Both gun bills fail in the Senate

The Republicans will use the results of the vote to whip up their base in 2014, and the Democrats will do the same. Film at 11.

 

Neither party wants to get rid of the filibuster and other delay tactics.

 

True. I remember when the GOP controlled both houses and Bush was in office, a few GOP senators wanted to use the nuclear option and get rid of the 60-senator rule. McCain and a few other GOPers warned them against it, because they knew at some point they might be the minority party and they wouldn't want the Dems to use it against them.

 

Too many of these decisions are made to keep a pool of voters happy instead of making the best decisions for the constituents' livelihoods.

These votes should be made with a secret ballot so that Dems and GOPs alike can vote how they feel, rather than how a PAC tells them to.

 

I think the NRA made a mistake on this one. If this thing passed people would have been "satisfied" that something had been done and move on. The NRA would have succeeded in preventing far-reaching action and "lost" on something they previously supported anyway.

 

Well shit. Now I feel badly for Ben.

 

That would be crazy to see. However, these voting records have to be public for common sense purposes. Still, can you imagine...

 

Yes, and I understand why they do it. So that Citizen X can vote for Candidate Y because of Candidates' voting records. But when it comes to matters like this, I think common sense should prevail and the elected officials should vote for what's right. I think it'd go further in advancing our society.

But with matters like this (and gay marriage, I suppose) they will continue to refuse to vote in a practical way in an effort to not lose votes.

 

Well, what is practical for you may not be practical for the next person, right? For instance, my Grandma called African-Americans "colored people" until the day she died. She came from East Bubblefuck, W.V. and, although a good person at heart, was racist. It was how she was raised. Her idea of what would be common sense and my ideas were quite different, if you know what I mean.

 

I guess. It seems like laws are made to satisfy the greatest pool of votes, which is smart in terms of getting reelected. The problem with that is these laws can tend to affect the youth and younger voters a lot more and for a lot longer than senior citizens, but senior citizens represent a far larger voting pool and therefore control policy.

 

You seem young...not to be a dick here but get your ass out there and do something about it. Most people that bitch about the system have never volunteered for a campaign or worked at a precinct. That's one of the great things about our system of government...you can do a lot more than just bitch on a message board. Not trying to be a dick, just pointing out the options.

 

I understand what you're saying. I'm just posturing that if 18-to, say-36 year olds had the largest share of voting power, you'd see gay marriage be legalized at the federal level and larger gun restrictions placed on the people.

The problem is older people vote more often and, even if they didn't, there's more of them (for now) than the younger demographic.