Obama’s Gun Control Proposals are Highly Polarized

The good news for President Obama is that his package of gun control proposals are relatively popular. Gallup found that 53 percent of Americans are for them and 41 percent are against them. The problem is that now that these are the “Obama’s gun control proposals,” they have become highly polarized. From Gallup:

Regular Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to Obama’s gun control ideas. As a group so-identified Republicans are even more oppose to them than Conservatives. This is truly remarkable. The partisan/tribal divide on the issue is now even larger than the ideological divide. The Republican base has fully internalized the idea that anything Obama stands for they should oppose.

This means that the chances of anything winning approval in the House are remote. The election concern of most House Republicans is a  primary challenge, and while Obama’s proposals are popular they are not overwhelmingly so.