That just about says it all, marron. Certainly I don't disagree with a word of it.
With that said, I am not quite as sure as some of you are that John McCain would be an defender of the Constitution. Granted, he has held fast on a number of Constitutional issues, but his abandonment of that precious document on an equal number of other issues worries me deeply.
Take McCain-Feingold. On the surface, it would appear that our national sovereignty, and our ability to keep Islamic terrorism at bay, are more important considerations than our First Amendment rights.
But are they?
One of the reasons we find ourselves in this terrible dilemma this election cycle rests in the fact that so much of our modern-day election process has literally been taken out of the hands of the people. The nominees are chosen by an ever more circuitous process in which ‘the people’ have less and less say – some states having caucuses and primaries; some having delegates that really are uncommitted; some having ‘super-delegates’, etc. The representation of the people’s will in our election process has become so convoluted as to be almost laughable anymore.
Our voices, no matter how loud and impassioned, are now channeled through so many mazes that they become all but inaudible. Special interests have hi-jacked the political process, and individual candidates, unless they are independently wealthy, have very little opportunity to rise to the top.
What is really more important, bottom-line, than the ability of a free people to speak their minds, especially in the process of electing those who will lead them (those who will make the major decisions regarding our national sovereignty and the determination with which we will battle Islamic terrorists)?
If our leaders don’t reflect our wishes, because of the convoluted, unconstitutional process by which we put them in office, then our ability to effectively do the things about which you and I are so concerned is compromised from the start.
John McCain contributed mightily to that circumstance in co-authoring McCain-Feingold, one of the most insidious affronts to personal liberty in recent memory.
He is also on board with many other left-wing, liberty-robbing agendas, whose sole purpose is to destroy our capitalist foundations and amass unbridled power for the ruling elite. His support of global warming initiatives is a sterling (but not the only) example of such a mindset.
Every national leader who supports such initiatives knows how phony, deceptive, agenda-driven and perilous they are. Those 'leaders' aren’t dupes. They’re the authors of the hoax. Global warming advocates, put simply, are placing the amassing of political power above the safety and sovereignty of our republic every bit as much as those who want us to retreat from our mission in Iraq. They steadfastly handcuff our energy policies, prevent us from developing our own oil reserves and building new refineries, etc., which results in our dependence on our ideological enemies (and those who perceive our annihilation as their destiny).
John McCain is pandering to supporters of such agendas.
His sponsoring of the ludicrous Patients’ Bill of Rights served as more evidence that he tends to march in lock-step with those who author altruistic sounding, liberty-robbing legislation. The bill was just another major step toward universal healthcare/socialized medicine, in that it deliberately imposed onerous regulations on the insurance industry and opened the door for a myriad of additional frivolous lawsuits against healthcare providers. The ultimate purpose of all such legislation? To turn the best medical care in the history of the world into an expensive bureaucratic nightmare. The inevitable ‘solution’? Nationalize healthcare.
And his stand on immigration – at least the one he formulated before the American people rejected it – would have rewarded criminal behavior and dramatically changed the fabric of our society, without the necessary means to ensure future enforcement of immigration laws. He authored a pretty package that had no teeth. And he knew it.
In short, while I do believe that McCain would conduct the war against Islamic terrorism as we would want him to, I believe he also embraces policies that would endanger our liberties and place our national security in jeopardy in other equally perilous ways.
He has succeeded in stifling our voices in our efforts to elect those who represent our views.
He has authored and supported measures that could soon alter, in a major and irretrievable way, the complexion of our society (according genuine patriots such as you and I less and less of a voice about the direction in which our republic travels).
And he embraces leftist environmentalist/climate/healthcare policies that dramatically tighten the sociliast grip, and make us dependent on some of the worst terrorist leaders of the world.
Sometimes the threats that lie beneath the surface, and that receive minimal attention, can be every bit as menacing as those that we discuss openly and frequently.
Rick Santorum, my former Senator, for whom I have a great deal of respect, observed a few months ago:
It’s amazing to hear what John McCain is trying to convince the voters he is all about. The bottom line is, I served twelve years with him, six years in the Senate as one of the leaders of the Senate, trying to put together the conservative agenda, and almost at every turn, on domestic policy, John McCain was not only against us, but leading the charge on the other side.
I was determined until recently that I would simply sit out this presidential ballot (for the first time in forty years). Since recent disturbing revelations about the company that Barack Obama keeps, I have wavered in that decision. At this point, I am not certain how or whether I will be casting my vote for president. I cannot vote for Obama, but I believe McCain is a far greater threat to our liberty and sovereignty than most of us are willing to admit. The fact that he isn’t a conservative represents just the tip of the iceberg.
~ joanie
Allegiance and Duty Betrayed
Thank you both so much for all of your insights and your outstanding essay-posts!