Give Us Ammunition!
Republicans need to provide votes.
By Jeff Knox
(March 29, 2016) As the Presidential primaries continue to unravel in the news, it seems that the main concern of Republican leaders in D.C. and around the country is stopping Donald Trump. They seem incapable of seeing their own culpability in pushing Trump to the top of the ticket. This is a trust and accountability issue, and the Republicans have failed miserably at earning trust and accepting responsibility for their actions and inactions. If Republicans want to win the presidency – or any other offices – they need to earn support by highlighting the clear distinctions between the parties and the candidates, and by demonstrating to their core constituency that they are actually listening to them, not just the donor class. That means going beyond promises to actually moving legislation, holding hearings, and taking votes.
Democrats have made gun control a central theme of their campaigns this year, so Republicans need to capitalize on that by demonstrating their commitment to individual rights. They could easily do that by bringing Rob Bishop’s (R-UT) “Lawful Purpose and Self Defense Act,” H.R.2710, to the floor for a vote. It’s a gun control reform that removes the onerous “sporting purpose” language from the Gun Control Act and squelches bureaucratic power over firearm imports and sales. There’s no way Obama would sign it, but that’s not the objective. While we would like to see the bill passed and enacted, its more important purpose this year would be to activate GunVoters, point up distinctions between R’s and D’s, give presidential candidates something to campaign on, force Obama to take a stand, and demonstrate to an important segment of the Republican base that their politicians are actually listening and responsive to them. All of these things are beneficial to Republicans and harmful to Democrats, so why aren’t they doing it? Votes on bills like H.R.2710 are ammunition in election season and it’s foolish of Republicans to deny that ammunition to our activists.
The rise of Trump did not happen in a vacuum, but rather due to a vacuum – a vacuum of leadership and responsiveness on the part of Republican Party bosses and elected politicians. For decades a large percentage of Republican voters have been calling – and voting – for a return to constitutional principles, the rule of law, lower taxes, smaller government, less interference from Washington, and more local control. Meanwhile, their leaders and elected representatives have arrogantly marched on with business as usual: bigger government, higher taxes, more bureaucratic control, and virtually no effort at all to live up to campaign promises.
The Republican Party is coming apart at the seams, but that’s not a result of a tough-talking real estate mogul turned reality TV star turned politician. Trump is just a symptom of a much bigger problem. The rise of Trump is a result of Republicans failing to give their constituents what they want – or even making more than a show of trying to do so.
The GOP leadership offers the excuse that even though they control the House and Senate, unless they control the White House, they’re just spinning their wheels and wasting “political capital.” That’s foolish. While conservative voters want to see laws enacted or repealed, what they need most right now is to see Republicans making a genuine effort to do so, even if the effort is in vain. They want to see the people they elected taking actions to keep the promises they made to get elected. They want record votes so they know who really stands with them and who is just offering lip service.
Republicans are stymied by disagreements within their ranks over details. Instead of taking action on the things they agree on, they throw rocks at each other about their disagreements. They pledge fealty to the Second Amendment, but don’t bring pro-rights bills to a vote. These are not winning strategies. This is not what voters and activists have been demanding. Instead it just convinces people that they might as well go hunting on Election Day because it doesn’t matter who wins, we the people lose.
For GunVoters, the issue is Second Amendment rights, and the best bill currently sitting on a shelf in Congress to show us that politicians are serious about Second Amendment Rights is H.R.2710, the Lawful Purpose and Self Defense Act, which currently has 102 cosponsors in the House – all of them Republicans. We know that Obama won’t sign it, and we know that it might not beat a filibuster in the Senate, but we want proof of where politicians stand. We want ammo to use to fire up our troops, shoot at our opponents, and support our allies. We want Republicans to take a stand on our behalf, to prove that they’re listening, and to lay the groundwork for a future victory.
Republicans need to stop working so hard to stop Trump, and instead start focusing on winning voters. To do that, they need to start giving us what we want: action, votes, ammunition.
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