While it s often difficult to notice, Joe Scarborough is one of the remaining few  reasonable  Republicans. Of course, this has a lot to do with his party s radical shift to its far-right flank, backed with the ascension of Donald Trump. Consequently, certain Republicans such as Scarborough, who at one time sounded radical, sound rational today. To his credit, Scarborough has often sidestepped partisanship to give credit where credit is due.Such was the case Wednesday morning when the host of MSNBC s Morning Joe vocally defended President Obama s executive order on gun control.Scarborough and co-host Mike Barnacle elaborated on the president s announcement, and agreed that expanding background checks for gun sales is an eminently reasonable action to take. Scarborough made sure to underscore for his unhinged conservative viewers that Obama didn t say anything about grabbing any guns. He also validated the president s genuine sadness and anger when mentioning Sandy Hook during his remarks.Via Media Matters:SCARBOROUGH: You see the frustration, don t you, in every press conference after every mass shooting, the president being frustrated by his inability to get anything done even when 90 percent of Americans support stronger background checks.BARNICLE: Absolutely, Joe. And living with the knowledge that you have to provide more information to become a Little League baseball coach than you do to a gun show.SCABOROUGH: Look at this. So if you re driving, a lot of people are listening to us as they drive into work. We re showing a Quinnipiac University poll that actually shows 89 percent of Americans support background checks for gun purchases at gun shows. Eighty-seven percent Republicans, 87 percent. And as other pollsters have told us, up to 80 percent of Republicans in early primary states, who vote in early primary states, support background checks. And, this is not a prediction. I m just going to tell you how it s going to be. There are going to continue to be mass shootings. Terrorists are going to continue to do it over the next decade. And the things that I ve been talking about on background checks and all of us have been talking about and the president has been talking about, Republicans, it s going to be the Republican position within the next two, three, four years. I say Jim VandeHei, one of the things that was most astounding yesterday was the reaction. The Pavlovian reaction from Republicans over a set of actions that really weren t far reaching. And even the White House will tell you, they were modest at best. He hopes he can do something to start the gun show loopholes so terrorist can t walk in and buy guns. But it wasn t even that, and I m not knocking him, it wasn t that sweeping. Nobody got any guns taken away yesterday.And, of course, Joe is correct. According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, 95 percent of Democrats and 87 percent of Republicans support background checks. Back in 2014, 92 percent of gun owners supported expanding the regulation. Yet, when the Manchin-Toomey amendment was proposed back in 2013, the Senate GOP filibustered the legislation in defiance of nearly 90 percent of its voters. Why? Three words: National Rifle Association. The only constituency that matters to the congressional Republicans. It s an almost awe-inspiring dynamic   the NRA s extremist agenda is a higher legislative priority for the GOP than 87 percent of Republican voters.Furthermore, the president s order is, as Scarborough said, not that  far reaching.  Back in 2013, the president announced much more stringent and comprehensive regulations on gun ownership. The president, at the time, tried to resurrect the expired assault weapons ban and close all of the loopholes created by the NRA in 1994. There were bullet control  proposals: no more magazines larger than 10 rounds, and no more armor-piercing bullets. Today, however, the president s actions are limited to just the background checks and additional funding for the FBI and ATF. Nothing else. But that won t stop the relentless lies and fear-mongering by the GOP, telling its people that Obama s out to confiscate their guns. As much as I d like it to happen, it won t.Featured image via video screen grab.