Right Wing Nation

The dextrosphere is full of speculation and debate regarding GOP race in 08 (the Bitch Girls have been slamming Romney, Born Again Redneck looks at the candidates — and those are only the examples I’ve seen this morning; there are too many to document).

But everybody is missing the boat — and I’m going to focus on the Second Amendment, though my point is equally applicable to any social conservative issue, given that we’re talking about a Republican Presidential candidate, and not a Democrat Presidential candidate.

Sit down. Hold your breath. Get your nitroglycerin tablet handy.

It doesn’t much matter how socially conservative the candidate is — nor does it matter much what that candidate’s stance is on the Second Amendment — again, provided that we are talking about a Republican Presidential candidate, and not a Democrat Presidential candidate.

The President does not make law; Congress does. It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference if Duncan Hunter is more conservative than Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani is (possibly) electable; Hunter is not.

By far the most important issue for a Presidential candidate is foreign policy, particularly now. Anyone who is expending energy trying to bring down (or support) a Presidential candidate based on domestic issues is, and forgive the cliché, pissing in the wind.

I’m not saying domestic issues aren’t important. I am saying when it comes to domestic issues, put all your money on Congressional candidates, not the Presidential candidate. I’m also saying that electability trumps ideology every time. Patting yourself on the back because you backed the loser just because you liked his domestic policies is masturbatory.

Now, I understand refusing to vote for a candidate on principle. I wouldn’t vote for McCain under any circumstances, because he’s a media whore and cannot be trusted — and you need to be able to trust anybody you vote for. I wouldn’t vote for a paleocon under any circumstances either, not Tancredo, and not Buchanan. But voting principles is what the primary election is for.

Political pragmatists will always win, and political ideologues will always lose. And supporting a Presidential candidate purely for ideological reasons is for losers (beyond the primary, that is).

When it comes to the Second Amendment, Giuliani and Romney share an abysmal record. However, both are intelligent enough to realize that whatever their policies may have been back in those vivid blue states, they won’t fly with conservatives in the nation at large. Both are intelligent enough to realize that to get elected to the White House and then try to pressure Congress into passing gun control legislation would be political suicide. The question isn’t the candidate’s past record on the Second Amendment; the issue is whether the candidate would try to block pro-Second Amendment legislation passed by Congress. And again, I think both Giuliani and Romney are smart enough that neither would do any such thing.

A Democrat candidate is, of course, entirely different, particularly if he has a Democrat Congress. Should that happen, you can bet everything you own that Democrats will suddenly resurrect gun control as a major issue. But the difference is the makeup of Congress. A Democrat President with a Republican Congress isn’t nearly as dangerous as a Democrat President with a Democrat Congress.

So stop yowling about Giuliani, Romney, or for that matter, how conservative any Republican Presidential candidate is — because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Instead, focus on the candidates running for Congress. The most important issue for any Presidential candidate isn’t guns or abortion; it’s foreign policy and national security.