NRA support hurting Republicans
A wide majority of Americans support background checks for potential gun buyers at gun shows and online. Unfortunately, a wide majority of the Republicans in the U.S. Senate don’t seem to care what a majority of Americans support.
Last month, when Republicans (and a few Democrats) voted to block bipartisan background check legislation, that vote came on the heels of a Washington Post-ABC poll that indicated 86 percent of those polled support background checks. Republicans cheered. Democrats suffered a stinging defeat. But the issue is hardly dead.
That same poll, by the way, indicated that most Americans (70 percent) feel Republicans are “out of touch” when it comes to the concerns of people in the United States. That’s no surprise.
But what has become increasingly surprising, though, is the new polling that indicates some Republicans are paying a price for their votes to block background checks.
Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire has seen her poll numbers slip 15 percent. Ayotte had been considered a rising star among conservatives. But she’s now facing a self-inflicted headwind.
Ohio’s Rob Portman was once considered to be a Republican vice presidential candidate. His approval numbers (according to the latest Public Policy Polling poll) have slipped by 18 points. He, too, voted to block background checks.
Then there’s the case of Jeff Flake of Arizona. He’s a freshmen senator, and he’s also seen as a rising Republican star. Or should I say he was seen that way. It was reported that he’d told one of his constituents that he was for background checks. But on the day of the vote, he stood with the majority of his fellow Republicans, and he voted to block it. His approval numbers now stand at a paltry 32 percent.
“Nothing like waking up to a poll saying you’re the nation’s least popular senator,” Flake wrote on his Facebook page. “Given the public’s dim view of Congress in general, that probably puts me somewhere just below pond scum,” he added.
The only Republican who seems to have benefited since the near-fatal background check vote is Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey. Of course, he co-sponsored the legislation with W.Va.’s Joe Manchin.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll Toomey’s approval, within a month, has jumped from 43 percent to 48 percent — which is the highest number he’s had since he took office.
Meanwhile, Republicans are returning to their states and facing the wrath of some of those Americans who support background checks.
At a town hall meeting last week, Sen. Ayotte was confronted by the daughter of one of the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy. Erica Lafferty wanted to know why Ayotte had been concerned about the supposed “burden” that would be placed on gun store owners under the proposed background check legislation, but, according to Lafferty, the burden of those gunned down in the halls of Sandy Hook Elementary School weren’t as important to her.
Ayotte (after she hemmed and hawed for a few moments) used the handy NRA talking-point, that if the background check bill would get signed into law, it wouldn’t prevent future Sandy Hooks.
Lafferty, not satisfied with Ayotte’s tepid defense, stormed out of the room, according to NBC News. Well, who wouldn’t?
Manchin has vowed to revive the background check legislation, despite some Republicans who’ve called it a “dead issue.”
In the meantime, Toomey, in a moment of candor, claims, “In the end it didn’t pass because we’re so politicized. There were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the president do something he wanted to get done just because the president wanted to do it.”
Did you get that? The Republican resistance to listen to the will of the American people has little to do with the supposed “burdens” background checks would have on gun store owners, or the fact that they would have little effect on tragedies like Sandy Hook.
Republicans in the U.S. Senate have one goal. They want to prevent the president of the United States from getting a victory. No wonder their poll numbers are taking a plunge.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net