This actually isn't true. M4A and other wording for universal health care generally polls in the mid 50's on the surface level (it goes down when you start asking about specifics). Assault weapons bans generally poll in the mid 60's, bouncing right after mass shooting incidents and then waning when we get further away.
Well the progressive "leader" gets reluctantly shamed into it in Bernie. Outside of his views not being pragmatic from people who disagree with him, the next two biggest criticisms I hear are that he thinks everything can be solved with economic reform and that he was "easy" on gun manufacturers.
The problem I have with this is the timing. It couldn't be worse. It happens right when President Biden has, with a great deal of difficulty and expenditure of political capital, gotten his signature bill passed, a bill of enormous consequence and passed without one Republican vote. Instead of the focus being on that incredible accomplishment, we'll hear nothing but "noise" filling the ether about "Democrats taking away our guns." This could have waited. Those who pushed for this at this time are political fools, in my humble opinion. This is coming from a Democrat. One who is a gun owner, and someone who thinks we have no business owning assault style weapons, except by those who are collectors with a special license allowing that ownership. There has never been a shortage of fools in my party. Well meaning fools, in the main, not the dreck inhabiting the Republican Party these days, but fools nevertheless.
banning assault weapons may poll higher but nothing unifies the base of the right more. I may not have polling evidence of that but I do have the NRA as evidence
This has nothing to do whether progressives favor this policy or not. This once again reinstates my point how stupid the democratic party truly is at times. You have a president who passed the most popular economic passage in the past 10 years. The democrats just passed the largest child tax credit expansion in modern history. You will have tens of millions of american families receiving monthly checks that they never had before. You will have the a booming economy growing as fast as China's for the first time in a decade, full employment sooner then later, booming stock market and you throw away your political capital on a topic that has zero fkin chance of passing. Unbelievable You are not going to convince Manchin to reform the filibuster on gun reform because that's pollical suicide and you dont have the votes without him. There should be nothing other then infrastructure and the john lewis votings right bill being discussed right now. You can get manchin to agree to a talking filibuster for voting rights but you WONT get it for gun control. I just dont get how a party can be so ****ing stupid. I honestly dont even blame Biden but blame some of the others around him.
Sanders is certainly a leader of the Progressives but I don't think he's the end all of them. I know his history and he's stated as a Rep and then Senator of a rural state he has a different opinion regarding gun control than many. There are many self described Progressives though who consider this an important issue and have pushed for it. For example Ilhan Omar has brought this issue up and is supporting an assault weapons ban. https://ilhanomar.com/vision/preventgunviolence/ " NSURE SAFE SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES For too long, Republican politicians, beholden to the powerful gun lobby, have blocked common sense gun reforms that would end the shocking mass shootings and rising rates of violence currently plaguing this country. Ban the sale of assault weapons Prevent convicted domestic and animal abusers from accessing guns Remove the federal ban on researching the impact of gun violence in our communities Support the funding and accessibility of mental health services and substance use treatment so that vulnerable individuals can get the help they need Address the bullying epidemic in our schools and enhance mental health services for our youth REQUIRE UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR ALL Loopholes in current law allow for too many gun sales to bypass appropriate government oversight and programs such as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System are severely underfunded – resulting in an incomplete database Close the gun show loophole and require background checks for every single firearm sale, no matter the circumstances Fully fund grants to local communities to help improve local record keeping and reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System"
I agree with you and other posters who think this is tactically not smart. I don't think Biden will expend a lot of political capital on this and I think it is very likely to fail in the Senate. The Universal Background check bills is different given that it has Republican support and if there is a gun control bill passed I would think it would be one of those.
You guys do understand that this basic bill gets filed every session, right? Nothing about introducing a bill means its going to come up for a vote or even be mentioned anywhere. The original post is literally from Feinstein's office website - no media coverage, no outrage from the right, or anything like that. The Dems aren't spending political capital or doing anything stupid at this point. It's not going to go anywhere or be addressed before infrastructure, minimum wage, climate change, health care reform, immigration reform, or numerous other things. Tons of other more-crazy bills have likely already been mentioned by different members as well. Infrastructure is the next big ticket item on the agenda, and the hope is to pass that by the fall. Things move very slowly in the Senate.
That's why my criticism was directed at Senator Feinstien herself. Ya, she's been doing this every new term since 1994 and it just shows how out of touch she is. She needs to retire.
He jus wanted to find a reason to slam Feinstein. Why do keep ignoring the co sponsors of the bill or the fact that its on AOC's website as well. Just admit you wanted to take a shot again at Feinstein, I agree she needs to go away but stop taking cheap shots.
It's not a cheap shot. She continues to push this bill every new term. And proggressives in the party feel compelled to go along with it or else be chastised by moderates. Look, I've listened to enough rhetoric from people like AOC and Bernie. When they discuss economic reform, you can see the passion in their rhetoric and then they'll be like "ya and gun reform". It's like an after thought for them. I guess it's something only people who more closely follow their rhetoric would pick up. Ya, they'll go along with the Democrat position but at least I don't think it's something they are as passionate about as economic reform. For Feinstien, mass surveillance, weapons bans etc are what she is passionate about.
She is not pushing this bill alone, she does nothing that is not backed by the majority. All of the top progressives are on board yet you totally ignore that and focus on Feinstein. How the hell are co sponsors of the bill just going along?
She is the one who always brings it up every term. And yes other democrat legislators latch on to it as a sign of support but probably know tis never going to pass.
I just don't get this that progressives are being pushed by moderates into taking this bill up. From what I can tell many progressives support this issue and think it's important. This seems to me you're reading a lot more into what these people feel important are or passionate about. Again Sanders has a different view than many Progressives and it's understandable that not all Progressives are in exact lock step. Sanders has explained why he has a different view that has to do with his state. At the beginning of this video here is AOC back in 2018 speaking about this issue.
You can find clips. It's more about the relative difference and the frequency they bring this up compared to things like M4A and other economic reforms like the wealth tax.
Watch your mayor and city manager get gunned down by the latter's predecessor, who was also a former cop, you get to freak out about superfluous gun ownership. After the storming and stop the steal posts **** 'em; they get a couple of bites of **** sandwich before getting any wings, celery or shrimp from the Randall's party tray.
Except Feinstein doesn't bring up the Assault Weapons ban that frequently either and a lot of her attention has also been focused on economic issues. From what I've seen of her she is more interested in law and justice issues. Members of congress can focus on multiple issues. Just because they aren't talking about a single issue all the time doesn't mean they don't consider that issue important. As noted in that clip, Omar's own policy statement on her website and many many other examples I'm not seeing that Progressives are reluctantly being forced into going along with the assault weapons ban but do think it is an important issue.
