Reply #13: So let's throw out all of our beliefs and taylor them for the

[xequals]

specific region, right ?

I'm sure gay civil unions aren't popular in your area.

How about abortion rights ?

Let's throw them out too, to please the reactionary wingnuts who think they're going to control BOTH parties in this country.

And I'm no radical leftist -- I'm a moderate liberal.

The fact is, the Democrats in very conservative areas like Texas are going to have to run to the right in their local races to get elected anyway. Stenholm is a DINO because that's what his constituents want. But the national Democratic Party should not (and will not) move that far to the right in order to accomodate an ultra conservative region.

No matter where we move on gun control, the NRA will just keep pushing the issue farther right. If we were the NRA-lite party, the NRA would simply scare their base enough that it won't matter where we stand. The votes we will lose are the swing votes and moderate suburbanites like myself, for whom this is a major issue.

Dont think so?

Swing voting soccer moms/dads went to Clinton and Gore pretty solidly, because they viewed them to be moderate liberals who cared about the safety of their children.

Gun control is an issue I will never budge on. Like Al Gore, I want federal control of guns and their owners. I don't want your guns, but I want to make sure you are regulated and recorded in a central database -- complete tracking ability. There is no reason that guns should be less controlled and accounted for than motor vehicles.

I'm not a right wing libertarian -- I don't fear "big government". I'm a moderate liberal Democrat. I believe that the federal government should have control of a federal issue like guns. Guns move between states like air, therefore it is a federal issue. To argue that it's a state rights issue is preposterous.