Conservatives are rejoicing at the Senate’s rejection of President Obama’s anti-Second Amendment gun control agenda. For the first time since many can remember, the GOP conference held together and voted on principle to oppose a liberal power grab. There were, of course, a few defectors, including Sen. John McCain, as can be expected. But the leadership held firm and members fell into place.
There are three senators who deserves our accolades for understanding the intricacies of legislative strategy. It was their strategy and their willingness to lay their bodies on the train tracks that fostered victory.
Sens. Paul, Cruz and Lee followed the golden rule of political opposition — make your opponents crawl over glass to achieve victory. By filibustering the motion to proceed to gun control — even in light of opposition from the normally reliable Wall Street Journal — the Senators got a roll call vote of senators before the gun control bill came to the floor. This gave grassroots activists a target list of potential defectors. Word from Capitol Hill is that the 16 Republican Senators who voted to allow gun control to come to the floor came under withering fire from gun owners and conservatives. Talk radio hosts like Mark Levin and others turned up the heat. The pressure was enough to turn potential defectors into strong supporters of the Second Amendment. By using every legislative tool at their disposal, Paul, Lee and Cruz, we able to galvanize conservative support for their position. It has been a generation since conservatives had leaders willing to make such sacrifices. Here’s hoping that victory breeds a crowd.
Comments
They will eventually get their gun control laws passed. They are just throwing us a bone to calm us down. When our backs are turned, they will try again.
I was watching the vote live on cspan last night when this came down. I was surprised that it was voted down, and that they pushed back, the way it needs to be done. Oblamea and his buttbuddiebiden reacted like two spoiled toddlers that didn't get the cookie that they were demanding. I hope this is the downfall of the regime, restore our Constitutional Republic!