National Rifle Association Has Big Boost in Popularity.
The NRA seems to have risen in popularity after the Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment. But does this mean that they have political clout? Not according to the latest poll from Rasmussen Reports.
Their latest poll shows that a whopping 56% have a favorable view of the National Rifle Association while 37% view the organization as unfavorable. That is better than the President and Congress combined. But when they asked the respondents if they would be more likely to vote for John McCain if he were to be endorsed by the NRA, just 17% said yes while 21% said it would make them more likely to vote for Obama. Evidently, those who do not support the NRA are more vehement in their opposition than those who support the NRA are. Then there is the 61% who said that it would make no difference at all. It seems that the American voter is not going to be a one issue voter this time around and will look at more than one of the pressing issues when making their choice.
By the way, the Supreme Court has had its rating increase over the same time.
It will be interesting to see if the same reaction holds true regarding the endorsement of other organizations or celebrities. If any organization backs a candidate you can expect most of their members to follow along, but not so when it comes to the general public, at least not in this instance. So, if a labor organization backs a candidate, you can expect most of their members to follow their leaders, buty would that trickle over to the general public, or to members of other unions? In the past, yes, they had a lot of political clout. If this Supreme court decision had happened 4 years ago, and the NRA had supported George Bush, the chances are that it would have influenced more of the voters.
The American voter is becoming more and more independent in his or her thinking. Perhaps because it is so easy now to get information practically as fast as it is happening. The American voters are more informed than they have been in the past. They are taking more time to look at the candidates and the issues, following their own minds, and in most cases this is a good thing.
This election could be the one that goes down in history as the one that changed the face of American politics in more ways than one. Only history will tell and thankfully it will be the history of the next few years. Whether or not they make the right decision, remains to be seen, but it will be a decision of the votes not the organizations.
Popularity: 24% [?]
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Comment by Sulaco2 on 9 July 2008:
The NRA (member here) had noting to do with the Heller case except for filing friends of the court briefs. The suit was filed by a private citizen and his attorny. Why would they get the boost?
Comment by Y.K. on 9 July 2008:
I don’t think your interpretation of the poll is necessarily correct - the problem is that the result (as posted) isn’t screened for independents.
For example, If an organization endorsed candidate X, and 70% of independents are more likely to vote for him, while 100% of candidate Y’s party are less likely, than the endorsement has had a huge positive effect for candidate X since it’s not likely many from candidate Y’s party would have voted for another candidate anyway. But polls without crosstabs would show the opposite (and incorrect) result.
P.S. Your comment spam filter seems to throw off Opera users (”The site requires javascript to submit comments” - I have turned on). Hopefully it will accept comments from this browser.
Comment by andy on 9 July 2008:
I am the NRA!
Comment by Monte Bloyd on 10 July 2008:
The argument over voting McCain rather than Obama is that McCain is less bad for the gun community than Obama. McCain is not pro gun and only appears better because his rival is so extreme. The entire republican field this year with the exception of Dr. Ron Paul, were lefties. The only way to bring the Republican party back to being pro gun is for the nations gun owners to quit on them en mass. Otherwise we are regarded as safe and can be mostly ignored ’cause where are we going to go. Vote Libertarian and Bob Barr. Pro gun and pro liberty every time.
Comment by Mac on 27 July 2008:
Dead spot on Monte….yeah, i’m not more likely to vote for John McCain……i’m voting Libertarian and Bob BARR! I AM THE NRA! And the reason the NRA gets the boost is that ‘Friend of the Court Brief’ WAS the case….period. The private citizen must bring the case because he’s the one ‘aggrieved’ but the NRA framed the argument!
Comment by rob on 27 July 2008:
NEVER GIVE UP YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS! EVER…
Comment by rob on 27 July 2008:
THEY WANT US TO GIVE UP OUR RIGHTS TO BEAR ARMS SO THEY CAN EASE THIS NWO ON US WITHOUT RESISTANCE.
THERE WILL BE RESISTANCE.
Comment by rob on 27 July 2008:
DON’T VOTE FOR THE GLOBALIST. REFUSE THE NEW WORLD ORDER. THESE ELITE THAT ARE PUSHING THIS WANT TO MAKE YOU SLAVES. IF YOU THINK YOU ARE A SLAVE NOW YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ANYTHING YET.
DOWN WITH THE FED. RESERVE AND THE ELITE.