By David Akadjian / Daily Kos
Since the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting, there’s been a lot of talk about reasonable gun violence prevention laws. If you look at surveys, most people support them. But one of the issues we face with implementing background checks or any gun violence prevention laws is that, for conservatives, guns are an economic concern.
Different conservatives will phrase this differently but what it comes down to for them is that property must be protected at all costs, and they feel this is key to the economy. Guns are an emotional issue to conservatives, especially rural conservatives, in a way that they aren’t viewed as important to the economy by liberals.
If past experience is any indicator, the economy is the most important issue to Americans. This is what people vote on. Because of this, the Republican strategy for the 2018 midterm elections is going to be this:
- Take credit for the economy
- Paint Democrats as caring only about identity issues or hating Trump because of identity issues