The NRA may be weak, but GOP voters have already been thoroughly indoctrinated

by digby

Ted Cruz tells the truth:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned on Thursday that congressional action to stop gun violence would not stop mass murders, would demoralize the nation, and could elect Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) president. 

Speaking at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, Cruz was asked about background checks and discussions between the Trump administration and a bipartisan group of Senators. 

Cruz warned that any such action could cost Trump re-election. “Republicans abandon the Second Amendment and demoralize millions of Americans who care deeply about Second Amendment rights, that could go a long way to electing a President Elizabeth Warren,” he predicted.

The NRA is in crisis and its chief strategist and strongarm artist, Wayne LaPierre, has been discredited and humiliated. The “movement” led by the organization is severely weakened. If there’s an opening in the gun control wars, I’m afraid that’s primarily the reason rather than a nationwide awakening about gun violence. A majority of the country has been there for a long time but LaPierre and the NRA had a stranglehold on the congress with money and electoral clout.

But even though they are weakened, I wouldn’t expect too much until the Democrats take power again.  The gun-owning GOP base correlates very strongly with the Trump base and they do not need Wayne LaPierre to tell them what to think. They’ve been programmed for years. Gun rights are definitional.

Trump is impulsive and incoherent so who knows what he will decide to do? He could tell McConnell that he wants to sign a bill confiscating handguns for all we know. More likely, if he does anything it will be something very superficial. As much as his voters love him, I suspect that they will not forgive him if they feel he has betrayed them on this issue.  In fact, it may be the only issue that could move them.  I think he knows that.

Update:

Now this is refreshing: