I like what I've seen of historian Heather Cox Richardson's daily posts, but I confess I don't read them anything close to that often, or even weekly. Probably it's mostly my tendency to not want to do what other people are doing, even people I like and respect. I figure I'll hear about it when it's important.
Her post from yesterday is one of those.
She gives more of the background on how the NRA got to where it is today than I have seen in one place, and the effect that has had.
Here's part of her compilation that I didn't know, at least with such clarity:
[After Reagan] the NRA was awash in money from gun and ammunition manufacturers. By 2000 it was one of the three most powerful lobbies in Washington. It spent more than $40 million on the 2008 election. In that year, the landmark Supreme Court decision of District of Columbia v. Heller struck down gun regulations and declared that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms.
Increasingly, NRA money backed Republican candidates. In 2012 the NRA spent $9 million in the presidential election, and in 2014 it spent $13 million. Then, in 2016, it spent over $50 million on Republican candidates, including more than $30 million on Trump’s effort to win the White House. This money was vital to Trump, since many other Republican super PACs refused to back him. The NRA spent more money on Trump than any other outside group, including the leading Trump super PAC, which spent $20.3 million.
That acceleration in election spending in such a short period is astounding.
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