Posted on 02/10/2008 4:38:36 PM PST by pissant
So-called conservatives’ hysterical overreaction to the likelihood that U.S. Sen. John McCain will be the Republican Party’s presidential nominee shows what is wrong with ideologues of all stripes.
They prefer purity to practicality.
Following the crash-and-burn campaign of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the never-got-off-the-ground run of actor and former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson and the suspended-but-still-there presence of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Republican Party has three candidates left — U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and McCain.
After Tuesday’s primary and caucus results, McCain is virtually unstoppable. Barring some unforeseen turn of events, he should be the party’s presidential candidate in November.
That has the ideologues who call themselves conservatives positively apoplectic. They have convinced themselves that McCain is somehow not a conservative.
But that says more about the unrealistic worlds that ideologues inhabit than it does the United States of America in 2008.
Have no doubt. McCain is a conservative. As McClatchy Newspapers has reported, the senator has an 83 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. That somehow makes him unclean — dare one say, unholy — in so-called conservative circles.
McCain does have a reputation of being a maverick and for being willing to work with Democrats on legislation such as campaign finance reform, climate change, immigration and other issues.
That has made him popular with moderate Republicans, independent voters and some Democrats. But at his core, McCain is a conservative.
But among movement conservatives, 83 percent isn’t good enough. Only 100 percent pure is acceptable.
It’s not just the right. Ideologues on the left likewise covet purity over practicality. This mindset has dominated American politics and government at the federal level for the last decade, and look where it has gotten us.
The problem with ideologues is that their shrink-wrapped worlds do not reflect America. The United States is a diverse country in terms of geography, race, faith, income, etc., and its people have views and beliefs that don’t fit neatly into ideologues’ conservative and liberal camps.
James Madison recognized this diversity via his famous “factions” in The Federalist Papers No. 10, and our Constitution fashioned a government that took into consideration the need to accommodate diverse points of view.
It’s an inclusive, not an exclusive process, and compromise, moderation and centrism, which hardliners so abhor, are absolutely essential for it to function properly. Americans don’t have to like the results, but they are more likely to accept them if they believe their point of view got a fair hearing.
The next president of the United States must be a healer, someone who understands that binding up the nation’s wounds is more important than continually picking at political scabs for ideological gain. It would be a welcome and much needed change.
lol!
And speaking of ideologues, the NY Times is rather daring in making that charge against idealogical adversaries.
Hypocrites.
Are they going to make me wear a dunce’s hat and sit in the corner?
Have no doubt. McCain is a conservative. As McClatchy Newspapers has reported ...
These opinion pieces are getting funnier every day!
Amen.
Not the NY Times? No matter, same point stands.
Not quite the N.Y. Times but who cares what they think anyways.
Psychobabble.
This grown up doesn't need anybody to tell me how to vote or what to think. CALM DOWN, McCain. And, tell your wife to let her hair back down... it's a little premature for the "regal" up-do.
It looks like McCain will end up winning upwards of 150 delegates in California, alone.
81% of registered Republicans in California did NOT vote for John McCain.
No, but it's the favorite club of the MSM for beating us over the head.
McCain's ACU ratings:
1994 100 1995 88 1996 100 1997 88 1998 100 1999 77 2000 81 2001 68 2002 78 2003 75 2004 72 2005 80 2006 65
“Idiots, McCain’s current rating is in the low 60s.”
Exactly. Zero McCain has been on a continuous downward trend into liberalism. I don’t care what his score was 20 years ago or what his lifetime average score is. Today he is as liberal as Hillary.
LOL, too funny.
Since McCain was never called “hysterical” while mavericking his way to the NYT and the Dims, I’ll take this scolding with a grain of salt.
Yikes, paybacks are a bitch.
Of course you would, but he'd lose anyway.
(PS -- A really poor argument, that. Try again.)
POwerfully true comment!
“They prefer purity to practicality.”
How ‘bout we know what we want?
Dang.
Country first.
I have lurked around here for years, and it has taken John McCain to drag me out of the electronic closet. I am tired of hearing the GOP shills and the liberal Republicans tell me I have to vote for the lesser evil because the greater evil is more evil. Heck, what we have had since Reagan is nothing but a choice between socialist light and socialist heavy. Either way my principles and values have remained on the losing side, and it is time we admit that the GOP will not be the vehicle to return the nation to the ideals and values of the Founding Fathers. It is time to build a new party, and while we do that we must hope and pray that there is still a place in America for those who truly believe in the founding principles of this nation.
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