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Dear Dog Gone,

"I won't argue with you because you're expressing your opinion and the reasons for it. And you write well."

Gee, thanks! Flattery will get you everywhere (at least, this is what I tell my wife). ;-)

"I don't doubt that Guiliani will have trouble securing the vast majority of voters who identify themselves as social conservatives. That's kind of the point I was making myself."

Okay. That's all us social conservatives are trying to say. Don't rip up the Republican coalition by nominating someone antithetical to an important part of the coalition.

"If it comes down to a choice between Hillary or Obama vs. Guiliani, you'll probably cast a protest vote for someone with no chance whatsoever."

Well, I wouldn't call it a protest vote, but rather a re-building vote. If the party abandons social conservatives, kicks us to the curb, throws us out of the "big tent" (that is, unless we're willing to vote for folks who entirely oppose our agenda), then we're going to have to figure out alternatives.

I don't know what those alternatives will be. But we'll have to try some new things.

"I think that would be an error, but I also know that there's no chance of persuading you otherwise."

I understand that you think it's an error. For us, the error would have been in nominating Mr. Giuliani. Our refusal to vote for him is just a foregone conclusion necessitated by the real error.

"It's the same as not voting, in my opinion, but we probably differ on that."

No, I don't think so. If we don't vote at all, then we're invisible, and the country clubbers can laugh at us. If even a modest percentage of us coalesced around a single alternative, say the Constitution Party, and gave that third party alternative something like 3% or 5%, or even a bit more, the country clubbers would be mad as hell at us, but they'd understand why they lost.

"From my perspective, defeating the Democrat candidate is the most important thing."

I'm not willing to vote for one liberal to avoid another.

"It's entirely possible that we'll be facing a situation where we'll be displeased with the outcome of the election no matter what. I believe in cutting my losses and voting for least objectionable candidate, if that's what it takes."

I believe that many social conservatives will also cut their losses by voting third party, or staying home. For us, a Giuliani candidacy means we've already lost.

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