The Las Vegas massacre is bringing forth strong criticism of the gun lobby, as it should do, from the liberal media and coastal Democrats. Judy Woodruff grilled Oklahoma Senator James Lankford last night on the PBS News Hour, saying that the gun lobby has way more power than it should have and can run politicians out of town.
Senator, as you know, there is a lot of conversation about how powerful the National Rifle Association and other organizations that support gun rights are in this country and in the city of Washington. How much power do they have? Because it’s been said that, not just Republicans, even Democrats are afraid to go up against the gun lobby, for fear that they will run somebody against them, will oppose them, that it is just a — that the power they have is way beyond what it should be.
The night before Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut slammed the grip of the gun lobby:
The major obstacle to commonsense measures, like background checks and the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and bump-stocks, and closing a number of the loopholes that enable domestic violence, which is a major cause of death as a result of gun violence, is very simply to break the grip of the NRA.
We must break the grip of the NRA, which will be done through mobilizing the American people.
Former Long Island congressman Steve Israel is even stronger:
I was in Congress for 16 years and I saw first hand why Congress will never do anything about gun violence. The gun lobby is far more successful than those of us who believe in commonsense gun safety laws. It outmobilizes us, it outflanks us, it outspends us, it out-organizes us. They have these legislative score cards, and they make sure that everyone in that district knows how their member voted… They figure out who in a particular district is motivated to vote, based on a member of Congress’s or a candidate’s record on guns. Most members of the NRA, particularly in my own district, agree that crazy people shouldn’t be able to buy assault weapons, but it’s the leadership of the gun lobby that has to kowtow to the gun manufacturers funds their salaries that has so warped virulently this entire issue.
But Steve Israel never said a word about the Israel lobby, even as he stood up for Israel in Congress, voted for the Iraq war, and raised money from pro-Israel sources when he ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Then Israel left Congress and wrote a long lament in the New York Times last year about how much time he spent raising money; but he never mentioned pro-Israel money in that lament. As Scott Roth noted about Steve Israel’s gun-lobby-speech:
Aipac’s former point man in the House explains how nefarious lobbies can be.
Blumenthal is no better. He is a co-sponsor of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which would criminalize some forms of free speech against Israel.
The Israel lobby is just as organized, bipartisan, shrewd, and indifferent to the rank and file as the gun lobby. Its effects are also sinister: it has prevented any mainstream American criticism of Israel’s colonization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which destroyed the prospect of a Palestinian state. It promoted the Iraq war, that calamity. It has sought to defeat the Iran deal, the signature achievement of a Democratic president, with powerful Democrats on its side.
As Stephanie Schriock of Emily’s List explained, at J Street, Democratic congressional hopefuls have to get money from the “Jewish community,” but before they go to that community they have to go to AIPAC, the Israel lobby group, and get a position on the Middle East.
You thought about where you are going to go to raise the money that you needed to raise to win a race. And you went to labor, you went to the choice community, and you went to the Jewish community. But before you went to the Jewish community, you had a conversation with the lead AIPAC person in your state and they made it clear that you needed a paper on Israel. And so you called all of your friends who already had a paper on Israel – that was designed by AIPAC – and we made that your paper.
It’s straightforward. And politicians get run out of town for crossing the lobby. And the media never talk about it.
(Of course it’s not just about money. It’s a historical question of considerable weight. It’s about the Jewish question of many centuries-standing in Europe resolved after the Holocaust in western support for militant Jewish nationalism in Palestine. And to oppose that resolution is anti-Semitic…. That is what stops Judy Woodruff from asking hard questions about the Israel lobby. But the organized Jewish community makes sure to shut her up about this, and zealots like Steve Israel enforce the omerta.)
Yes, and unlike the Israel Lobby, which acts in support of a foreign state, the Gun Lobby only impacts US citizens’ rights and duties.
@Phil
There is somewhere between 1.5-3% of the American population that normally votes Democratic but strongly supports gun rights and will change their vote over the gun issue. This has been well understood since Clinton’s term in office. For an issue marginal to USA politics this is expensive so we don’t get broadly support gun control
On Israel you have a similar constituency. Their reaction to anti-Israel legislation hasn’t been fully tested but even minor bumps indicate the numbers are likely similar. Israel is a marginal issue to USA politics. The political calculus is the same.
As for signature achievement I’d say HealthCare is Obama’s signature achievement. In terms of foreign policy I’d say the widespread acceptance of USA mainstreaming assassination in foreign countries as a core tool of its foreign policy is far more likely to be influential. I have a tough time imagining a historian in 2117 even talking about the Iran deal. I have an easy time imagining them talking Obama’s campaign being the point where assassination become a global norm again after almost a millennia where it was rarely used.
The Israel Lobby organises the approval (the organizing and oversight of illegal agreements and transactions), financing (protection racketeering), and support in the US for Israel’s war crimes & crimes against humanity. Another term for organised crime is mafia; the Israel Lobby is a mafia with a legal status, and the similarities are striking:
* virtually every single lawmaker, both in Congress & in the Senate, is scared stiff of the IL mafia
* the IL fulfils a kingmaker role, being able to make or break politicians
* the IL dictates US policies about Israel and the Middle East
* the IL has politicians in its pocket & can, therefore, act with impunity.
Democracy US/Israel style. Yuck.
Hi Phil:
On you last comment regarding…
“It’s straightforward. And politicians get run out of town for crossing the lobby. And the media never talk about it.”
You can update or make a segway to what happen in the Illinois gubernatorial race between Daniel Biss and alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa. A seminal and contemporary story regarding the influence of the Israeli Lobby that yet has never been covered in MSM besides here and locally in Illinois.
I think the end of the Israeli lobby’s power will be very similar to the end of McCarthyism. Some brave politician will exclaim, “Have you no shame?” (or something similar) to a pro-Israel hack, there will be a crack in the façade, and then the floodgates will be torn open. People won’t be afraid to criticize the racism of Israel, the breaches of international law.