Gallup found last year that 57 percent of Americans, and 85 percent of Democrats, want stricter gun laws in America.
On the other hand, Republican politicians are moving in the opposite direction: Madison Cawthorn said after the Rittenhouse verdict that Republicans should "be armed and dangerous," while Marjorie Traitor Greene said, "[G]un rights are the only thing holding back the Communist Revolution the Democrats are waging."
Because neofascists like these in the Republican Party continue to try to push America toward armed civil war, gun control appears to be an issue that animates Republicans - enthusiastic about seeing Democrats and people of color die at the hands of vigilantes - far more than Democrats.
That recent Gallup poll found "a drop in support [for gun control] among Republicans, from 36% in 2019 to 22% in 2020."
This may complicate things for Beto O'Rourke and other Democrats who are running on the entirely rational position of taking weapons of war off our streets to save American lives.
Republicans' newfound enthusiasm for the murder of Democrats and people of color, as seen splashed across conservative media after the Rittenhouse verdict, could cause an increase in GOP voter turnout when primed with a gun-control debate without a similar increase on the Democratic side.
And that - unless Democrats begin to engage with the gun control debate in a big way - could make both Beto's job of creating a less deadly Texas far more difficult.
Can Beto and other Democrats trying to save American lives through even the most minimal gun control succeed in turning this debate around? Time will tell"
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