Rudy supports a right to abortion, gay marriage, and gun control.... It will make it quite difficult for Rudy to win in the primaries outside of New England, and it's doubtful that he will gain much by making a complete change on any of those positions. What's more likely to work is a philosophical explanation of his stances, followed by a pledge to work with the party to meet its goals in some type of big-tent fashion.
Indeed. We all remember John Kerry's posing with his trusty shotgun (with his finger on the damn trigger! *snort*) and crawling around in the brush, in a shameless attempt to position himself as somewhat friendly to guns and gun rights. I didn't so much agree with the last sentence of the above quote, though. I along with many other Second Amendment bloggers have covered the whole issue of compromise before -- it's basically a losing strategy in the long term -- but on the issue of gun control, I must agree with the good Captain:
Gun control would be a tougher nut to crack. Of the three issues Novak mentions, this is the only one with an explicit guarantee in the Constitution, and yet it's the one right that liberals attack. It will be hard to square that impulse with the conservative base no matter what philosophical or utilitarian arguments Rudy might offer, and a pro-gun Democrat could steal the South in the general election, even if Rudy won the nomination. Al Gore lost his home state of Tennessee in 2000, and the election as a result, largely on this one issue.
It would be well for Giuliani to remember that, if he fancies himself as a candidate for all of us who lean toward the Pachyderm Party. Right now, no doubt there are many who would see Giuliani as a Rockefeller Republican in the mold of Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and John and Lincoln Chafee. And I've said it before, but if a Democrat came along that was not so hostile to my natural right to arms, I would seriously consider casting my vote for him, or her, as the case may be (Zell Miller, call your office!), if a Snowe, Specter or Chafee was on the ballot for the Republicans. I would say that Giuliani needs to seriously rethink his support of any kind of gun control, and not just out of political expediency -- a serious, philosophical reassessment of the issue -- but somehow I just don't see that one happening. He's a politician, after all, and whether they lean to the left or the right, most of them have their own aspirations in mind rather than the best interests of the people. I can't help but think that we're going to get more pandering - maybe not as blatant as John Kerry's, but we will see what comes, in the not-too-distant future.
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