Last edited Sat Mar 30, 2013, 11:15 AM - Edit history (1)
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/03/michael_bloomberg_s_gun_control_campaign_the_new_york_city_mayor_s_fight.html
Is Michael Bloomberg helping or hurting his cause? When the New York mayor’s organization, Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns, launched its $12 million advertising campaign to pressure lawmakers into supporting gun control legislation, the negative reaction from the NRA was predictable, but a week after the launch, the reaction from potential allies has also been cool. Senators and staffers working on bipartisan legislation say that Bloomberg’s effort to mobilize voters is less effective because it is also energizing gun control opponents. It’s pressuring lawmakers in the wrong way, too. Any legislator targeted by Bloomberg’s campaign who ultimately supports gun control legislation will look like he or she is being bowled over by a nanny-state mayor who wants to tell their constituents how to live their lives.
Bloomberg is overstating his case. Because even when 90 percent of the public says they agree about something, such as background checks—which is what Bloomberg was talking about in this instance—it isn’t the same as believing that something is “necessary for this country.” That's a higher level of commitment to the issue than can be divined from a public opinion poll. Just because you are in favor of something doesn't mean that you'll become a single-issue voter on that issue—especially if it doesn't touch your life directly. That is the same problem President Obama encounters when he cites the same 90 percent poll number and says, as he did Thursday, that "nothing is more powerful than millions of voices calling for change." The voices have to do more than call; they have to march and become active. The number willing to make that kind of commitment is not 90 percent.
The hurdle has always been that the people who want to fight gun control legislation are more likely to make it a voting issue than those who support gun control legislation. That's the reality Republicans and Democrats in conservative states feel. Having a New York City mayor threaten that you will be turned out of office if you don’t agree with him doesn’t change that reality one bit. In fact, it just gives you another thing to be against.
If you want to win, produce legislation that will address the problem at hand and actually help people who are experiencing the problem. Everything else is just smoke, mirrors and money in some billionaires pocket.
= new reply since forum marked as read