 [Townhall] If you're surprised by this, you haven't been paying attention to our politics for the last few years. Intense agitation from one side of the ideological aisle begets a backlash from the other -- with Americans throwing money at dueling causes, out of both fear and pure spite. With anti-NRA demagoguery dialed up to eleven after the Parkland shooting, anti-gun activists have succeeded in eroding the public's views of the organization. But they've also helped recruit legions of new NRA members and donors. Some of these new supporters have signed up out of Second Amendment solidarity, while others have likely found the group's 'culture war' messaging alluring (I personally find it needlessly partisan and borderline-apocalyptic). So even if the National Rifle Association currently finds itself in a position of diminished overall popularity, and as more of a touchstone for hyper-partisanship than ever before, scores of ordinary Americans are voting with their pocketbooks to send financial reinforcements to the embattled guns rights group: |