MrTuffPaws said:
??? Without getting into the debate about right or wrong, can you enlighten me as to how the abortion issue relates to gun grabbing?
From sheer political numbers....
CA centrist and leftist voters - swing, 'moderate Republicans', etc. - as well as varying flavors of Democrats generally list "choice" as a #1 or #2 item of concern. So only a small fraction of the CA electorate are antiabortion or "don't care", with the rest of the voter base having at least some 'pro-choice' feeling.
By contrast, "gun control" usually runs at around #7 or #8 on list of concerns, on average - even for leftists & centrists.
What this shows is that because of the political mix in CA, no 'pro-life', "anti-choice", etc. - or Christian conservative - can ever hold general office. We saw how Dan Lungren, for example, got his arse handed to him a couple of years ago.
It also says that gun rights beliefs are not electoral killers for any party. A pro-gun politician will not have this progun attribute used too much against him if he's prochoice or at least very quiet or neutral on choice - and that any fallout he has from progun issues will be more than made up for by some segment of prochoice support.
CA Republicans keep fielding lots of Christian conservatives in the primaries that simply will never make it into a CA general election. And now that educational 'intelligent design' issues (creationism idiocy) are coming to the fore, this scares lotsa people in various walks even more - likely leading to a further trouncing of so-called "Christian conservatives" in an upcoming general election.
Because of this self-immolation - although many so-called CA Christian conservatives actually do self label themselves as gun-rights supporters - we must conclude, simply by end results, that Christian conservatives in CA are de-facto antigun since they continually hold a losing position and let Democrats win.
Bottom line: the Bible thumpers are so blind they are rigging themselves for continuous electoral defeat in statewide elections, and giving these offices to Democrats - resulting in more gun control.
When I see a fish line drawing bumper sticker or logo in CA today, I now equate that with an HCI/BradyBunch sticker. That may not be their feeling, but it's the end result that counts.
Bill Wiese
San Jose, CA