politics
On Hoping McCain Loses
Bill Quick sums up the reasons:
He thinks conservatism is a dead ideology that doesn’t recognize that the world has moved on. It has lost its relevance in a nation where the old paradigms are falling away. We are becoming a nation of Mexican and Latino immigrants, legal and illegal. That must be recognized and catered to. We can no longer afford the wild swings and gyrations of what he views as unfettered capitalism. The people at the top make - and keep - too much money. He proposes to fix that. All of the rest of his programs and policies reflect -not a conservative sensibility - but an accomodationist, populist vision: He sees the future of America as One Big Party, with all those scurrilous, hard-nosed, stubborn shell-backs on both the left and the right who prate that principles are more important than pragmatic politics effectively sealed out of the process of representative government.
And so he is deliberately turning his back on “the (not his) base.” He’s taking an enormous gamble, but from his point of view, if he wins, the payoff is even greater. He will have demonstrated to his party that it doesn’t need to depend on a conservative base, it can achieve power by marshaling the great populist middle to its banners.
So the choices before us (assuming an Obama nomination) are a charming naievete leading to disastrous Jimmy Carter-like foreign policy decisions or shifting the Republican party, and American political discourse, to the left if McCain wins. He’ll give the conservatives as little as he can just to keep them on the reservation, and not a penny more.
Either way we lose. American would suffer with an Obama presidency, but it would also suffer if American political thought shifted back to the days of Johnson/Nixon/Ford/Carter, which is where we are heading with McCain.
Convince me that Obama is a disaster, I see no problem with that, the problem is that I see disaster on both sides. Oh I’ll probably end up voting for McCain, so nobody hyperventilate, the Democrats just happened to nominate the one guy that would force me to McCain. But my analyst side says we are up for a drubbing in November, enthusiasm gap, and all. McCain is all bio and no charm.
This is probably Bob Dole part two. I don’t think I’ll be carrying much water for the good senator from Arizona.
Discussion
5 comments for “On Hoping McCain Loses”
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One way or another we are going back to the 70’s either Carter style Obama or Ford style McCain.
This is change we can believe in alright, all the way back to the 1970’s.
I will hyperventilate.
Your vote is one vote, and we don’t worry about your private decision.
Your public blog reaches many, however. Every time you blog against McCain you are putting some fractions of many votes into Obama’s ballot box.
McCain is better than so many so called fiscal conservatives who preach only (tax supported) balanced budgets or only tax cuts with pork spending. McCain offers spending cuts and spending limits, which are sorely needed. He’s fiscal authenticity personified.
His heroic military support and foreign policy experience are outstanding, and his traditional values are right out of regular America.
I am so much more happy with him than so many scoundrels on our R side of the ledger for so many years. He may not win in this terrible R year but pls be thankful for our dumb luck that’s he has given us a chance!
You’re not the only one - not at all. But your post was convenient for me to answer.
Make a decision: if you’re going to blog against McCain then go ahead and plunge in full force and tell us you’re going to vote for Obama or abstain or for some third party candidate. I’ve considered all your points and those of certain millionaire television and radio celebrity-conservatives… and I’m getting tired of their self-satisfied negativity.
We’re in a battle royale this year with lots of trench warfare. We’re bloody and bleeding and dying and we do not blame our new leader whose trying to lead us to victory: instead, if we lose, we’re more likely to blame the footdraggers.
Thank you for your blogging: this is not meant specifically for you, but rather just a response to a certain pervasive undercurrent.
The tide is turning as to a return of conservatism. Public opinion is shifting to drilling and nuclear, more people are realizing man-made global warming is a hoax, people want less spending and at least no increase in taxes, they respect the military again, etc. The reason to vote for McCain is to buy us 4 years ’til the conservative’s purge of RINOs in congress is complete, and Bobby Jindal finishes his term as a shining example of what happens when true conservatism runs something. If B. Hussein or Hillary win, I’m not sure that there will be a USA left in 4 years that is worth saving. Hope that makes you feel better.
Yeah, a little too much drama.
Sometimes you have to (er, to coin a phrase) “vote on the sway”. In other words …
If your political party has elected a very expedient but entirely short term leader, without much party-building potential as an articulate leader of the idealogical faith (read: W, duh) then you have forfeited the next cycle. It’s gone. You traded two in a row for a difficult third round.
You can sit it out. Or bang on McCain relentlessly. But you reap what you sow, last time, and this time. This country is only going to go more to the left eventually, IMHO, if we keep slamming McCain …
McCain’s victory is about all we can hope for in 2008. We won’t be getting Congress back.
I don’t see what the problem with him is. He’s reassured conservatives on judges, he’s right on the war, and he’s vowed to keep taxes low.
If Obama wins, we’re taking a hard-left turn with a power-starved Congress popping out the bills and the most liberal member of the Senate signing every one of them.
If you want to change the party, do it in the primary.