people buying guns are among the most popular policies of any kind. and even though the majority of people were behind the idea of background checks, an influential few were not. the shooters in aurora, the shooters in newtown, they re unrecognizable. they re not going to be in the system. who is going to be in the system you and me. guess who won out in the end? the gun control legislation that was supposed to tighten background checks was defeated today in the u.s. senate. the manchin/toomey amendment was defeated despite broad popular support. and a new study out of princeton and northwestern university could explain why. two political scientists looked at almost 2,000 policy cases over 20 years, trying to answer some basic questions. does public opinion translate into actual policy? and whose opinion matters? they found that average citizens preferences have essentially zero estimated impact upon policy change. you heard that right! the average voters opinion just doesn
shooters in newtown, they re unrecognizable. they re not going to be in the system. who is going to be in the system you and me. guess who won out in the end? the gun control legislation that was supposed to tighten background checks was defeated today in the u.s. senate. the manchin/toomey amendment was defeated despite broad popular support. and a new study out of princeton and northwestern university could explain why. two political scientists looked at almost 2,000 policy cases over 20 years, trying to answer some basic questions. does public opinion translate into actual policy? and whose opinion matters? they found that average citizens preferences have essentially zero estimated impact upon policy change. you heard that right! the average voters opinion just doesn t matter. so what does? major business interest groups, like the gun lobby, and rich people.
major business interest groups, like the gun lobby, and rich people. the researchers found that while the opinion of the average american has zero impact on policy, the opinions of economic elites have a very large, positive independent impact. this is certainly not the box we learned about in school. we re going to elect a president who s going to do what the people want in fact, it sounds like the textbook definition of oligarchy, government by the few. so if the will of the people is not enough to get something popular like a background check bill passed, it s important to get a billionaire involved. enter former new york mayor, michael bloomberg. yesterday, bloomberg announced he ll be spending $50 million of his own money to build an organization to challenge the nra and pursue an expansion of background checks. this is not a battle of dollars. this is a battle for the hearts and minds of america, so that we
of an entire night and a week later the dnc will put up elizabeth warren whose comments i don t know if the president cribs from her. she was the one who gave a full-throated defense of that. you didn t build that you have your government to thank for your successful business at least in large part. both sides sticking with their message. put it in perspective. when the president made his comments living in massachusetts i enjoyed them more than the original cherokee. but this is a brilliant move for the republican party. the republican coalition is three groups. financial, business interest groups, evangelical or the religious leg of the stool and the tea party and small government individual responsibility leg. and the you didn t build that has two parts. for the financial guy it reminds you are the ones overwhelmingly paying the taxes and you did