By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
OPINION: When Politico published a piece about Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, it allowed a chief spokesperson for the Giffords gun prohibition lobbying group to argue the “gun lobby” had lost its steam.
“The ambivalence toward both one of the gun lobby’s strongest allies and one of its biggest Republican boogeymen shows its waning power, Giffords argues,” according to writer Samuel Benson.
Not so fast, Sam.
Likewise, “Common logic has always been that the gun lobby can make or break you in a Republican primary,” Emma Brown, executive director of Giffords, told POLITICO. “Both of these primaries demonstrate a very different narrative: they just don’t have the juice anymore.”
Again, not so fast, Emma.
Cornyn’s leadership role in passing Joe Biden’s 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, pathetically called “a gun safety package” by Politico, was obviously not forgotten by Texas gun owners. While Politico noted the National Rifle Association “largely sat out” of Cornyn’s reelection bid, the article seems to ignore it as a major factor in the veteran Republican senator’s primary loss. Seriously? It most likely made the difference.
Giffords mouthpiece Brown seems to contend “sitting it out” doesn’t have a political impact. Au contraire, when a specific bloc of key voters, who have long memories about a gun control measure and about who helped it become law, withhold their support or shift it to another candidate, it amounts to lost important votes and that didn’t cost anybody a penny. Not supporting or helping someone, or voting for someone else, can be far more effective than spending money to help defeat that person, and it’s less expensive.
An article at Roll Call seemed to completely overlook the gun vote angle, and the Texas Standard only gave it a cursory mention. Just because the media ignores the 800-pound gorilla sitting in the corner doesn’t mean he’s benign. It just might mean he’s saving his energy for the main event.
While Massie has been a Second Amendment stalwart, an article at PBS provided some insight. Massie thrived on being the maverick, but he evidently went too far with his constituents, and as the late House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill observed, “All politics is local.”
As PBS detailed about Massie:
“He voted against Trump’s big tax cuts bill last year, worried the several trillion-dollar costs would add to the nation’s deficits.
“He rejected Trump’s military forays against Iran and Venezuela, opposed to U.S. intervention overseas, and he routinely voted against U.S. foreign aid, including to Israel, drawing millions of dollars against him from pro-Israel interest groups.
“And perhaps most remarkably, Massie, in partnership with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, persisted in a long-shot effort to force the Justice Department’s release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“It was his work on the Epstein files, perhaps more than any of his repeated votes against spending bills and other party priorities, that elevated Massie’s profile.”
An “elevated profile” is not always a good thing.
“Gun voters” can be a surprising bunch. They came out of the woodwork back in 1994, helping toss out more than 50 members of Congress, including then-House Speaker Tom Foley, over passage of the Brady Handgun law in 1993 and the Clinton semi-auto ban of 1994, right before the mid-term election. Republicans took control, forced Bill Clinton to be more moderate, and kept Hillary Clinton in check for the remainder of their term in office.
Never dismiss the “gun vote,” or start reading psalms over its alleged demise. As Sam Clemmons, aka Mark Twain, once told his readers, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”
