A Letter to Pro-Second Amendment Ohioans

Here's another slightly edited letter to pro-gunners:

As an Ohioan with an invested interest in the unadulterated preservation of the Second Amendment, you are being told by the media and the Republican establishment that you have two choices. They say that you can either choose the least of three evils by voting for John McCain, or you can cast a worthless, meaningless vote for Mike Huckabee. I beg to differ. A vote for Mike Huckabee still is valuable! In fact, Ohioans have an opportunity to tremendously impact the presidential race!

Mike Huckabee doesn't have to reach 1,191 delegates. He just has to keep John McCain from getting that many officially pledged before the convention. Plus, Ohio is not a winner-take-all state, so the polls that show John McCain well in the lead should not dissuade you from making your voice be heard. Every vote counts!

Even if Mike Huckabee cannot pull off the extreme upset in this election, you have the chance to emphasize to John McCain that moderately defending the Second Amendment is not enough. For, there are substantial differences between Huckabee and McCain on the issue of the right to keep and bear arms.

Senator McCain attempts to portray himself as a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, yet he and his "maverick" mentality have wandered into anti-gun territory multiple times, so much so that the Gun Owners of America gave him an "F" grade in 2004 and 2006. GOA goes on to say that McCain supported "initiatives to severely regulate gun shows and register gun buyers"; he advocated laws that would require you to keep your guns locked up at home; and he introduced a compromise bill of gun show regulations.

Furthermore, the restrictions McCain helped put on political free speech affect Second Amendment activists.

In stark contrast stands Mike Huckabee, a consistent, adamant supporter of your constitutional right to keep and bear arms. He doesn’t have to hide any Second Amendment skeletons in his campaign closet, because he has none. The Gun Owners of America says that Huckabee "has proven himself to be a steadfast friend to gun owners and the Second Amendment."

Who are you going to support? Will you vote for a candidate who talks the talk and walks the walk...today...but hasn’t always in the past? Or will you vote for the candidate who has persistently and consistently been a proponent and a protector of your right to protect yourself? Stand up for principle! Stand up for the Second Amendment!

Thank you for your time.
...
p.s. Here is the documentation for the information in this e-mail:
Mike Huckabee on the Second Amendment: http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=18

Gun Owners of America on Mike Huckabee: http://gunowners.org/pres08/huckabee.htm

Gun Owners of America on John McCain: http://gunowners.org/pres08/mccain.htm

Gun Owners Rating of John McCain and Related Articles: http://www.gunowners.org/mccaintb.htm

Not THIS Conservative

Count me among the conservatives who are not "rallying behind" John McCain in the wake of a New York Times smear job implicating a romantic relationship between McCain and a female lobbyist. Supposedly, the shakily-supported hitpiece has caused conservatives, formerly hostile to McCain, to "run to the defense" of the Arizona senator. Anyways, that's what I'm hearing. Reportedly, the article has actually been an amazingly efficient fundraising tool for the Republican frontrunner and the GOP in general.

While I don't think the New York Times lived up to journalistic standards in this story, I don't think the story is necessarily untrue. McCain has already found greener grass once in his life, and, on top of that, I'm sure it's extremely difficult for anyone who's been in Washington as long as he has to avoid some form or extent of corruption. That's why so much has been made this election season about electing someone from "outside of Washington" or simply not a "Washington insider."

But that's beside the point, for now. In any case, this story doesn't change the fact that I am not supporting McCain, and I certainly am not donating money to him, especially with a campaign financing controversy brewing around him (Link).

So it looks like McCain is being unfairly attacked. That doesn't change McCain-Feingold. So it looks like the New York Times, a nemesis of conservatism, is back to bashing Republicans, after recentlye endorsing McCain for the Republican nomination. That doesn't change McCain-Kennedy. It doesn't change McCain's opposition to the marriage amendment or the human life amendment. It doesn't change his record on embryonic stem-cell research or the Second Amendment. It doesn't change the fact that, as far as I can tell, he wants to maintain the same old broken system of income and corporate taxation (even if lessened) and unfair "free" trade.

Fortunately, I'm just a little too sharp-witted to blindly allow McCain and the GOP establishment to exploit this NYT article--to use it as a ploy to make a formerly resistant sheep willingly fall into the fold. I'm hoping there are many other conservatives like me.

This race isn't over, unless conservatives allow the mainstream media and the establishmentarians, who we so regularly distrust, tell us it is.