DanGuy48
Ultimate Member
A lot of people seem to think that the NRA's power (politically) comes from traditional lobbying, where the organization asks politicians to behave in certain ways in exchange for things like ad campaigns or other support for their re/election. That's NOT what makes the NRA work, when it comes to seating useful politicians or reining in at least some of the more toxic impulses fueled by people like Bloomberg.
No. What the NRA offers is MEMBERS WHO VOTE. That's what scares the lefties who draw the NRA's gaze, or historically has. It's the NRA's ability to say to a local politician, "Our membership includes 150,000 people in your district and they WILL vote against you if you back [whatever awful bill] or don't support [somebody we want]." The NRA has been able to promise the coherent and passionate voting of its members. That's the power the organization has truly been able to wield in many hazardous elections up and down the scale of government. The organization's role in that respect has been to get people off their butts and VOTE when something dire is on the line, and it has worked for decades. That's where the clout came from. Abandoning that single, huge, coherent voting block out of annoyance about internal politics and the desire for a change in executive management or BOD bodies, is suicide for us. No other entity has the cohesion and messaging platform to be able to credibly approach politicians with a reminder that that horsepower is there and means business. We have to keep those millions of 2A-minded voters together as a group, because there really is strength in those numbers.
X2. No argument with any of that.
I just got my SAF newsletter and saw this article (linked). Partial quote....
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““According to The Trace, which is funded by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg, Congress has launched six investigations of the NRA,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “With Democrats in control of the House, promising to push a full slate of gun control measures, that seems just a little curious.”
Gottlieb, who also chairs the CCRKBA, said it is fair to question an avalanche of investigations involving the NRA at a time when its attention should be focused squarely on renewed efforts to erode the Second Amendment.
“Are these investigations legitimate,” Gottlieb wondered, “or are they a deliberately choreographed attempt to distract the NRA’s focus when it needs to be concentrating on the battle now developing on Capitol Hill?
“We’ve been delighted to work with NRA on a number of efforts,” he continued, “including our successful lawsuits against the 2005 post-Katrina gun grab in New Orleans, the San Francisco gun ban, our joint challenge of Seattle’s attempted parks gun ban and our ongoing federal lawsuit against a gun control initiative in Washington State. So, when we see this kind of congressional onslaught at the same time Beltway anti-gunners are trying to ram through an aggressive gun control agenda, let’s just say our radar is up.””
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https://www.saf.org/ccrkba-saf-question-congressional-motives-behind-nra-investigations/