U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Will Mitch McConnell get re-elected to the Senate?” International Business Times asked Monday. “Kentucky Republican poll numbers are dismal ahead of 2020.”
This comes on the heels of Kentucky voters turning out GOP Governor Matt Bevin for Democrat Andy Beshear by a slim 5,100 vote margin. Insufferable “former Republican” Joe Scarborough, carrying water for the Democrats as is his media mission, gleefully blamed it on President Trump. That’s a meme the left wants the Republicans to be dumb enough to believe—that if they want to win, they need to abandon their core constituencies and turn to the left.
In fact, statewide sweeps for other GOP candidates give credence to other reasons for Bevin’s loss, including personal unpopularity. Add to that high-population urban islands surrounded by a sea of red as we saw happen in Virginia. That only 42% of 3.4M registered voters bothered to do so (and that was considered high!) also tells us much.
The question becomes, what of McConnell’s popularity, and what incentives has he given Bluegrass State gun owners to not just vote for him, but to be enthused about it?
And will it be enough to work around the perception that a guy who has been in the Senate since 1985 is the epitome of “the swamp”?
Let’s start with guns. NRA has consistently endorsed McConnell with an “A+” rating. I assume he’s OK with GOA, but a site redesign makes drawing a conclusion from “+” and “-“ symbols on key votes that further need to be explained in footnotes confusing. WTH, guys.
Where he runs into problems is on immigration, where Numbers USA gives him a “B” for “Recent”, but an “F-“ for “This Congress” and a “C+” for “Career.” This comes with a history of supporting Chuck Schumer’s immigration/amnesty and “praising the Gang of Eight.”
Contrary to some voices in the gun owner rights advocacy community who caution us to only focus on the “single issue,” deliberately infusing the population with tens of millions of foreign nationals who overwhelmingly support Democrats and citizen disarmament will undo all the “good” votes Republicans who support us on guns but betray us on the “pathway to citizenship” cast. We’ve seen it in California and most recently in Virginia. Cheap labor Republicans, either through self-interested intent or moron-level stupidity, are helping usher in the day when legislatures, the courts, and the executive become irreversibly Democrat, with the power to pass and uphold whatever gun bans they wish.
So what will we get if McConnell mirrors Bevin and gets turned out because his Chamber of Commerce-style “conservative” swampiness has doused the fire in too many bellies?
Meet former Marine pilot Amy McGrath, about as much a Democrat dream candidate a mostly-rural state could ask for. She comes off as concerned, patriotic and disciplined, not all wild-eyed and overtly Marxist, like some Democrats we know.
“I am a gun owner and pro-Second Amendment,” McGrath declares on her campaign website. “I went to combat with a 9 millimeter strapped to my chest and a 20-millimeter cannon on the front of my jet.”
Is this where gun owners who look no deeper will shout “Ooh-Rah”?
“We need leaders with the courage to stand for secure borders, but also who will enforce it in a humane way in accordance with our American values,” she advocates on her “Immigration” page. Sound reasonable?
It’s actually full of crap. This is a professional website produced by the finest political propagandists and illusionists money can hire, and McGrath’s “solutions” are professionally weasel-worded to appear considered and responsible while masking what she’ll really go after if given the power.
“There are some commonsense things that most gun owners and most non-gun owners actually agree on, and we haven’t been able to get it done,” she adds on her “Guns” page. Those are terms right out of the gun-grabbers playbook. She wants what they want – believe it. Mentioning strapping a 9 millimeter and deploying with a cannon to make her seem like “one of us” is pure deception. If being good with guns meant being an ideological ally, we’d have no better pal than Lon Horiuchi. Elect her and McGrath’ll be a vote for citizen disarmament that can actually do what Bloomberg only dreams of.
“We will only solve this problem if Congress is willing to act on meaningful immigration reform,” she says on that “other” issue, intentionally not fleshing out what she means by that. Allow me to translate: McGrath wants to establish an unchallengeable Democrat supermajority through a “pathway” to citizenship.
And if she helps flip the Senate and Trump retains the Oval Office, she’ll be able to join in blocking the most important achievements of his administration: seating nominees in federal courts and on the Supreme Court.
Democrats know this. That’s why McGrath currently leads McConnell in fundraising. And when it comes to cash flowing in from high-rolling Dem donors who smell blood, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
So who does McConnell have to blame for a lack of boisterous enthusiasm among core constituents? Elections are more than votes. You need people willing to help finance them. You need bodies willing to volunteer, walk precincts, man phone banks, amplify messages.
