defeat of many prominent Democrats, such as House Speaker Foley and Pennsylvania Senator Harris Wofford, to a voter backlash against gun control in general, and the "assault weapon" ban in particular.

My connectivity stinks right now, but if you'll google "Gore, 2000 lost gun control", you'll see that one of the main reasons he failed to win his home state of Tennessee was because of his stance on gun control. I believe Clinton had something to say about that. Had Gore won his own state, Florida wouldn't have mattered.
 
PS: Where are all these "pro-gun"politicians anyway and what have they done for anyone? Seems to me the major victories for gun rights n the last decade or two have been primarily from ordinary citizens who stood up and fought the law and won major court decisions.

In case you missed it, those politicians were the ones who voted to appoint the judges to the bench that made some of those court decisions possible.
 
That is an interesting statement but it is hardly a definitive argument. There is no real indicator that this is true...and if you read other articles that come up with that quote you will find how most people chiming in disagreed. Even top republicans where accusing Clinton of trying to blame losses that where due to his own behaviors and faults on the gun lobby. They accuse him of using the gun issue as a scape goat and point out that polls and samples suggest people voted "not for guns but against Clinton." Even some democrats where accusing him of not accepting his own role in the decline of the party.

Plus, even if you accept him at his word and this gun issue did cost 20 seats...that is less than 5% of the House. He was saying 20 members of Congress. That means the Senate and the House so it is even a smaller percentage than that. Not a very strong argument.

Just look at the top issues on the minds of people today. Guns never makes the list. We better come up with a whole lot more reasons than just guns to try and convince middle America if we want to stand a chance of rebuilding the republican party.
 
Guns won't be the only issue but I can see a 2010 backlash against a "President" Obama.

Strange, a number of the new Democrats in congress are different than the old ones. I'll use Virginia as my example because that is where I live and vote. In 2006, Jim Webb (Dem) got elected to the US Senate. Webb was formerly a Rebulican and Assistant Sec of Navy in the Reagan Administration. He switch parties due to Republican Iraq policy. (Webb was a Marine officer in Vietnam and his son a Marine officer in Iraq). He seems to be conservative and pro gun. Sen John Warner (Rep, but pro big government and anti gun) is retiring this year. Most likely to get his seat is former governor Mark Warner (Dem and no relation to the other Warner). As governor Mark Warner pushed for balanced budgets and signed every pro gun bill that came across his desk. A year ago I met him at a pub in downtown Richmond and I thanked him for all his 2A support. He told me, "I took a lot of heat from other Democrats, but I felt it was the right thing to do".

Anything going on like that in other states?
 
That is an interesting statement but it is hardly a definitive argument.

That's why I don't take the bait when someone I'm arguing with insists on sources: after I provide the sources, they make an excuse to disregard them.

Reminds me of when Marilyn Van Sant (Parade "magazine" ... or is it a "clip" :) ) was asked about providing proof to those who refused to believe we really landed on the moon. She said the proof was readily available, but the disbelievers weren't going to believe any sort of proof. They had a position and they were going to stick to it.
 
No - I think Obama will not go near new gun laws as he will remember the AWB example.

If there is a rejection of the GOP in the fall and a new attempt at an AWB - just say thanks - GWB! You did a hell of a job.
 
With Obama as President, my gun rights will be the least of my concerns. I hate him much more for the twisted, anti-free trade crap he spews every day.

I have a feeling that when the middle and upper-middle classes realize that their taxes are going through the roof, what with capital gains and inevitably that dreaded AMT; when the rest of Americans find out that "FAIR TRADE" policies = massive price hikes on pretty much every product; and when a bunch of our major American corporations just straight up move themselves overseas to Tokyo, Singapore or Dubai or what have you, well....

I live in NoVa. Oh man when that AMT hits, it's gonna hit this area so hard.

Like the PlayboyPenguin said, gun rights just aren't that big an issue as we think.
 
If Obama starts making noise about signing gun control legislation I think their will be a backlash in Congress. However, he may have learned from the past that gun control legislation is a loser. The Heller decision may also help.
 
Probably not. Despite some of the fearmongering going on here....gun control is not very high up on Democrats' agenda. They have larger dragons to slay like the economy, healthcare, and the Iraq conflict.
 
Playboypenguin

We better come up with a whole lot more reasons than just guns to try and convince middle America if we want to stand a chance of rebuilding the republican party.

Interesting statement coming from one who had indicated there is a 50-50 chance he will be voting for Obama. Somehow, casting a vote for Obama doesn't strike me as doing anything to "rebuild the Republican party".
 
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