Back in March, Sebastian called it when he noted that while Pat Toomey was touting support from CeasefirePA leadership, these are not people who would ever actually cast a vote for him. Granted, we thought that was more of a “won’t vote for you in the privacy of the voting booth” type of prediction, not a “will actively campaign against you despite doing what they wanted” kind of way.
But, it seems that’s how loyalty to gun controllers is rewarded. Toomey’s opponent has been endorsed by the very same group whose leaders were kissing his rear back in March, likely knowing all along that they would throw him under the bus come the run up to November’s general election.
Good call there, Pat.
You know what I was doing 6 years ago in November? Casting a ballot for you, Pat, when polls opened and spending the rest of the day standing outside of a senior citizen’s center asking voters to support your candidacy. You know what I won’t be doing this November? Telling anyone about your campaign – other than the fine readers of this blog about how you screwed us and fell for every pathetic lie from the gun control groups. You can rely on your new best buddies at Ceasefire to help out instead, Pat.
Oh, wait, no, you can’t.
You can rely on your new best buddies at Ceasefire to help out instead, Pat.
Oh, wait, no, you can’t.
Toomey made this bed. Now he can sleep in it.
“You know what I was doing 6 years ago in November? Casting a ballot for you, Pat…”
I wish I had known you were doing that, so that now I could say “I told you so…” :-)
Because, I could have. . .
But don’t feel bad. When I was your age, I still needed to have my nose rubbed in things for about another 20 years before anything really started to sink in.
I wish I could have back all the hours I spent standing in front of polling places, pitching for charlatans who didn’t deserve it.
They’re all charlatans, unless you can find someone who is a real gun guy, which is rare in politics. Even among those, they’re still going to go where they think their political interests lie, and that political interest, for the most part, is holding onto their seat.
But if they aren’t gun folks, its only going to be political interests. Almost none of them give two shits about gun rights, nor most other things they take positions on. In 2008, when we went to volunteer, we were the only two gun people in the room. Several other people were pro-life activists. Maybe out of a 15 people, two were guns (us, and they were surprised at that) six pro-life people, and the rest ra-ra team Republicans. If people wonder why the pro-life/SoCo folks don’t get thrown under the bus, and they get their Todd Akins and we get scraps, that’s probably a good part of the equation. Our people are good at the stick when the shit hits the fan. We’re not very good at all with the carrot, and if you want politicians to view your long term political interests as their long term political interests, you have to use both effectively. Sometimes you’ll take a risk on a candidate and get burned. Hell, probably most of the time.
I expected if a vote came up Toomey might burn us on background checks, because his record was out there. But what I didn’t expect is that he’d take a leadership role on the issue, and accept endorsements from Bloomberg’s people. We took a chance and got burned. That will happen. But if our side doesn’t use the carrot, we’re always going to play second fiddle to the SoCos, who are the only group of voters in the GOP coalition who play this game well, and are motivated to keep playing it even when shit isn’t hitting the fan for them.
I’d love for the Democrats to give up this anti-gun shit. They were almost there in 2008, but then the blue dog coalition got decimated, and the rest of the party had no political interest in gun rights, or at least that’s the perception. But we’re stuck playing in coalitions either way, because the number of people who vote on guns can swing close elections, but it’s not enough people that the stick is going to work every time. The stick is also a much blunter instrument than the carrot (e.g. we can give the stick to Toomey, but we’ll get Kate McGinty is return, which is arguably much worse, whereas it would have been better to convince Toomey he had too much to lose (carrot wise) by crossing him.
Will the ads by his Gun Control buddies help him or hurt him in PA?
I will not vote for a candidate that is pro gun control. Those reading this blog are probably the same. But what about the rank and file GOP? The same ones that voted for Paul Ryan in his primary, and will vote for McCain in his. The people that voted for senile Thad Cochran and ancient Pat Roberts in their 2014 primaries? Would voters like this still pull the lever for “bipartisan” Toomey, despite the ads?
I do not know.
“You know what I was doing 6 years ago in November? Casting a ballot for you, Pat…”
You know what I will be doing 5 years from now Pat? Ringing doorbells before the primary to discuss with fellow republicans how great your opponent is and how you betrayed us.
You guys know that with Toomey-Manchin, in PA, we weren’t given anymore rules? It’s legitimately the state law we already have WITH NATIONAL RECIPROCITY. Wake the heck up ppl. If you don’t go to the polls for Pat, you’re going to get McGinty. She wants to take every single gun on America. She wants a federal registry and she wants sanitary cities LIKE PHILLY to continue to breed illegal immigrants and terrorists, that endanger our families. You not voting for Pat is a vote for a younger, dumber Hillary Clinton. So if that’s what you want, than sure, don’t vote for Pat in November.
National Reciprocity? Pete, what the hell are you talking about?
Nope, you are completely wrong. Schumer-Toomey-Machin was much worse than what we had. For starters, it added long gun registration which we don’t have in PA.
And there was no link to National Reciprocity.
We’ll get McGinty? So what? I don’t believe that Toomey will be any better.
When are we going to get real people to vote for?
Why is it Toomey can peddle his crap and still think it is ok to vote for him?
Republican committees are still supporting him.
What a crock!
And where does Fitzpatrick stand? I have emailed him on rtkba and nothing. He didn’t return FOAC INFO and TOOMEY WELL…
As you sow, so shall you reap… And now he will pay the price in more ways than one.
I guess I won’t be voting for PA Senator this year. Its despicable. We are damned either way.
this is why I moved to NC. Philly and Pittsburgh politicians taking over the whole state. Rendell was the worst Governor in my lifetime. Toomey and Mancin are Fudd turncoats.
I can’t stand people who introduce themselves in email, calling me “friend”, and immediately ask for money. My real friends don’t ask me for money. Mr toomey should have had Town halls like US House Rep Perry or State Rep Delosier. The have earned the right to call me “FRIEND.” If he by chance wins this election, without my vote, maybe he will have a few town halls in 2017 & 2018 and show that he is interested in my interests.
Sounds like a typical democrat’s imagination of a dream repulblican: aloof, elitist, entitled, uncaring, self centered, and impersonal.
He doesn’t need ceasefire anymore, now he’s backed by Bloomberg and Gabby Giffords. We don’t need this rino in DC, vote 2A or Mickey mouse. Send the RNC in Harrisburg a message. We will not vote for a anti-2A republican, doesn’t matter who they are running against. At least if Ginty gets in she can’t do any damage, unlike toomey. We want a real republican running. Tell Harrisburg that’s what we want next election cycle, don’t vote toomey.