Thursday, November 09, 2006

Big Election Day Winner: Guns !!

Or so it would seem...from Volokh:

The incoming freshman classes in the U.S. House and Senate include a plentiful supply of pro-gun Democrats, a very important positive long-term trend.

Perhaps the starkest difference between the Republican results and the Second Amendment results were in Ohio. There, pro-gun Democrats picked up two formerly Republican open seats in the House. Three endangered pro-gun Republican Congresspersons defeated anti-gun Democratic challengers. Anti-gun retiring Republican Governor Bob Taft was replaced by strongly pro-gun Democrat Ted Strickland, while anti-gun Republican Attorney General Betty Montgomery was defeated by pro-gun Democrat Mark Dann...

In order to win Congress, Democrats ran "to the right", knowing they could never win states like Ohio, Virginia (Senate seat won by 7,ooo votes by a conservative Democrat) or Montana (margin around 2,000 votes) by being "anti-gun". So even in defeat, some conservative values are validated as essentially mainstream, needing to be co-opted by the Democrats in order to win in red states.

And they'll have to toe that line, on guns, taxes, and national defense if they want their tenure to last more than 24 months...

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