Blind partisanship
by digby
The latest New York Times poll analysis says that the country largely agrees on what to do about guns and immigration but they retreat to their political corners when asked what should be done. And they quote some people from their poll to show just how blindly partisan we Americans all are:
Here are the Republicans:
“I’m for stricter gun laws, but the reason I favor the Republicans over the Democrats and the liberals on gun laws is because they have always been against the Second Amendment and the right to own guns,” said Jim Hensley, 69, a Republican from Grandville, Mich., in an interview after the poll was conducted.
“Yes, I believe the Republicans should have voted for background checks, and they should not legalize automatic weapons,” Mr. Hensley added. “I was against the repeal of the ban on automatic weapons, and I don’t support the N.R.A. But it’s like marriage. You stick with your wife no matter what, and you don’t just ditch your political party on one issue.”
Rick Buckman, 52, a Republican and an electrical engineer from Dallas, Pa., said that while he supported stricter gun legislation, he did not necessarily approve of the president’s approach.
“I was really ticked off that the law didn’t pass,” Mr. Buckman said. “But I thought it was wrong of President Obama to get in front of the public and use people who had been damaged by gun violence as props.”
They quoted one Independent:
“Stricter gun laws might help with some of the out of control people who randomly go around shooting others or killing themselves,” said Debby Warnock, 44, an independent from Pueblo West, Colo., who is unemployed. “I do favor background checks, though some of the people who have killed others had clean backgrounds.”
She added: “I personally don’t care whether Republicans or Democrats make the decisions as long as it’s in the best interest of our country.”
And they quoted one Democrat:
Mike Brady, 68, a Democrat and semiretired lawyer in Farmington Hills, Mich., viewed the Republicans’ opposition to the gun control legislation as self-serving. “Well, Obama’s trying his best to do the obvious right thing for the country, but he’s been roadblocked extensively for political reasons by people who even among themselves would take a different position,” he said. “So it’s cynical, unprincipled obstructionism.”
Is everyone there being blindly partisan? Really?
The Independent says that she favors gun legislation and doesn’t care whether Republicans or Democrats do it.
The Democrat supports legislation and points out that Republicans support them too but says, reasonably, that they opposed the legislation for political purposes.
The two Republicans support background checks but support the GOP anyway out of tribal loyalty or because President Obama gave a speech after the vote with the Newtown families present.
Therefore, they all agree that the gun legislation should have passed. But it’s only the Republicans
who are supporting their political leaders even though they didn’t do what they wanted them to do. This simply does not demonstrate than “everyone” has retreated into their partisan corners at all. It demonstrates that Republicans have retreated into their partisan corner. Period.
If you read through the rest of the poll on immigration and deficit reduction, the pattern is just as clear. Is it any wonder that Republicans in congress behave as they do? It’s a very simple political calculation for them: all that matters to their voters is that they oppose the Democrats. And although you can’t extrapolate this from that poll alone, my life observing Republicans tells me that there’s a simple reason for it: they are motivated by their loathing of liberals, not their belief in conservatism. I don’t think there’s much more to it than that.
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