How the extremist strategies of the NRA have overtaken Republican politics
by digby
(First, let me get this out of the way. If any of you right wingers are reading this, I never say that the NRA has been giving guns away. Salon tweeted that the NRA had “armed” America and my twitter feed is full of people screaming at the top of their lungs that I’m and idiot libtard who thinks the NRA has provided gun owners with their guns. It’s a misreading of Salon’s tweet and a perfect demonstration that nobody actually reads the article which says nothing of the sort. But whatever …)
Anyway, the article is really about how the NRA’s “take-no-prisoners” strategy has been taken up by Republicans as a whole — and largely because it’s worked for them. An excerpt:
How did they go from being swashbuckling, conservative Reagan warriors wanting to “make America great again” to mutinous revolutionaries determined to bring down the state by any means necessary? There are, no doubt, many reasons for it, from a highly influential demagogic media to the final realignment of the two parties after the civil rights movement. Certainly the ascension of the young Reagan backbenchers, led by Newt Gingrich, put the revolution in warp drive before it careened out of control.
But the recent emergence of the Tea Party right and the intransigent “Freedom Caucus”in the House evinces an anarchistic spirit that even Gingrich couldn’t have imagined. (And he has quite an imagination.) No this slash-and-burn style was modeled elsewhere, by an ultra-successful right-wing institution which continues to flex its muscle today: the NRA.
The NRA had once been a sportsman and safety organization, which took a turn toward the political back in the ’70s, just as the conservative movement was gaining steam. By the ’90s it had transformed itself into a potent political institution which perversely thrived when it was attacked, and built its clout by never giving an inch. Ever.
This strategy was devised and carried out by their very able leader, Wayne LaPierre. According to this article by Joel Achenbach, Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz in the Washington Post about the NRA’s rise, LaPierre understood very early that the organization could leverage any attempts at gun regulation into an expansion of its membership (and its coffers):
LaPierre knew what notes to hit to satisfy the hard-liners. At the annual meeting in 1993, LaPierre told the members, “Good, honest Americans stand divided, driven apart by a force that dwarfs any political power or social tyrant that ever before existed on this planet: the American media.”
Democrats in Congress and some Republican allies passed an assault-weapons ban in 1994. That fired up the NRA base. The NRA’s rhetoric grew harsher. Out on the political fringe, the militia movement grew in influence, as anti-government activists warned of black helicopters carrying federal agents dressed like ninjas. The militants cited the 1992 shooting deaths of two civilians in a federal raid at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and the 1993 siege by federal agents of a religious sect’s compound in Waco, Tex., that culminated in a fire killing 76 people.
They were hardcore and completely intransigent. The article quotes the head of the ATF who attempted to set up meetings with the NRA to try to find common ground or even communicate. He was met with silence. LaPierre wouldn’t even speak with the head of the agency when they ran into each other in an airport. The NRA didn’t want compromise, it wanted confrontation.
Of course, the NRA’s mission wasn’t without its challenges. For example, LaPierre had a setback in 1995 with the Oklahoma City Bombing, when even supporters became unnerved by his anti-government rhetoric; he eventually had to back-pedal to retain legitimacy. But soon the writing was on the wall that the parties were polarizing completely on this issue, and LaPierre went all-in with the GOP to defeat Al Gore for the presidency in 2000. The Democrats were predictably cowed by the beltway conventional wisdom and decided that guns were no longer an issue for which they were prepared to fight. Thus, the NRA became the lobbying juggernaut it is today.
And despite board member Grover Norquist’s silly bleating that gun safety activists communicate to gun owners that “you don’t like me” — and therefore no communication is possible — the fact remains that gun-safety advocates are asking for very little, and the NRA spits in their faces and laughs every time they bring it up. Just remember LaPierre’s cynical response to Newtown to get the drift. The organization gets its power from its unwillingness to compromise even one little bit.
And you can’t really argue with results: We are overwhelmed with gun violence, people are dying in large numbers, and yet it’s impossible to address the problem. This is the power of the NRA.
The right-wingers in the Tea Party and the Freedom Caucus have learned LaPierre’s lesson well.
Read on … The NRA is undoubtedly the most successful right wing institution in America. They lead the way.