Insuring that the senate will consider legislation that addresses gun violence and other aspects of violence in our Society Early this year. The success of the president s proposals, especially a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines, rests largely in the hands of the upper chamber. Dan gross, the president of the Brady Campaign, says nothing will happen in either chamber without public pressure. Theres an extraordinary disconnect between what the American Public wants, including gun owners and nra members, and what our elected officials are doing about it. It is going to be up to us, the American Public, to close that disconnect. Republicans seem intent on digging in their heels while president obama is back to the strategy of enlisting the American People to move policy. At least the deja vu is happening on both sides of the aisle. Glen thrush, animal of washington, denizan of the beltway. Actually not actually. As is usual, you have a really interesting piece in politico today talking about the breaking of the obama role. There was the breaking of the hastert rule. You say, a i will read to you your own words i love this part. This is the best sort of awkward, and also semiembarrassing and charming part of the show. Democrats have jokingly referred to what they call the obama rule enshrining the president s practice of not forcing legislative action on anything no matter how noble that cant pass both houses. He now appears willing to burn Political Capital by pressuring Senate Democrats to vote for a measure that is likely to die in the house. A symbolic gesture that sets the stage he hopes for more meaningful ones. I read that, and i thought am i depressed . You seem to suggest that there is failure built into these proposals, and that this is a this is something that the left has remember during the health care debate. Obviously we talked about the public option. There has been a sense at various points that he backed off the tough fights because he knew he wasnt going to be able to turn a quick deal. The hallmark of his first term was racking up victories accelerated by rahm emanuel. Never let any crisis go. Were in a completely different environment, and obama did pretty well working from the outside in on the fiscal cliff thing, and now the sense is he is nott going to win on the assault bans. He might do better on the magazines. He is quite likely to get some sort of victory in terms of the background checks. Why not run this up the hill, get a yes or no vote and build in Political Capital for future fights. Future fights on unrelated issues or on this issue, but also building up sort of this whole reaganesque argument. The Richard Newstat book about this, about the power of the presidency, it was kind of bill clintons bible. Obama seems to be moving forwards that away from the deal cutting. Maria theresa, glen is talking long game, but in terms of the short game, the playbook seems to be one that he has used a lot in the last couple of months year, ill say, which is vault over congress and take it to the people and make them move however incrementally. The question is do we think is that can happen . Can he have that kind of win on gun control 1234. He did exactly what he should have done. Obama care, he said im going to go to washington, im going to go to capitol hill and negotiates inside, and people will come with me. What he is saying is he is basically drawing a clear line in the sand. This is where i stand. The American People, im going to im going to speak to you directly, and im going to go ahead and volley it over to the senate and theyll pass it. This is not my doing. Hopefully theyll introduce it to the floor of the senate. That in and of itself will be i think the fact that reid said he was luke warm to the response and didnt realize, wait a second, this is a bad pr move for me. Im going to go towards the president and say, okay, we should actually discuss this. That actually made sure that there was something going on that he realized was bigger than maybe thats a sign of it not being necessarily d. O. A. , right . The fact that harry reid feels some amount of pressure. I mean, maybe its just the climt that were in right now. Or that at least he has to walk back the statements and release a statement that says i intend to introduce this or he doesnt actually say that but that it will come probably to the floor in, you knowing, early this year is better than, i dont know, can it really pass the house . Right . Theres a real underlying policy problem. Theres 250, 300 million guns in the United States many of them semiautomatic handguns. Theres 8. 5 Million People in the country that have consealed carry permits, you know. To push something that would really be dramatic is just a huge policy haul. I think reids interest in trying to get something going has to do more with the something than the broader politics. Im confused. It might have more to do with the something than the actual thing. Yeah. With that kind of comparative modesty of the actual proposals. This is why we have you on the show because you draw phrases like comparative modesty. Meagan, to go back to this sort of argument here i thought one of the most marked remarks is his reappropriation around the language of the constitution and our rights, and Jill Lawrence in a piece in the National Journal points out that he appropriated he brought back to the democratic fold, if you will, the bill of rights. He brought back the declaration of independence. That most fundamental set of rights to life, and liberty in the pursuit of happiness and gettysburg along with our freedom to live our lives as with will comes an obligation to allow others to do the same. It guests them go to talk about, and it gives people a way to kind of pull together around an issue and really get fired up about it. I have yet to see evidence that, for example, support