Reagan Democrats and the Judges Issue

Despite all of the predictions of gloom-and-doom you hear from the liberal MSM about the GOP’s chances in 2008, every once in a while you’ll find an article that hints things may not come out exactly the way Howard Dean and Keith Olbermann think they will.

Yesterday the LA Times reported that many bigwigs in big labor are very concerned with how their members will vote in the presidential race in November. It seems that no matter which Democratic candidate wins, but especially if it’s Barack Obama, John McCain has a chance to pick up a significant number of blue-collar Reagan Democrats.

“That vote is up for grabs,” former John Edwards campaign manager David Bonior is quoted as saying. According to the article “labor strategists were alarmed by polls and focus groups of undecided union members that showed McCain doing well in match-ups with either Democratic candidate.”

Former RNC national chairman Ken Mehlman apparently believes that McCain “would attract Reagan Democrats for the same reason the former president did: McCain is seen as frank, a good leader, strong on defense and opposed to tax increases.” I can think of another reason Reagan Democrats would vote for McCain: judges.

Reagan Democrats are not the biggest fans of an activist judiciary looking to advance a left-wing agenda in every area of public policy from the War on Terror to cultural issues. Generally, these kinds of voters are patriotic social conservatives who want the government to be tough on crime and terrorism and respect their Second Amendment rights. McCain and Republicans running for the Senate need to talk to the American people about this issue and explain the difference between the kind of judges a President McCain would put on the courts and the kind of judges a President Obama (or a President Hillary Clinton) would put on the court.