Matthew McConaughey was 💯 right ... AND dead wrong.

His speech identified the right problem and some good solutions – but he’s dreaming if he thinks the Republican Party will cooperate. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ {NAME}, Columbine. Sandy Hook. Parkland. Uvalde. These names send chills down our spines, as they should. These names reflect our failure as a country to stand up to evil. These names tarnish our standing as the "greatest country on Earth." How can we be the most powerful country in the world and have these names be a part of our legacy at the same time? This week, Matthew McConaughey, who grew up in Uvalde, gave an emotional speech at the White House. His words reflected what everyone else felt when we heard the news about Uvalde. His emotion was raw and real. He is not alone – we all felt, and still feel that way. Matthew McConaughey holds a drawing by 10-year-old Uvalde massacre victim Alithia Ramirez Uvalde will never be turned into a movie because it is just too horrific for the cinema … yet it is real, it happened, and those children suffered and died. What their parents are going through … I don't allow myself to even go there, because as a parent myself, it is just far too horrific to contemplate. We can't bring those children back, we can't go back in time, the only thing we can do is work like we have never worked before to change the future – and as Matthew said, to make the loss of these lives matter. But while I agree 100% with Matthew about the problem at hand, and even his specific policy proposals (universal background checks, higher minimum age limits and waiting periods for assault rifles, and red flag laws), I think he’s naïve about how we’re going to get there. Matthew seems to think things are different this time, and Republicans will finally compromise to find some common ground and pass gun safety reforms that we can all agree on. I’ll be blunt: I have seen zero evidence of that, and I don’t believe it’s going to happen. Whenever these atrocities are committed, Republicans get self-righteous and demand we not “politicize” them. That way, no one can call them out for their complicity until everyone calms down, the news cycle shifts, and it's back to business as usual. After the latest tragedy in Uvalde, though, the Republicans didn’t even have the decency to wait until the news cycle changed – before the parents of Uvalde had even buried their murdered children, Texas’ Republican Senator Ted Cruz, Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbott, and even Donald Trump made appearances at the NRA convention a few hundred miles away in Houston to kiss the ring and take their marching orders. What does that tell you? For me, it's simple: They will never change, they don't care, and there is no point in talking to them anymore about our nation’s gun problem. That brings us to a different dilemma: How do we change the laws in this country? There’s only one way forward … we need to expand our Senate majority by a minimum of 2 more seats. The House has already passed a series of common-sense gun safety reform bills – meaning it’s now on the Senate to approve them and send them to President Biden so he can sign them into law. But as long as the 50 Republicans in the Senate are able to keep obstructing any and all progress in the upper chamber with the filibuster, there’s no chance of that happening. And since a couple of Democrats-in-name-only have stubbornly refused to side with the rest of their party and get rid of the filibuster, we’ve got to go around them by electing at least 2 more REAL Democrats who will do what it takes to make progress on this and every other issue we care about. What we are asking for are things that really are common sense … for example, a mandatory background check on any individual who wants to purchase a gun. In what universe can anyone oppose that, and on what grounds? Do we really want just any violent psychopath to be able to roll up to a gun show and buy a war arsenal off-the-books with no oversight? But the NRA opposes it, so their puppets in the Republican party oppose it, too. We cannot allow the news cycle to dictate how we approach this subject anymore – it must be front and center at all times. In the week after the Uvalde massacre alone, there were 17 more mass shootings in the U.S., and there have been even more in the days since then – I’ve honestly lost count. We can’t allow this to become normalized. We can’t afford to let crisis fatigue lessen our commitment to fighting for change. Guess what – politically, this topic is favorable for us! NINETY PERCENT of Americans -- Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike – agree that we need more common-sense gun safety laws in this country. So why not campaign on this? We must, and we shall. Like it or not, this is a political problem, with a political solution: We need to elect more Democrats, bypass the filibuster, and pass gun safety reform laws. It’s that simple, and that difficult, at the same time. We know what we have to do, so let's do it together: Chip in what you can to help us fight for change today. As always, thank you for your support. -Hassan Martini, Executive Director, and the No Dem Left Behind team No Dem Left Behind is a federal PAC focused on building a base of support for progressive values in rural America. We are committed to helping solve the issues that people in rural America face by creating a foundation of trust and helping great local leaders emerge to run for elected office. We provide a national platform for our endorsed Democratic candidates to increase their exposure and help them mount winning campaigns. 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