-- Leftist programs are nearly impossible to dismantle, logistically and electorally! Your programs can be undone in a heartbeat! The war on drugs could be ended in a week.
-- A welfare system creates more poverty and more voters who want a welfare system, which in turn leads to an expansion of the welfare system, which leads to more poverty and more voters who want a welfare system, etc.
-- We can't afford any moment where a leftist is in control of us; they'll milk it for all it's worth, setting up programs that we'll never be able to undo.
This is where our working definitions of Liberal and Conservative come in. Lefists are practicioners of liberalism to the extreme. The problem isn't leftists; it's the LIBERALISM they embrace. McCain is a Republican. He is also a Liberal. All of those issues above; try global warming, acceptance of the concept of "nationalized" (what a euphemism) medicine, forced social acceptance of homosexuality at the muzzle of Federal regulation -- he's a liberal, and liberals do things like enact welfare programs, nominate liberal judges, etc. He's a "government is our solution" Republican, and "Government is our solution" is the antithesis of conservatism. He seeks the U.S. presidency. If that's a Republican, I ain't one.
We know that "if you're 20 and you're a conservative, you have no heart; if you're 50 and a liberal you have no brain." That is where a lot of coservative voters come from. They want less government, that's what they want to vote for because as they get older and wiser, they realize that it's in their best moral and personal interest.
When the Republican party manifests the Perfect Storm that is McCain, then future voters are left high and dry. They have no party to vote for. The damage to the Republican party would be tremendous. It's not about McCain, it's about LIBERALISM. When you ask me to vote for McCain, you're asking me to endorse Liberalism as a good calculated risk because McCain carries the Republican name and that should count for something, right?
Not any more. Now it stands for the Big Daddy brand of big government Liberalism, instead of the Mommy brand that Democrats offer.
McCain's VP choice will be key for me, and I'm not holding my breath. If that VP is someone like Romney, whose Massachusetts government health care plan is now really starting to hurt, there's a high probability that a McCain victory would do more damage for sabotaging the Repulican identity of conservatism, the fount of future voters. I fear Obama and Hillary less because of another risk I'm willing to take: I think they'd become pariahs quickly. They're divisive, flawed, and weak -- their popular support is illusion, and they'd be fought from many sides through, I'm gambling, a rocky four-year presidency. Republicans would gain in Congress and the image of the Democrat party would be in shambles. I am also mindful that if McCain wins, it's the Republican party that would be in shambles.
To have that in the White House would be weatherable and horrible -- for the U.S. and especially for the Democrat party if Obama or Hillary win. The Democrat party bears the principles and identy of Liberalism. Liberalism is the cause of our ills, NOT the Democrat party. LIBERALISM. McCain may not be a Democrat, but he's a Liberal captaining the Republican ship into Liberal shoals.
Did you really mean:
While abstaining from voting for McCain will certainly send a message, I can assure you as a libertarian that sending messages is tremendously overrated.
Understand that "sending a message" is off my radar. This is a ship asail heading for a reef and its sails need to be changed now. To refrain from supporting McCain and risking the outcome as the least destructive is a calculated gamble, an attempt to change the set of the sails of the Republican party. There is no "message," only the excercise of power to direct outcomes.
Excellent post, Finny.