Posted on 01/22/2009 2:13:10 PM PST by Bob J
There has been much talk of the 8 year BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) from the left but I think it's time we admitted there are DS's on the right and we have to look no further than our own backyard here at FR to find the most glaring example, McCain Derangement Syndrome.
McCain wasn't my preferred candidate. In fact, I'd have to go all the way back to Reagan to find my own preferred candidate victorious. But you never get everything you want in politics so many times you have to work with you got and make the best of it. Even if the candidate you supported doesn't get the nod at least you know you'll get some of what you want and on those issues that you disagree you'll at least have a seat at the table and an opportunity to change minds. If the opposing partys candidate wins you'll get almost nothing and a seat at the window looking in.
But the MDS people will have none of this. It's either political purity (THEIR political purity BTW) or nothing. Sometimes they remind me of petulant children threatening to hold their breath until they turn blue unless get what they want. Their virulent acrimony toward McCain is so intense that you couldn't post a thread or talk about McCains positions in an adult manner on FR without them descending on it like a plague of locusts, chanting their relevant but worn out jingoisms, attacking anyone with the temerity to desire a review of McCains +/- positions and poisoning any budding, rational discussion.
Their latest frenzy involves McCains support for closing Gitmo. Now to anyone with a shred of knowledge of McCains position on this it was not a surprise. He has always opposed some of the techniques employed at Gitmo and considering his war experiences at the Hanoi Hilton it was it really a surprise to any of us? Acting like child who just found a shiny new penny on the sidewalk they picked it up, stuffed it in their pockets and are parading around high fiving each other and telling everyone how "we told you so".
Really? Thanks for breaking news, Einstein.
But what I want to touch on here is the deeper ramifications of MDS and what it meant in this election. Bush lost by 7%, 53 to 46 (I believe). That means a 3.5% shift in the vote could have meant the GOP hanging on to the White House and the benefits associated with that, including but not limited to the nomination of Supreme Court Justices.
I saw the influence and impact the MDS group had here on FR and wonder how far that could be extended to the general voting public. The constant barage of anti McCain rhetoric, the calls for supporting a third party, staying home and not voting, not contributing to the GOP or ANY candidate that wasn't ideologically pure (again, by their own definition). How much effect did that have on the election? Was it enough to turn the balance in Obama's favor?
In my opinion it did. There is one thing we know for a certainty...it didn't help.
Generally to a man, the MDS people's hero is Ronald Reagan. But wasn't it RR's mantra to "speak no evil of a fellow republican"? These peoples main criticism of McCain is that he doesn't fall in line with central GOP/conservative orthodoxy and therefore should be opposed at all cost, going so far as calling for his defeat in the next election. But aren't these people engaging in the same actions for which they criticize McCain by not supporting the lawfully nominated and elected representative of the (entire) party for the Presidency?
Their, at best, inconsistent, and at worst sophist hypocrisy contributed to the/our GOP loss in this election and for that they should be called to the carpet at FR. Their jubilent mania associated with McCains announcement about Gitmo, the "I told you so's" and "There isn't a dimes difference between McCain and Obama" are not only intellectually vacuous but offensive considering their track record and hand in allowing the marxist community organizer into the most powerful office in the world.
I urge all FReepers to end your silence when it comes to the MDS people. Tell them what you think, how you feel and why you believe they were instrumental in allowing the greatest attack/defeat for the future of conservatism in the last 50 years.
If not on FR, where? If not you, whom?
Happy to have not only met but exceeded you expectations, Sir.
Regards,
“needle di*k”
;-)
I never said that, take you own advice and read the post, I said what conservatives on this site think.
Your initial post is and was wrong, we're not mad at or dislike McCain because he lost, we detest McCain for what he is and that we had NO CHOICE but vote for him to avoid what we are acing now.
whether you would like to admit it or not. Ronald Reagan is popular, not only because he was conservative, but because he won.
Again, your understanding of Conservatives and why Reagan was popular is completely wrong...because he won, yeesh
Agreed, but I still think the meme as presented by the GOP turned off a lot of less informed Republican voters as to "who" could win.
LMAO!
Yeah. :-) I sort of wince every time I post that, but it is so true! :-)
Moniker Removed!
A fine, concise and intelligent post. Thanks, Wolfstar.
LOL! I voted against McCain in 2000 and in 2004 here in SC. He is at best a moderate dumbass, but he was still infinitely better than O.
From going this thread though, it's evident that you don't have a lot of sympathy here.
I don't really care..I call them as I see them.
You'd spend your time better at a place where they think McCain is a conservative, because here we do NOT.
I feel its my duty to save conservatives from irrelevance.
You're welcome, floralmiss. Unfortunately, it falls on mostly deaf ears around here these days. :(
Of course it MIGHT be true, but for a little perspective, over the 54 years from 1857 to 1911, only ONE Democrat was elected President, the conservative Grover Cleveland.
THAT is a hoot! :-) LOL! :-)
When you are right, you are right and Rab, you nailed the heck out of it!
I’m defending 0bama? It looks like you’re the one using deceitful liberal tactics to argue with. McCain would do nothing for conservatives. Never has.
Suffice it to say, watching someone continually poke you and your friends in the eye can cause you to be a little deranged. And rightly so. Even after the election it doesn't look like it's going to ever end.
Gonna wave off the stick. Gonna grab the stick. Gonna poke back...and then some.
He was still better than Obama...it sounds like your happy the way it turned out.
If you preferred Obama to McCain, what kind of conservative does that make you?
Good post.
FR links on McCain's record from Feb. 2000. MrChips collection.
Disgust for the RINO turd goes way back.
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