I am watching the democrats protest on the House floor down in Washington, and I have to wonder what republicans are thinking.They refuse to even give a bill that would prevent people on the terrorist watch list from purchasing guns a vote. A vote! This means that the bill could still fail in the House, but the democratic members want a chance to at least vote on it.
Seems a reasonable thing to ask for, right? Well not if you are owned by the NRA. They put a lot of dollars into making sure the politricksters that they own vote the right way, and right now it seems to be working.
Most Americans (including a vast majority of republicans) want these types of measures taken, because they understand the importance of sensible gun legislation in this country. But the NRA continues to enforce their will on all of us because of a few greedy politicians who rely on their money.
"Hang on, hang on,” Mr. Lewis urged Democrats who encircled him on the House floor late Wednesday night, urging them to hold their ground.
“John Lewis says stay after the votes, and we will stay,” said Mrs. Pelosi, triggering Democratic chants of “stay, stay.” The cries of protesters from outside urging Democrats to “hold the floor” filled the hallways outside the chamber. Protesters also thronged outside the Capitol in support of the House Democrats.
Republicans said they didn’t want to simply give on the gun votes and reward Democrats for flouting the chamber’s rules to demand votes.
“We are going to do the people’s work,” said Rep. Ann Wagner (R., Mo.) earlier in the evening. “We are going to conduct the will of the people, and conduct ourselves, in an adult Congress that is actually going to uphold, I think, the norms, the customs, the rules of the House.”
At about 1 a.m. on Thursday, Republicans voted to adjourn and begin a new legislative day at 2:30 a.m., when they planned to vote on a spending bill that includes money to combat the Zika virus. The move appeared to have the dual goals of wearing the Democrats down and moving toward adjourning the House after completing some work leaders had planned for later this week.
Democrats said their protest had succeeded in raising awareness of their quest to put new gun restrictions in place."
If John Lewis thinks that the racist police departments and local town sheriffs he had to fight during the civil rights era were tough, wait until he has to deal with the full force of the NRA. They are relentless, and they have the best politicians that money can buy.
*Pic from mediamatters.org.
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