April 2018

Voting bloc —
a group of voters that are strongly
motivated by a specific common
concern or group of concerns to the
point that such specific concerns tend
to dominate their voting patterns,
causing them to vote
together in elections.
The NRA will support, by mailings, print, and digital
advertisements, etc., any candidate seeking election or
reelection that has an A+ rating. It also solicits its “audience” to
support these people. This is single issue voting, bloc voting.
Whether you love or hate the NRA, it is extremely successful
at what it does. No level of outrage will come to anything if the
NRA can continue to dominate gun control issues. Adopting
its tactics would be good place to start.
The grassroots —
the ordinary people in a society or an
organization, especially a political party
In 2016, there were 26,913,000 people aged 18-24 in the
U.S. For the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, 50.85 percent
registered to vote, 39.4 percent (10,603,722) voted. This is
7.76 percent of the total votes cast. I’m not smarter than you,
I’m not as media aware as you, but I have lived longer and
seen more, and I tell you, you must start at the grassroots!
You will not change the political “bes” or “wannabes” only with
protests or speeches. Instead, use your smart phones and
computers. Continue to reach out to your contacts on the
various social media, have them reach out to their contacts…
everybody may not agree, but if you contact enough people,
you will have a voting bloc.
Urge them to register to vote as early as they can. Urge them
to learn the issues and the positions of the candidates on
these and other issues they feel important at all levels – local,
state, and federal (all too frequently, the local councilman really
wants to be President of the United States). Urge them to vote
in all elections, at all levels.
Yes, important battles have
been won in Tallahassee:
the age to buy a rifle
or shotgun has been
raised to 21; a
three-day waiting
period has been
imposed on the
sale of rifles and
shotguns; the use,
sale, or possession
of bump stocks
has been banned.
But the bill contains
a controversial provision
long desired by the NRA that
would allow school personnel to be
armed under
a voluntary program, and, most importantly, a ban on assault
rifles and high capacity magazines was rejected.
Also consider, in several months, many of you will be
graduating and moving on throughout the country. How will
your voices be continued? Will the passion and determination
you exhibit be there then? Will you be deterred or distracted
by new places, commitments, friends, and duties? What
will you do to continue a contest that will take years; against
opponents like the NRA that immediately brought a (probably
unsuccessful) federal lawsuit against the increase in age
restriction?
The NRA has great patience. A recent Monmouth University
poll found that 50 percent of NRA members polled disapprove
of how the grieving Parkland students have handled
themselves in the media. Sixty-five percent say the students
are not effective advocates, and 61 percent believe they are
being manipulated by outside groups rather than expressing
their own beliefs. The NRA will continue to support the
politicians that vote as they believe, not just in Florida but on all
levels – local, state, and federal. Learn from them; they’ve
been doing it longer, and for them, doing it right! P
Low election turnouts historically favor well-organized singleissue
constituencies, such as the NRA. If you support gun
control, take the same cue. Turn those coveted “A” and “B”
grades from the NRA into a weight around politicians’ necks,
and the “F” into a badge of honor. Register to vote and then
actually cast a ballot.
But this is not enough. In today’s society, one “hot” issue is
soon displaced by another. To keep the issues that are today
important to #MSDStrong, you must build, build, build. The
NRA has been directly lobbying and influencing voters for
more than 40 years. You have only been doing it for months.
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