for the estate tax was killed when it was reframed by the death tax. People didnt like it before. They dont like it now. I feel like with gun laws in particular the Second Amendment is the goto argument. It is the banner under which the nra marches. I think its enjoyable for people who felt like theyre being bullied by the Second Amendment, and until obama went out and said you have a right to worship freely, i really dont. I tend to think that the people who i think that it does reframe it so that folks actually feel comfortable coming in, and actually supporting. What i mean by that is, like, nra members are actually overwhelmingly in support of a lot of the stuff with the president is doing, and by saying it actually gives them talking points to talk to their friends and family about it, and thats what theyre trying to do. Right. And if glen is right and were moving towards a second term in which the president is going to be more forth rightly liberal and more principled, then this makes sense, right. This is reestablishing himself as a kind of icon of that kind of language, and its he is matching the kind of the right at the level that its always engaged this debate. In a visceral way like nothing else weve seen in the first four years that he had been in office, he didnt feel this way in the wake of the Gabby Giffords thing. That is clearly compelling him. Theres a political consequence to that. He is a different guy when he talks about the newtown massacre. He connects with people in a way that he hasnt before. I have been to hundreds of rally that is this guy has had. Ive watched him interviewed hundreds of times. You dont see him connecting with people, the broader American Population in this way, when he is not talking about newtown. And when he tells stories as he did yesterday about grace that reminds him of what happened in newtown. For him to not see action through legislatively i think would be a huge personal failing for him in a really visceral way. The juxtaposition of the two pieces of paper, the constitution and the drawing of grace, but that was sort of the image that he was talking about. Sort of the nra checklist and the Second Amendment versus this drawing by this kid. Thats a powerful image for these people. You have to remember the Second Amendment is still there, and the Supreme Court cases on it are still there, and he doesnt have any power to change that. Nor is he trying to change it. No, but that really limits the scope of what he can do. I dont think the president has ever said were going to do these things and never going to have another newtown. I think constantly he has said shouldnt we be doing the best that we can be doing . Shouldnt we try to have more effective gun safety laws . Shouldnt we try to understand an interlinkage between violence in the media and violence in our cities and schools . Im not faulting the president on either his messaging or his intent, but i think that sort of realistically when you look at things like the assault weapons ban, theres no evidence that the one that we had any impact. Maybe it will do Something Different with it next time, but, many of the, the stuff thats within the kind of acceptable political and the constitutional policy scope is really small ball. The background checks are probably the biggest thing and the most likely thing to get done, but also the thing that had the most preexisting support even from gun owners and nra types. The nra has not been a fan of background checks, ben. Theres another thing thats happening here, which is that theres a signalling that is going on where the president is trying to state legislators, to governors, local Police Departments that is politically urgent and important for people who agree with me to really push this stuff and not to write loopholes into state laws anymore, not to be looks about following up on Domestic Violence violators who have a complaint that they have a handgun. Theres a signalling here that is he saying that we need to take this issue seriously the all levels and beyond the proximate effects i think that matters where are. I think it helps move the moment. At the state level we see whats happened in new york state. There are some incredibly broad gun control laws that have been put into place as of just a few days ago. We have emails from jim messina in our inboxes. The Campaign Part of this piece is not going anywhere. I will also say i do not know what will happen with an assault weapons ban. Nancy lanza purchased the bushmaster rifle in 2010. That would be some evidence that perhaps maybe we should get bushmasters off. Connecticut has its own nancy lanza purchased her if you go state by state, youre always going to be porous. If you had a national ban on the bushmaster rifle, she would not have had one in her house. Well continue the conversation after the break. Empassioned defenses or idealogical trolls . Trolling is a key part of the conservative Entertainment Media business model. These guys say stuff all the time that they do not intend to be persuasive. Theyre not trying to explain something or to bring people along to their way of thinking. Theyre just doing something to attract attention, and hopefully condemnation and outrage from the mainstream and particularly from liberals. They want to offend you. They seek to offend you. That is the point. We will sift through the language and search for a reason, if any actually exists, next on now. Id like to thank eating right, whole grain, multigrain cheerios mom, are those my jeans . [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who dont. Multigrain cheerios a typical family pays 155,000 in wall street fees on their 401 k s . Go to etrade. And roll over your old 401 k s to a new etrade retirement account. None of them charge annual fees, and all of them offer low cost investments. Etrade. Less for us. More for you. Five days later, i