Robert Walker, the former head of Handgun Control (Brady Campaign), offers some advice to the enviro-nuts in this piece, “What climate activists need to learn from the NRA and the gun-control wars.” Putting aside his obvious bias against the NRA, there’s some good stuff in there:
“… Remember: all politics is politics. It is not a debate competition. Elected officials must be persuaded by all means legal and ethical to vote for your position …”
Exactly. Far too many gunnies spend their time trying to be right, whether it’s compiling facts about private gun ownership and crime or digging up quotes from the Founding Fathers, and not nearly enough time on how to actually implement their ideas. Anyone who has ever seen the floor debates on gun bills in Albany knows that a rational discussion on the facts never comes up from the other side. Why worry about it then? There is nothing wrong with simply telling a legislator to vote your way or else you will work against them next election cycle.
“… Fight on all fronts. Congress is just one battlefield in a much larger theater of political conflict involving 536 elections, including the election of the president. If you are not fighting for the election of your friends and the defeat of your enemies at the ballot box, the battle for Congress is already lost. Your involvement in a campaign may or may not make a critical difference in the outcome of an election, but if your presence is not felt there, it will not be felt much in Congress either …”
I would add that a bottom-up approach is better than top-down, working and supporting candidates for local and state offices where gunnies can have the most immediate impact rather than for Congressional and Presidential candidates.
“… Fight behind enemy lines. Support on controversial issues tends to divide along party lines, but don’t let that stop you from recruiting and supporting a candidate on your issue who happens to be a member of the other party. In fact, getting involved in primary fights on the other side of the political aisle may be the single most effective thing you can do to change the political dynamic. Members of Congress will do almost anything — including voting for climate-change legislation — to avoid a serious primary challenge …”
Yep, and the reason for that is primary turnout is pathetic. 500 gunnies showing up to vote for a candidate for Assembly in November might be ignored when the average turnout is 35,000-40,000, but 500 gunnies showing up in September is a big deal when only 3500-4000 are expected to turnout.
“… Don’t fear to be feared. Progressive groups, including many supporters of climate-change legislation, love to be loved. The gun lobby doesn’t care if you don’t like it, so long as you fear it …”
I would have said respected, but the point is well taken.
“… Don’t get mad, get even … When I worked on gun issues, I ran into a lot of activists, particularly the victims and survivors of gun violence, who were incensed at Congress for its failure to adopt sensible gun laws. The key was to channel that anger and frustration into constructive action, and we did that with the passage of the Brady Law and the federal assault-weapons ban … success is the best revenge …”
Yep. Bob just leaves out that gunnies sure did get their revenge on Congress for passing both those unpopular laws in the ’94 elections and did it so well that 16 years later, an antigun President and a largely antigun leadership won’t even consider moving the antis agenda through Congress.
The best chance for revenge is at the ballot box. Vote early, vote often, vote pro-gun.