What’s the answer, especially with “Molon Labe!” and “TINVOWOOT” comments being the prevalent gun owner “contributions” to the cause? I don’t know, magic? I’m just recounting what is. It’ll fall on Kentucky gun owners, Mitch McConnell, and the Republican party to find common ground in goals that aren’t always mutual. It’ll be up to all gun owners to get informed and to see the destructive cycle we entered into by accepting “lesser of two evils” candidates and rewarding betrayals instead of making examples with heads on pikes. Maybe if that had been done 30 years ago, we wouldn’t feel like our backs are in the corner and it’s all or nothing this time, with the only choices after the votes are counted being to accept things or not.
I’d say it’s a hell of a time for NRA to be preoccupied with internal matters except, in truth, they have largely been the ones turning blind eyes and greasing the skids on compromise. No, we can follow an organization’s lead when it makes sense, but relying solely on them, or some hoped for a billionaire benefactor or a president who seems uninclined to be the 2A champion he pledged to be is a sure-fire formula for nothing.
It’s up to us. You. Me. It always has been. That’s what the Founders intended.
What do you think “we” should do, first to address the immediate threat and then to implement long-term solutions?
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
We need to do our research before primaries, however, in the general elections we must get out the gun owner vote for Republican candidates. In particular, the firearms trade organizations need to get involved. With every online order, every local gun or ammo or firearms accessory, a flyer in the bag:
“Vote…and vote Republican or be prepared to no longer make purchases like you just made. When that happens, we all lose.”
For ALL the senators, it is about “What is my vote worth?” The senators, for a substantial part, will vote for anything if the bags of gold are large enough. Then, you have treacherous scum like Murkowski (Who LOST all primaries in Alaska yet, WON by write in on election day. Can you say vote fraud?) Collins is just as bad, as she aligns with ANY plan to garner power to the federal government and strip Americans of Rights. Collins always votes ‘for’ any huge anti-America democrat bill. As for the Turtle, he has a long history of tough talk,… Read more »
It always seems it’s a roll of the dice as to whether McTurtle or so many others will do the right thing. The real answer David is to find true conservatives that can primary every RINO running..
The turtle does what is in his best interests. Period. Full stop. That is why he is unreliable. If it makes him, his relatives and benefactors/sponsors/owners more wealthy, powerful and secure, then he will vote for it. The only way to secure his vote is to ensure it also enriches them and keeps them in the power with which they have become accustomed, and thus, to desecrate ourselves in their corruption. Or… Or we could act totally independent of the turtle and the rest of the self-important, corrupt, spineless politicians. Peaceful armed demonstrations of no less than 5,000 Americans at… Read more »
BINGO!
One big 2A Woodstock on the White House lawn.
Mr Codrea, Nice analysis and a damning indictment of the NRA, all in one. Of course, they go hand in glove for a reason. The preoccupation with feathering NRA nests rather than supporting the Second Amendment has come home to roost. I’m darned if I know the answer, or at least not one that leaves the Republic intact. I’m open for suggestions.
By the way, when rat-face Schumer is in the senate well and speaking, there is always a woman just next to and behind Schumer.
Does she have her hand up his butt and working him like a puppet or is she just there to sniff Schumer farts?
With her dour expression, I feel it is the latter.
Everyone should read this. https://www.constitution.org/mil/rkba82.pdf
It is the Congressional Judiciary Committee report on the 2nd amendment. They researched the intent, meanings, show ATF infringement as well as Supreme Court mistakes and proper precedents, and more.
It is all about the right to keep and bear arms, and current politicians wish fervently it did not exist. Make copies, give them to friends before it is banned.
The Second Amendment is the only enumerated ‘Right’ with the command and order “..shall not be infringed.”
Since the definition of ‘infringed’ has not changed in over 500 years, there can be no other determination except all ‘gun control laws’ are anti-Constitutional and must be ignored.
Malwarebytes on my computer blocked the page you refer due to a Trojan. Just FYI.
BB46, I run Linux and just looked at it. It’s a pdf file. I don’t see anything other than text in it. I think that you have a false positive.
I don’t have the solution to the problems. What I DO know is McConnell signed his political death warrant when he tabled National Reciprocity in the Senate. I have no sympathy for him.
If Dems gain the Senate, we will lose a while lot more than reciprocity.
Read more: https://www.ammoland.com/2020/01/mcconnell-vulnerability-symptomatic-of-entrenched-gop-taking-its-base-for-granted/#ixzz6AGv5xLGs
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“So who does McConnell have to blame for a lack of boisterous enthusiasm among core constituents? ”
Perhaps his main problem is not being a republican but rather a RINO’s RINO.
