And if you don't understand how donor money controls Congress and their actions...I don't know where else go to. The NRA spends FAR more in dark money through PACs to destabilize opposition than the actual reported donor dollars.
Mate, honestly, you want to study up on this issue. People on both sides of the gun control debate who follow this debate closely know where the NRA gets their power from. And it's not from campaign contributions....except for a few pols, their contributions are relatively small. And it's not from lobbying, they don't crack the top 20. They do run a lot of issue oriented ads, but it's not even that.
It's because the NRA has spent decades building up and fostering a gun culture that was already there. It's because they have millions of dues paying members, and millions more just as committed who don't pay dues, who are very motivated single issue voters. It's that culture, and those voters who politicians are afraid of. The contributions are just a by product of that. A few like Rubio get some serious money (but the NRA is still nowhere near his top contributor), but most get chump change.
Joe Mancin, a Democrat, isn’t a gun rights supporter because of the NRA, it’s because of his voters back home. The same goes for Bernie Sanders, who is about as left as they come but throughout most of his career has supported gun rights. Does anyone think Sanders is in the NRA’s pocket? No…it’s because Vermonters are pretty big gun supporters. Both the Republican and Democrat running the Pennsylvania special election in a few weeks are gun rights supporters....it has little do with NRA contributions.
Think about it…most Republican pols are staunchly pro-life as well, but there’s no pro-life equivalent to the NRA that’s making them vote pro-life. They do so because that’s what their voters expect. And in any event, in both cases, guns and abortions, those pols will tell you that their votes align with their values. You really think those pols need the relatively small contributions they get from the NRA to be pro-gun? That's like saying Democrats are only pro-choice because of donations from Planned Parenthood.
If you want evidence of money as a corrupting influence, look to for example the financial sector. Politicians don't vote for banks and Wall Street because they're afraid of legions of bankers and brokers voting against them. They vote that way because of HUGE amounts of money coming from a handful of sources. It's a completely different equation with the NRA. The NRA's influence is mostly cultural, and it's about their members and supporters.
But look, don't take my word for it. This issue has been extensively written about. Start here...
The NRA is a powerful political force — but not because of its money, then check out
here, here, and
here.
