Just speaking for myself, but a lot of the frustration relates to elected officials "playing the game."BLDavis wrote:I can understand disappointment, but try to keep the big picture in mind. Speaking as someone who has monitored and lobbied the Texas legislature, and US Congress for a long time, you have to remember one thing - the people who play the long game win, and people who play the short game lose. The guy you are calling a bum this session, well, you may need his vote next session, or the one after. You have to respect that these guys have a lot on their plate besides our one single issue.
We might take a few knocks this session, or we might win one single thing. It won't matter. As shooters, we've demonstrated for a long time, that we do vote, we do differentiate between candidates based on their support or history with our issues, and as a result, we're winning the long game. It hasn't been that long ago, that "shall issue" was the big goal. Now, the majority of states are shall issue states. Shooters won that by relentless pressure, not by epithets. We'll win the rest the same way.
I respect someone that acts on principle - when elected officials are driven by long term political survival and use their votes as political "currency," I don't feel they've earned much respect.