Look, I recognize that there are pro-gun Democrats. I’ve seen them. I’ve met them. While I disagree with them on a great many things–and the feeling is mutual, I’m sure–I have no illusions they don’t exist. I welcome them to the side of the angels when it comes to gun rights.

That said, let’s also be honest here. As a general rule, Republicans support the right to keep and bear arms and Democrats don’t. Gun control is very much a Democrat position and gun rights is very much a Republican platform plank.

So why, then, is David Hogg trying so hard to pretend it’s bipartisan?

November is the time for the American people to #WalkTogether into the polls not as Democrats or Republicans but as Americans in a war against Russian propaganda and fear spread by organizations like @NRA

Use #WalkTogether to counter this propaganda.

— David Hogg 📢 (@davidhogg111) July 22, 2018

You see, Hogg sent this tweet shortly following this one:

#WalkAway is Russian propaganda #WalkAway is Russian propaganda #WalkAway is Russian propaganda #WalkAway is Russian propaganda #WalkAway is Russian propaganda #WalkAway is Russian propaganda

Remember this November we need to vote against @Russia https://t.co/okCKzzpzFG

— David Hogg 📢 (@davidhogg111) July 22, 2018

Of course, CNN isn’t exactly an unbiased source these days, but Hogg buys the bias, so he doesn’t care. Instead, he is on the blue team while still trying to pretend his cause du jour isn’t a liberal item.

But why?

The answer is simple. Hogg, and most other anti-gun activists, recognize that Democrats can’t get gun control passed on their own. They need Republicans on board if there’s a hope in hell of it passing outside of a few states that are so blue it’s not even funny. On the national level, Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

Democrats are, basically, powerless.

So Hogg is trying to beat the bipartisan drum to try and convince Republican voters to side with him and his on this. After all, if some Democrats can be pro-gun, surely some Republicans can be anti-gun, right?

What young Mr. Hogg is missing is that while it’s technically possible, the major difference is in priorities.

For Republican voters, protecting the right to keep and bear arms is act a pretty high priority. A large number of voters on the right use the Second Amendment as something of a bellwether issue. They figure that if someone is sufficiently pro-gun, they’ll generally support other measures that matter to them.

On the flip side, Democrats may be anti-gun, but Democrat voters don’t rate guns as that high of an issue for them. They’re usually preoccupied with a number of other issues they think are more important, like welfare or healthcare. Because of that, Democrats who support gun rights can be elected because they check all the other boxes.

The results are that while Democrats don’t march in lockstep on the issue of guns, Republicans generally do.

Hogg’s handlers know this and have probably explained to him that he can’t just appeal to the left and expect anything to happen. He has to get the Republicans on board too.

So, he prances about on Twitter, in one moment clearly siding with Democrats, then pretending that his pet issue is really a nonpartisan issue and that everyone should be on board with his pronouncement. The thing is, he’s deluding himself if he thinks this is going to make pro-gun officials suddenly say, “You know what? Since it’s nonpartisan according to an 18-year-old kid who couldn’t get into college, maybe I’ll just screw over my constituents and make this kid happy.”

It doesn’t work that way and it never will.

The truth is, the issue is partisan, and it’s partisan because one party generally supports gun rights and one party generally opposes them. Period.

The sooner Hogg gets that through his skull, the happier he’ll be in life.