Conservatives won huge around the rest of the country - by running as conservatives. In California, the conservative message was carried concealed, where carried at all. The idea is that in a state this liberal, you have to run to the center if you don’t want to be completely shut out. Well, we did and we are.
One of the advantages of open carry is EDUCATION. During elections, candidates inform (and misinform) voters with their words and actions, taking positions on various issues, and by silence. Silence on an issue has the effect of teaching it is not important. Silence about a fundamental right is not good in the long run. Silence about a fundamental right is not good tactically either, when candidates throughout the country are mobilizing supporters and winning with that issue.
Another advantage of open carry is DETERRENCE. As every schoolchild knows, the only weapon effective against moonbats is LIGHT. Try any other weapon on them, and they will only get stronger. Conservatives win by appealing to reason, principle, moral responsibility, truth planted in the good soil of freedom. Socialist moonbats seek control, and to get it they weaken with immorality, first with envy, then greed, then looting, then murder of unborn babies, murder of defenseless victims, murder of the burdensome useless, and ultimately civil war.
Not long ago there was a self-defense story (typical of many) where a concealed carry permit holder used his gun to stop a criminal attack. Though successful in defending his life, the permit holder got shot in both legs. I gave the story a different headline: “Concealed Carry Fails to Prevent Criminal Attack” – open carry of a firearm would almost certainly have deterred this attack.
Aposematic insects (for example, bumblebees) wear bright colors to deter predators. A few are eaten 
during the education process, but it works and in a free society we must be aposematic citizens.
The aposematic candidate will force debate, provide a meaningful choice to the electorate, and most of all educate and deter the lies and even bad policy that can take root in elections. Even if the candidate loses, we are better off.
Of course, there are times when the neighborhood is so bad that you must opt only for the obvious tactical superiority of concealed carry. Has California truly fallen so far as a neighborhood, where education is no longer an option? If so, then why are we still here?
California is not really that liberal. We are just too large, and party apparatchiks are out of touch with the grassroots who want them to fight the good fight.
Concealing our conservative opinions only made the moonbats stronger. Only light kills moonbats, and our only defense is to educate and deter by wearing truth on our sleeves (or belt holsters). Small, lightweight, concealed opinions, even when deployed, rarely have enough stopping power. The result is the paralyzed, impotent, braindead, disarmed and opinionless California of today.
