As disappointing as yesterday's defeat for such modest gun control measures as background checks and stronger gun trafficking-cracking down on straw purchases. etc-it's important for us to have to admit that this defeat was in large part thanks to Democrats.
Absolutely, the GOP gets plenty of blame. After all, this was a measure that has 90% support of the American people-with very large majorities supporting it even among Republicans and NRA members and yet only 10% of them supported it. It was thanks to their requirement-call it the McConnell Rule-in the spirit of the Hastert Rule in the House-that everything in the Senate now requires a 60 vote supermajority.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/18/wonkbook-the-gun-bill-failed-because-the-senate-is-wildly-undemocratic/
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112949/senate-fails-expand-gun-background-checks-obama-gets-angry#
We have a rather amazing phenomenon where the minority runs this country in both Houses. We always talk about the House where 54% of votes were for Democrats yet the GOP has a plus thirty seat majority. Yet Senate filibuster makes it the same thing in the Senate.
Still, a big part of the blame for this goes to cowardly Dems. Yes, even if all the Democrats had supported this it wouldn't have passed based on how everyone did actually vote yesterday. However, it would have given us 59 votes-just one short of success; Harry Reid only voted no for procedural reasons. Had there been 59 votes, maybe a Kelly Ayotte-who is in an increasingly suburban district-or even Lisa Mirkowski or Dean Heller may have come on board. All three of these Purple State Republicans weighted to the 11th hour to announce their position. If we had all the Dems behind it, this may well have made it.
What this amounted to was the political cowardice of just a few Red State Senators to do what was right. As Joe Manchin argues, sometimes you just have to get behind something because you know the facts are on your side regardless of the risk. It's a test that Red State Dems like Heidi Heikamp failed:
"Dana Milbank has an excellent piece skewering red state Dems, but particularly Senator Heitkamp, for failing the basic test of political courage during yesterday’s gun vote. Milbank flags this quote from Senator Joe Manchin, which was aimed directly at Heitkamp:
Absolutely, the GOP gets plenty of blame. After all, this was a measure that has 90% support of the American people-with very large majorities supporting it even among Republicans and NRA members and yet only 10% of them supported it. It was thanks to their requirement-call it the McConnell Rule-in the spirit of the Hastert Rule in the House-that everything in the Senate now requires a 60 vote supermajority.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/18/wonkbook-the-gun-bill-failed-because-the-senate-is-wildly-undemocratic/
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112949/senate-fails-expand-gun-background-checks-obama-gets-angry#
We have a rather amazing phenomenon where the minority runs this country in both Houses. We always talk about the House where 54% of votes were for Democrats yet the GOP has a plus thirty seat majority. Yet Senate filibuster makes it the same thing in the Senate.
Still, a big part of the blame for this goes to cowardly Dems. Yes, even if all the Democrats had supported this it wouldn't have passed based on how everyone did actually vote yesterday. However, it would have given us 59 votes-just one short of success; Harry Reid only voted no for procedural reasons. Had there been 59 votes, maybe a Kelly Ayotte-who is in an increasingly suburban district-or even Lisa Mirkowski or Dean Heller may have come on board. All three of these Purple State Republicans weighted to the 11th hour to announce their position. If we had all the Dems behind it, this may well have made it.
What this amounted to was the political cowardice of just a few Red State Senators to do what was right. As Joe Manchin argues, sometimes you just have to get behind something because you know the facts are on your side regardless of the risk. It's a test that Red State Dems like Heidi Heikamp failed:
"Dana Milbank has an excellent piece skewering red state Dems, but particularly Senator Heitkamp, for failing the basic test of political courage during yesterday’s gun vote. Milbank flags this quote from Senator Joe Manchin, which was aimed directly at Heitkamp:
“I think there is a time in our life, a defining time in public service,” he said, “when you know the facts are on your side and walk into the lion’s den.”
Manchin — and Pat Toomey — really deserve great credit for the leadership he showed on this issue, and I fully expect that it will continue.
Another Senator who like Manchin and Toomey did get this is John McCain who puts it about as well as it can be put:
"You may not win today ... but I will say that you did the right thing,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said to Manchin and Toomey on the floor. “And it’s been my experience as a senator in this body who has not always done the right thing, that doing the right thing is a reward within itself.”
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