The Brady Bunch - Republicans, Democrats or what?

[Marcus in the Darkus]

As I was reading the thread titled Michael Steele new head of RNC in support of AWB???, I wanted to post a reply to state that gun grabbers transcend political boundaries, and that you can't assume Republicans are pro-gun and that Democrats are anti-gun. I remember reading a well-thought-out post a year or so ago that mentioned that the Brady Center's Board of Directors was originally comprised of more Republicans than Democrats. So I opened up a few Google windows and set out to do some research, whiche ended up consuming several hours this evening. I found some interesting stuff that I felt might merit a separate thread.

Here's what I could dig up regarding the current Brady Center BOD and the political leanings of the members, mostly based on published political contribution data:

Sarah Brady - R
Mr. Nick Brown - R
Mr. Mark Rosenberg - ?
Honorable David Birenbaum - D
Mr. Mark Ingram - ?
Mrs. Victoria Reggie Kennedy - D
Mr. John Rosenthal - ?
Mr. Frank Hartmann - ?
Sheriff Ralph Lopez - D
Mr. Richard North Patterson - ?
Mr. Thomas C. Vanden Berk - D
Mr. James S. Brady - R
Mr. David Birenbaum - D
Ms. Byrl-Phillips Taylor - ?
Mrs. Phyllis Segal - D
Mr. Peter Buttenweiser - D
Mr. Michael Berman - D

For posterity and as a valuable research tool, here's a Tax return form 999 for the year 2004 for the Brady Center (a 501(c) tax-exempt organization):

http://www.thebitchgirls.us/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/bradycenter990-2004.pdf

Several of the Board members in 2004 are no longer on the Board, while others still are, meaning that the Board is a dynamic institution. We can be confident, though, that all Brady Board members, past and present, are gun grabbers.

I Googled the name of each current Board member, verified that they were the right person, and found a lot of interesting information. I should have kept better notes and done a brief bio of each Board member, but I didn't. Sorry.

Several of these folks are parents who have lost a child to gun violence, and who have dedicated themselves to gun control. While I don't agree with their logic that the gun, as an inatimate object, was responsible for the death of their loved one, I can understand how the emotion of the loss of a child can cloud their judgement. The thing that really jumped out at me was how utterly infested the Brady Center is with (mostly) Washington lawyers, lobbyists and intellectual elitists, with the balance pretty much exclusively from the liberal bastions of the east and west coast and Chicago. These people are completely out of touch with and unrepresentative of mainstream America. Some of the question marks in the above list are almost certainly Democrats (like Rosenthal), while others have hedged their bets and made political contributions to the campains of both Republicans and Democrats.

I still believe that it is foolish to simply assume that Republicans will protect our rights and that Democrats will try to take them away. Rather, the self-styled elitists and power brokers, who know what's best for the unwashed masses, are the ones who are truly our enemy.

 

[GSG]

These people are completely out of touch with and unrepresentative of mainstream America.

Bingo.

 

[MikeH]

+1 for all the effort that went into this research.
I found the tax return particularly interesting.
Total revenues were $3.9 million. They seem to get an awful lot of mileage out of their money. I would think the NRA spends that much just on postage and marketing material.

 

[GrendelKhan]

As I've been saying for quite some time, both parties have members on all sides of every argument. Republicans can't blames the Democrats anymore; they support a party that clearly supports gun control.

+1
But it's not just guns. Seems to me that for most people working actively in Government, in fact most Americans - both Democrats and Republicans - both Left and Right, the solution to every problem lies in more rules, less rights - more laws, less liberty.

And it leads to less responsible adult behavior, more sniveling childish sheep that can't take care of or think for themselves.

I don't generally see most Right vs Left arguments as anything of substance - as anything more than theatrics meant to hold our attention away from what the Powers-That-Be are really up to. The real battle is something resembling Authoritarianism vs Libertarianism.

More to the point - the word "conservative" doesn't mean to most people, what it means to me.

 

[doobie]

Any idiot can be anti-gun on any side of the aisle. The question is... how many of these politicians are going to stake their career on enacting laws that a fairly vocal set of their constituents are against? I mean can you imagine if a Montana senator voted for gun control?

Of course the big question if the only form of gun control turned into a new Salt Weapons Ban, how many gun owners would say, "I don't care about 'Salt Weapons' so I don't care" I'll bet that these days there would be quite a few.

 

[Tim111]

I don't generally see most Right vs Left arguments as anything of substance - as anything more than theatrics meant to hold our attention away from what the Powers-That-Be are really up to. The real battle is something resembling Authoritarianism vs Libertarianism.

+1
I completely agree. We embroil ourselves in this Democrat vs Republican shit so much that we loose track of whats actually happening in Washington.

 

[lord1234]

Some of the question marks in the above list are almost certainly Democrats (like Rosenthal), while others have hedged their bets and made political contributions to the campains of both Republicans and Democrats.

You had me until this sentence. What makes you so certain that Rosenthal is a democrat? (Other then a jewish sounding last name?)

 

[LoginName]

You had me until this sentence. What makes you so certain that Rosenthal is a democrat? (Other then a jewish sounding last name?)

Campaign contributions are a good indicator...

