SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A young girl cries outside the Willie de Leon Civic Center, where grief counseling will be offered after 19 students and two teachers were slaughtered at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022. (Photo: Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images)
'Inaction Is Bought': Here Are the Receipts on NRA's Purchase of GOP
"The issue is money in politics," said Nina Turner after the nation's latest mass killing of students and teachers. Right-wing lawmakers are "allowing children to die because of the gun lobby."
May 25, 2022
In the wake of the harrowing massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, progressive stalwart Nina Turner focused her ire on the right-wing lawmakers who take money from the National Rifle Association and argued that solutions to gun violence and other injustices plaguing the U.S. will continue to prove elusive until the role of big money in politics is confronted.
"The issue is money in politics," Turner, a former Ohio state senator and co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign, wrote on social media. "They're allowing children to die because of the gun lobby. They're allowing the planet to die because of Big Oil. They're allowing people to go without healthcare and die because of the insurance lobby."
"Inaction is bought," she continued. "Whatever issue you care about, whatever issue you fight for, the roadblocks to progress are always put up by big money. If we're going to talk about how to stop mass shootings, we have to talk about big money in politics and the role it plays."
No shortage of congressional Republicans took to Twitter on Tuesday to offer their proverbial "thoughts and prayers" after 19 children and two teachers were fatally gunned down in a classroom located in a predominantly Latino town 80 miles west of San Antonio.
But when a dozen GOP senators and one ex-senator claimed to be shocked and devastated by the latest mass murder to take place in one of the nation's schools, author Bess Kalb documented how much money they have accepted from the NRA.
Among others, Kalb's spotlight on the glaring discrepancy between expressing condolences and raking in cash from a notorious pro-gun group that has lobbied aggressively to prevent common-sense safety reforms shone on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, former U.S. senator and recently defeated gubernatorial candidate David Perdue of Georgia, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is scheduled to speak at an NRA meeting in Houston later this week.
Below is a collection of Republicans' statements of concern, which Kalb juxtaposed with their NRA cash totals, in descending order:
"Did the NRA send out a message with the words 'horrifying and heartbreaking' yesterday or did its top paid politicians all coincidentally use the exact same language?" Kalb asked.
There have been more than 3,500 mass shootings in the U.S. since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. Over the past decade, Congress has repeatedly failed to pass legislation to meaningfully reform the nation's gun laws, thanks in large part to the opposition of GOP lawmakers bankrolled by the NRA.
Turner, for her part, argued that "not only does every politician that takes NRA money have blood on their hands, so does every politician that partakes in and upholds a system that allows these big-money interests to exist."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Kenny Stancil
Kenny Stancil is senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project and a former staff writer for Common Dreams.
In the wake of the harrowing massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, progressive stalwart Nina Turner focused her ire on the right-wing lawmakers who take money from the National Rifle Association and argued that solutions to gun violence and other injustices plaguing the U.S. will continue to prove elusive until the role of big money in politics is confronted.
"The issue is money in politics," Turner, a former Ohio state senator and co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign, wrote on social media. "They're allowing children to die because of the gun lobby. They're allowing the planet to die because of Big Oil. They're allowing people to go without healthcare and die because of the insurance lobby."
"Inaction is bought," she continued. "Whatever issue you care about, whatever issue you fight for, the roadblocks to progress are always put up by big money. If we're going to talk about how to stop mass shootings, we have to talk about big money in politics and the role it plays."
No shortage of congressional Republicans took to Twitter on Tuesday to offer their proverbial "thoughts and prayers" after 19 children and two teachers were fatally gunned down in a classroom located in a predominantly Latino town 80 miles west of San Antonio.
But when a dozen GOP senators and one ex-senator claimed to be shocked and devastated by the latest mass murder to take place in one of the nation's schools, author Bess Kalb documented how much money they have accepted from the NRA.
Among others, Kalb's spotlight on the glaring discrepancy between expressing condolences and raking in cash from a notorious pro-gun group that has lobbied aggressively to prevent common-sense safety reforms shone on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, former U.S. senator and recently defeated gubernatorial candidate David Perdue of Georgia, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is scheduled to speak at an NRA meeting in Houston later this week.
Below is a collection of Republicans' statements of concern, which Kalb juxtaposed with their NRA cash totals, in descending order:
"Did the NRA send out a message with the words 'horrifying and heartbreaking' yesterday or did its top paid politicians all coincidentally use the exact same language?" Kalb asked.
There have been more than 3,500 mass shootings in the U.S. since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. Over the past decade, Congress has repeatedly failed to pass legislation to meaningfully reform the nation's gun laws, thanks in large part to the opposition of GOP lawmakers bankrolled by the NRA.
Turner, for her part, argued that "not only does every politician that takes NRA money have blood on their hands, so does every politician that partakes in and upholds a system that allows these big-money interests to exist."
Kenny Stancil
Kenny Stancil is senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project and a former staff writer for Common Dreams.
In the wake of the harrowing massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, progressive stalwart Nina Turner focused her ire on the right-wing lawmakers who take money from the National Rifle Association and argued that solutions to gun violence and other injustices plaguing the U.S. will continue to prove elusive until the role of big money in politics is confronted.
"The issue is money in politics," Turner, a former Ohio state senator and co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign, wrote on social media. "They're allowing children to die because of the gun lobby. They're allowing the planet to die because of Big Oil. They're allowing people to go without healthcare and die because of the insurance lobby."
"Inaction is bought," she continued. "Whatever issue you care about, whatever issue you fight for, the roadblocks to progress are always put up by big money. If we're going to talk about how to stop mass shootings, we have to talk about big money in politics and the role it plays."
No shortage of congressional Republicans took to Twitter on Tuesday to offer their proverbial "thoughts and prayers" after 19 children and two teachers were fatally gunned down in a classroom located in a predominantly Latino town 80 miles west of San Antonio.
But when a dozen GOP senators and one ex-senator claimed to be shocked and devastated by the latest mass murder to take place in one of the nation's schools, author Bess Kalb documented how much money they have accepted from the NRA.
Among others, Kalb's spotlight on the glaring discrepancy between expressing condolences and raking in cash from a notorious pro-gun group that has lobbied aggressively to prevent common-sense safety reforms shone on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, former U.S. senator and recently defeated gubernatorial candidate David Perdue of Georgia, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is scheduled to speak at an NRA meeting in Houston later this week.
Below is a collection of Republicans' statements of concern, which Kalb juxtaposed with their NRA cash totals, in descending order:
"Did the NRA send out a message with the words 'horrifying and heartbreaking' yesterday or did its top paid politicians all coincidentally use the exact same language?" Kalb asked.
There have been more than 3,500 mass shootings in the U.S. since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. Over the past decade, Congress has repeatedly failed to pass legislation to meaningfully reform the nation's gun laws, thanks in large part to the opposition of GOP lawmakers bankrolled by the NRA.
Turner, for her part, argued that "not only does every politician that takes NRA money have blood on their hands, so does every politician that partakes in and upholds a system that allows these big-money interests to exist."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.