Universal Background Checks And Political Dissonance

Has there ever been a greater gap between the will of the American people and the actions of their elected officials than on the issue of universal background checks? In a poll released just one week before this week’s gun massacre at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, a Quinnipiac University poll found that 93% of Americans favor universal background checks for gun purchases. And most startling, the high number cuts across the political divide. While more Democrats favor background checks than do Republicans, the difference is a paltry 8% … 98% to 90%.

Here are the Quinnipiac University poll results:

Some conservatives are attacking the poll as “rigged” and are claiming respondents didn’t fully understand the question. As discussed in Breitbart News, “The American voter has to be lucid enough to understand that when people are pushing background checks” these “checks might not really be the end goal. The goal might actually be something larger, something which cannot be accomplished without first getting a foot in the door via background checks.”

Ah, the old “foot in the door” analogy. (Breitbart News)

Perhaps the more startling dissonance is not that of the American people and there elected representatives but that of the American voter and his or her voting pattern. How could so many voters how favor background checks keep voting for politicians who are against such legislation?

My theory is that they are confused by the NRA’s scoring system. Voters who see an “A” next to a politician’s name incorrectly think it’s a good thing. After all, aren’t “A’s” better than “D’s?”