• Home
  • Blog
  • Contact
The Screaming Moderate

The politics of guns, I mean Trump

3/1/2018

0 Comments

 
If you watched yesterday’s live broadcast of a meeting of President Trump and a bipartisan group of senators and congressmen, you saw true reality TV.

It was real, for sure, but there also was a lot of playing to the cameras.

For example, would that Trump was being honest that he’d like an increase in the minimum age for buying long guns but you may recall a similar meeting in January when he told a similar group of lawmakers that if they could settle on a bipartisan immigration bill, he’d sign it.

Trump proceeded to badmouth every potential bipartisan bill the Congress came up with. Result: no immigration bill. And no solution to for that group of young adults who came here with their immigrant parents but are not considered citizens and who Trump promised a solution to, uh, after he was the one last year who ended protection to those “kids” and gave the Congress a deadline by which to act to save them.

Thanks to the courts, those young adults have not been thrown out of the country, yet.

Everyone these days needs to blame someone so Trump, with a very straight face, is pointing the finger at Congressional Democrats for blocking a solution to the immigration problem he himself created.

Back to guns. Trump met over the weekend for lunch with leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and came away saying they were good guys and “are on our side” despite the fact that their leadership has been quite public and pointed in saying basically any change to the gun laws is the first step to eliminating the Second Amendment and therefore they oppose it.

Trump told those senators and congressmen yesterday that they were afraid of the NRA which is why they couldn’t pass a bill but he said he was not afraid of the NRA and pushed for a bill that would include things the NRA opposes. He was implying that through the NRA's donations, and promise of donations, to their campaigns the congressman or senator would never oppose the NRA.  (Reminder: Trump received $30 million in campaign donations from the NRA two years ago.)

He obviously is sorta kinda believing in that belief some have that if he opposes the NRA, really opposes the NRA, he could have a "Nixon goes to China" moment. So i imagine he's trying to figure out a way to "go to China" without getting on a plane.

One person he pointed a finger at specifically was Sen. Pat Toomy, a Pennsylvnia Republican who the NRA chose not to endorse last time because he opposed them on something. But, we’re playing in the moment to the cameras, so who cares about the truth. (Or as his soon to be ex-communications director Hope Hicks allegedly testified, she tells “white lies” to protect Trump. As the Internet meme says, “white lies matter.”)

My guess is he will continue to say he’s for things the NRA opposes until the Congress deadlocks in passing a bill and then he will blame the Congress for its failure to protect our kids and others from potential mass killings. Therefore, eating his cake too.

Donald Trump cares not a whit about good policy. He only cares about good politics, with “good politics” meaning any politics that is good for him.  

Anyway, if you’re looking for Trump to lead us to a new era on guns laws, give me a call. I have a candidate I want to sell you.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

     
    Follow @bjaycooper

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

powered by bjaycooper.com