The radical left has been known to speak in apocalyptic terms about class struggle.
I've been predicting that class struggle was exactly what they were going to get for the past thirty years, but on the subject of guns. And they'd be the Patricians, trying to contain the gun-owning plebeians - or, as Obama called us, the "bitter gun-clinging Jeebus freaks".
In 2002, Republicans in Minnesota had been pushing "Shall Issue" concealed carry reform - the policy that if a citizen had no disqualifying offenses on their record, the state would have to issue a permit to carry a firearm in public - for years, with no results.
Polls at the time showed that gun ownership was a minority position. By all rational logic, it should have been a loser at the polls.
During the fall elections, state gun groups organized and, in an electoral slaughter, defeated every single anti-gun Democrat outside the Twin Cities metro (there were pro-gun DFLers from blue-collar northern Minnesota districts back then). In the 2003 session, the GOP controlled House and a bipartisan pro-gun majority in the Senate sent a Shall-Issue carry permitting bill to then-governor Tim Pawlenty. It became the law -- and today, over 10% of Minnesota adults have carry permits.
But what about the polls that showed the issue was a stiff?
Turns out that while a lot of people are nervous about guns, gun control is a make-or-break issue for relatively few Democrats; for gun-owners, on the other hand, it's literally a matter of freedom versus subjugation; it's a primary motivator.
The polls have shifted over the years; gun control is basically a non-issue in most of the country, outside of solid blue districts where it raises Progressive dudgeons and funds.
But has it become an albatross on Democrats' backs?
A report by "WelcomePAC", a Democrat advocacy group, says yes.
Apparently, as the party's activist base moved to the insane left, the hard-core got more radical on gun control:
A new report from a group of self-described moderate Democrats has finally put numbers to what gun owners have known all along: the Democrat Party has marched so far left that it’s lost touch with America — and its obsession with gun control is one of the biggest reasons why.
The 59-page report, titled Deciding to Win, was published by WelcomePAC, a political outfit founded by operatives who claim they want to “depolarize” American politics by helping Democrats reconnect with the working class.
In other words, they’re trying to rescue their party from the ideological quicksand of coastal elitism — and their own data show how deep the hole has gotten.
And the data points out a yawning gulf between "coastal elites" and Democrats of more modest political means:
In comparison to working-class voters, swing voters, and the general electorate, highly educated Democrats assign significantly greater importance to issues like climate change, guns, political division, voting rights, and income inequality, and significantly less importance to issues like border security, immigration, crime, gas prices, and the budget deficit.
There are many gulfs dividing Democrats on policy:
The results are similar when we look by income. Democrats who make more than $150,000 a year place a higher priority on issues like climate change (+23%), guns (+17%), and income inequality (+11%) in comparison to the average voter. At the same time, wealthier Democrats place a lower priority than the general electorate on issues like border security (-27%), crime (-13%), and gas prices (-10%).
WelcomePAC isn't mincing words about their conclusions:
What’s WelcomePAC’s solution? In their words, Democrats must “focus more on issues voters do not think our party prioritizes highly enough (the economy, cost of living, border security, public safety) and focus less on issues voters think we place too much emphasis on.”
Translated: stop talking about taking away people’s guns and start talking about putting food on the table. That’s not a revelation — that’s common sense. But the fact that it has to be spelled out in a 59-page memo shows how detached the modern Democrat Party has become from reality outside of Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.
Shhh. Don't tell 'em.
