In the wake of the Charleston tragedy, The Fix’s Aaron Blake seems surprised that political divisions about gun control would come into play so fast. He notes that Republicans like Gov. Nikki Haley in South Carolina failed to applaud at a vigil, when SC’s House speaker called for new gun control reforms. What’s everyone supposed to do — pretend that it’s not a public concern for the sake of bipartisan kumbaya to let Republicans off the hook for their “guns everywhere” lunacy? Maybe Blake should look at the June, 2014 Quinnipiac poll, which indicated that 50 percent of respondents “support stricter gun control laws in the United States” and 92 percent want “background checks for all gun-buyers,” while 89 percent support “laws to prevent people with mental illness from purchasing guns.”
Further in PPP’s February SC poll, “There is 76/14 support for a law preventing domestic abusers from buying guns and 64/24 support for one making those people turn in any guns they currently own. In addition to overwhelming support from Democrats and independents, majorities of Republicans (71/17 and 54/31 respectively) support each of those measures as well. There’s also a strong consensus among voters in the state (61/27) that guns should not be allowed on college campuses.” — from Public Policy Polling, via Hunter’s “South Carolina residents want tougher gun restrictions” at Daily Kos.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has a moving NYT op-ed profile of SC state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who was slain in the Charleston shootings, as a Democratic leader of impressive character, nobility and promise.
Good to see a Democratic presidential candidate making pension reform a leading issue.
Also at The Fix, Chris Cillizza reports on a new Gallup Poll indicating that “Democrats are more liberal today than at any point in the last 15 years.”
The headline for Phillip Rucker’s WaPo post “Latino leaders held a convention, but only one Republican candidate came” says it well. Turns out only Ben Carson of 16 or so declared/likely GOP presidential candidates cared enough to show up at the 32nd annual convention of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO).
Michael Tomasky explains “How Liberals Can Save Obamacare”
WaPo Republican columnist David Gerson worries that Trump’s candidacy will galvanize anti-establishment populism into “Ceasarism.” I worry more that Trump, as an inadvertent red herring, will suck up all the ridicule away from gaffe-prone candidates like Huckabee, Paul, Perry, Cruz and others, who may end up looking sane in comparison.
Matt Latimer opines at Politico, “Seven Reasons the GOP Should Fear Donald Trump
He’s a nuisance, a hothead and totally unqualified. But that’s what they said about Ross Perot.” From Latimer’s #5. “Voters Like Crazy – Speaking of Perot, this was a man who once claimed Cuban assassins had been sent to kill him. A man who dropped out of the presidential race, before dropping back in, because of an alleged Republican “plot” he uncovered to disrupt his daughter’s wedding. He picked as his running mate a totally unprepared candidate who at one point in the vice presidential debate confessed that his hearing aid wasn’t working. His campaign theme song was-and this is no joke-Patsy Cline’s “Crazy.” And yet H. Ross Perot was at one point the frontrunner for the presidency and still, after finding himself immersed in plotlines that would be rejected as too far-fetched for “American Horror Story,” managed 19 percent of the popular vote. In other words, one out of five Americans thought he wasn’t too crazy to be president.”