had a massive heart attack. Bayer aspirin was the first thing the emts gave me. Now, im on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ woman ] learn from my story. There are certain things in his executive order that in some ways theyre even fascistic. God forbid someone breaks into your home, you better be a good shot because you have a seven bullet limit or you have broken the law. This human shield strategy is something that i have been tracking since the clinton administration. You got questions about cops and the constitution . The babies. The babies. The president s announcement yesterday has sparked allout panic from the right wing, and a fundraising letter calling this the fight of the century, the executive Vice President of the nra wrote its not about protecting your children. Its not about stopping crime. Its about banning your guns, period. On wednesday florida congressman tre became the second Republican House member to suggest the president s proposals on gun safety may be worthy of impeachme impeachment. He continues, could that build up to make a case for possible impeachment . All options should be on the table, undoubtedly. You know, its just one of those times in our history where were at this breaking point. Clinton era conspiracy theyrist and texas republican Steve Stockman first loaded impeachment earlier this week saying if the president is allowed to suspend Constitutional Rights on his own personal whims, our Free Republic has effectively creased to exist. Dana milbank writes in the Washington Post that stockman was once considered too radical for congress, which is why he only served one term in the mid 1990s, but he is not too crazy for this congress. As milbank notes, whats frightening is that stockman no longer sounds like an outliar. With reactionary statements that seem at times unhinged from reality, congressman stockman fits in just fine. Our Founding Fathers were very concerned about having a separation of powers. They didnt want to let the president become a king. Im afraud that president obama may have this king complex sort of developing, and were going to make sure it doesnt happen. Maria theresa, its like, you know, i feel like i we played a little bit of sound from Rachel Maddow last night, my distinguished colleague. She floats the theory that this is part of the strategy is just raise the hackles of liberals, of the media and get them to sort of Pay Attention to the nonsincere spewing, and really theres no idealogical basis for it. Its not that really rahn paul thinks that president obama is acting like a king, but its certainly a way of getting attention out there. Its a way of getting attention, but its showing that you are on the losing side of the battle. How do you make sure that you can actually get the extreme right to be all fired up, and that was what they were able to do so effectively when it came to obama care. Remember killing granny . They went to the extreme right. The problem right now whats happening that the nra is facing is that their membership doesnt reflect their leadership. Their membership is moderate on this issue and believes we should be having some sort of gun control, but the leadership is increasingly looked at as a hate group, and thats where they have to be careful. Glen, i think there is a little bit of false influencing going on, and i was talking to you about quinton terrintino during the break, and theres a notion that you have to blame both sides, which isnt to say both sides have not said questionable things and there havent been questionable allegations, but i think its really hard to say that the outcry from the right, which is to say calls for impeachment of the president , calling him a fascist, comparing him to hitler and stalin is being matched by outrage on the left, which is to say progressives who are angry about the nra or any sort of cutback or sensoring of hollywood. I love jackie brown. I was just thinking about jackie brown. Look, i think this is great. Money cannot buy anything as fantastic as that flee circus, right . They are not doing their own cause a great service. We saw this on the fiscal cliff. The extremity of the language and the fact that the house couldnt pass something because a group of people on the right in the house didnt want it passed compromised john boehner in getting a better deal for their side. I think its the same thing here. When you have wayne la pierre and david keene saying these crazy things, it compromises the negotiating position of people who do have an argument against certain restrictions. Do you agree with that, meagan . I think theres a great theory called the baptist and where you have on the one hand the bootleggers love prohibition because its great for business, and the baptists like prohibition because theyre idealogically against it. Its great for your business. For the nra, look, this is how they fundraise. I guarantee that letter brought money pouring in. If you have seen what has happened to the gun market since newtown, you cant get high capacity magazines for love or money. I have not tested this personally, but i hear. Guns are flying off the shelves. Its true that they dont do themselves a lot of good with the American Public. Maybe with their own party. Thats business is different i mean, if you are listening to glens point, and i only sort of listen to every other word, but the notion is they have to bargain over this. Its good for the nra, right, and right. Its not even necessarily this is always theres always attention. Obama was on their how many months in a row was obama on the cover of the nra magazine in the past two years . Ten of 12 months. Im not a subscriber myself, but its good for them. Maybe bad for their party. Im not sure how bad it is for their issue. Again, i think that, like, theyve sort of given up on the background checks. Theyre going to go out, and i dont think th