What should we do is the vexing question I have been asking myself for a long long time. Our current circumstance has been an unfolding process over the last 4-5 decades at least. Our Constitutional Republic was formed out of a struggle of life or death for its creators with a vision toward a future that regardless of societal changes the foundation being based on principle will endure. The fallacy is the premise that at least the elites would be stalwart in the face of exigencies at a time when the masses might be driven by a temporal hysteria. Well,… Read more »
When it comes to ‘ethics,’ the left and its followers have none. When it comes to ‘lying,’ the left and its followers are the best. When it comes to ‘cheating,’ ditto. When it comes to ‘killing for the agenda,’ the more the better and the younger the dead are the more they like it. The biggest thing the left has going for them is the ‘media.’ The media likes everything I mentioned above because they can spin everything they want and it comes up money in the bank for them. The media cares nothing about truth and even when they… Read more »
@USA – Violence is not the answer. Pick that route and it will be your ass getting stuck in prison. David strikes an accurate balance between bleak and hopeful. We have to do ythe eavy lifting to find and promote better candidates, and to publicize reality behind well polished political adds from all candidates. We need to donate time, money and knowledge. We need to get younger people aware and enthusiastic as the tend to provide much of the energy and work needed for any campaign. Finally we need to lobby and educate office holders – win or lose the… Read more »
If every citizen thought as you do, we would still be a British colony. They are sending Law Enforcement to citizens doors and confiscating firearms without criminal charges or due process.
I’ve seen 1 man with a pistol and no training cripple a Police Agency of nearly 600 officers. Corrupt government is redrawing districts to silence voters…
Your comments echo the sentiments of the poem “First they came..”
@Another – Would you prefer – I do not believe the time has come yet and that mass violence may yet be avoided? Rambo was fiction – one person may be able to temporarily cripple a significant portion of our nations law enforcement, but if they are not broadly supported they will end up either in prison or dead. Any organized groups need to stay under the radar, so quite possible there are well organized groups of whom I am not aware. If there are then if I knew of them, they would already have totally failed in operational security… Read more »
He is not referring to Rambo. Think Los Angeles Police, massive manhunt over the south half of the state, multiple dangerous incidents involving the public and out of control nuts LAPD/Sheriffs doing stoopud things, frantic to find that guy. Panic and fear all but paralised the southern part of California for days. One former officer, not very good with a gun, was at the bottom of all that.
Think what a small cadre of dedicated highly skilled folks could do. My guess is they would NOT be using AR 15’s as their Tool of Choice.
Every so often the R Party in my state come round dialing for dollars. Most times I explain that the Party have been asleep at the wheel for decades. WHT do you MEAN? To which I repoly WHERE have you been when it comes to identifying and backing solid candidates who you then get behind and push to victory? I went to Convention a few years back and stood there in shock as the party “leadership” (old guard types) sold out the best candidate for governor and got behind the slick good ol boy establishment candidate.. who lost to the… Read more »
If ol’ Mitch is so pro-gun, why didn’t he introduce concealed carry reciprocity in the Senate? The last Congress had already passed the legislation and it only had to pass the Senate to get signed into law by the president. I’d take something off the top of that A+ NRA rating.
All who operate our three branches of government as well as all they appoint or hire are public servants. Too many public servants desire and are attempting to the public masters. There are so many pubic servants not countering these attempts we must consider that all desire to our masters. As all public servants will benefit. Those who demand the rights of freedom are countered by both armed and unarmed people who also desire our public servants to be our masters. These include the super wealthy individuals and organizations who already are the masters of our public servants. We the… Read more »
Senate Majority leader McConnell, has gotten a record 187 of President Trump’s Fed judges passed through confirmation. He also held out tough for most of year on the ‘Prince of Darkness’s’ SCOTUS pick, or we would have leftist Merrick Garland and not Neil Gorsuch.
The communists who are currently posing as democrats and talking up protecting this Constitutional Representative Republic are in reality trying desperately to destroy it and complete the Obama promise to fundamentally transform America into (although he never offered what he intended to transform America into) a communist state with a touch of Islam. Make no mistake about that. It is not clear however, if the current movement by these so called democrats includes the Islam part. But Obama certainly did! That became rather obvious. One of the reasons so much effort is being put forth to destroy this Constitutional Republic,… Read more »
You’re right about that GOA page:
https://gunowners.org/congressional-ratings/
It rates all the representatives, but shows blanks for the senators. Here in my own state, it rates one senator F and the other as blank. Absolutely not helpful.
I am supporting Wesley MorgaN in the primary this year against Senator McConnell.