ROSENTHAL, JOHN
CARLISLE, MA 01741
MEREDITH MANAGEMENT CORPORATION

CLINTON, HILLARY RODHAM
VIA HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON FOR US SENATE COMMITTEE INC
08/02/1999 500.00 20020040747

DEAN, HOWARD
VIA DEAN FOR AMERICA
12/18/2003 500.00 24990413822

MCCARTHY, CAROLYN
VIA FRIENDS OF CAROLYN MCCARTHY
03/13/2002 250.00 22990628295



ROSENTHAL, JOHN E
CARLISLE, MA 01741
MEREDITH MANAGEMENT

TIERNEY, JOHN F
VIA TIERNEY FOR CONGRESS
05/06/1998 250.00 98033380460

CARNAHAN, MEL
VIA CARNAHAN FOR SENATE COMMITTEE
06/06/2000 1000.00 20020220343

KENNEDY, EDWARD MOORE SENATOR
VIA KENNEDY FOR SENATE 2012
03/31/2005 1000.00 25020142561


KERRY, JOHN FORBES
VIA KERRY COMMITTEE
04/10/2001 500.00 21020110779


CLARK, WESLEY K
VIA CLARK FOR PRESIDENT INC.
11/25/2003 1000.00 24980432100
12/12/2003 1000.00 24980432099


WHITEHOUSE, SHELDON II
VIA WHITEHOUSE FOR SENATE
08/07/2006 1000.00 26020621604


if you know the state of residence of the others, you can look them up as well...

http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/norindsea.shtml

FWIW... I was totally unaware that Rosenthal was back with the Brady Campaign (he was ousted/resigned from the American Hunters and Shooters Association). According to his own words from a few years ago (before he confounded the AHSA), they were to "extreme".

 

[Mikey]

You had me until this sentence. What makes you so certain that Rosenthal is a democrat? (Other then a jewish sounding last name?)

I am guessing you don't know who he is.




Anyway, your are right for the most part we can't trust any of them but I do believe the Dems are the bigger threat. Gun control would not even be an issue without the Dems support of it. Also we need to remember that Brady was part of the Reagan admin which would probably explain a lot of the republican connections.

In the end it comes down to not trusting either party, they both suck.

 

[JoeyB]

+1
But it's not just guns. Seems to me that for most people working actively in Government, in fact most Americans - both Democrats and Republicans - both Left and Right, the solution to every problem lies in more rules, less rights - more laws, less liberty.

And it leads to less responsible adult behavior, more sniveling childish sheep that can't take care of or think for themselves.

I don't generally see most Right vs Left arguments as anything of substance - as anything more than theatrics meant to hold our attention away from what the Powers-That-Be are really up to. The real battle is something resembling Authoritarianism vs Libertarianism.

More to the point - the word "conservative" doesn't mean to most people, what it means to me.

+1. I think you hit the nail on the head when you say "the real battle is something resembling authoritarianism v libertarianism." Those that seek to use violence and the threat of violence to control your lives v. those that want to minimize the consolidation of power and expand liberty at all levels to all people.

This is some great research. Right on!


GrendelKhan, when you speak of conservative, what does it mean to you?

 

[pdm]

Statists know no political boundary.

 

[center442]

>snip<

I still believe that it is foolish to simply assume that Republicans will protect our rights and that Democrats will try to take them away. Rather, the self-styled elitists and power brokers, who know what's best for the unwashed masses, are the ones who are truly our enemy.

I agree that you will find gun grabbers on both sides of the political aisle. The reason that I (and many others) consider Democrats to be automatically our enemy is numbers: what percentage of Democrats are anti-gun compared to what percentage of Republicans?

I don't have any empirical statistics, but personal experience has taught me that the following is true: show me a Democrat and you're most likely showing me a gun grabber, and the more liberal the Democrat, the more likely he's anti-gun.

I know there are exceptions, but that is my experience.

 

[drgrant]

There are plenty of antis on both sides of the aisle.

I think when analyzing pols, for instance, you have to look deeper into what they say and do, to determine where they -really- stand on gun control.

Lack of helping us during a GOP dominated congress under Bush should be a sure sign that even a large number of R's, while they may not be "for" gun control when it hits the table, it also shows that they are not all that aggressive in terms of trying to protect RKBA, either. The dearth of pro gun legislation passed under GOP domination speaks volumes. (What did we get, the block on manufacturer lawsuits... and some votes against an AWB renewal.... big whoop. )

It reeks of "Well, R's support gun rights more than D's, but only when it's convenient for them to do so". If supporting gun owners requires work or even a little risk, it seems the number of "supporters" miraculously dwindles when it comes time to move on legislation that does things like repeal shitty laws, etc. There's a difference between merely voting on an issue and PROMOTING and driving an issue to a vote. When you start to distill things down, there are really only a small cluster of R's and a a handful of D's that genuinely are concerned about gun rights.

-Mike

 

[GrendelKhan]

When you start to distill things down, there are really only a small cluster of R's and a a handful of D's that genuinely are concerned about your rights.

Fixed it for ya.

 

[JoeyB]

Statists know no [STRIKE]political[/STRIKE] boundaries.

+1

 

[mikem317]

You had me until this sentence. What makes you so certain that Rosenthal is a democrat? (Other then a jewish sounding last name?)

I'm sure Aaron Zelman and Peter Schiff would probably have an issue with your claim.