Posted on 02/08/2008 11:15:39 AM PST by 84rules
There is NOTHING conservative about working with the Democratic nominee against most of your fellow conservatives in order to grow government, socialize medicine, lose the war in Iraq, tilt the Supreme Court to the Left, and make Roe v. Wade the permanent law of the land. If you are conservative and vote for the Democratic nominee or even just refuse to vote for McCain, who is by any and every objective standard, considerably more conservative than either of them, let me tell you what you are NOT doing,
* You are NOT doing the logical thing. When faced with a choice between a moderate who holds some conservative positions and some non-conservative positions and a liberal who holds no conservative positions, the logical decision is to take the moderate. After all, half a loaf is better than none.
* You are NOT helping conservatism or your fellow conservatives. To the contrary, you are helping liberals defeat conservative ideas. Isn't that what conservatives are saying that they're furious at McCain over? Well, who's less of a conservative: John McCain, who, if he were in the White House, would help conservatives win some battles and would help liberals win others or the conservatives who want to help a Democrat get into the office who will go against conservative ideas every time?
* You are NOT looking out for the best interests of the country. If you believe winning in Iraq is better than losing, if you believe balancing the budget is better than higher deficit spending, if you believe that having a Supreme Court that is tilted to the right is better than having a Supreme Court tilted to the left, and if you believe that Roe v. Wade is leading to the immoral murder of millions of children -- and the overwhelming majority of people reading this column certainly believe all those things -- then you are certainly not putting the good of the country first if you oppose John McCain in November.
What? Conservatives dind’t get their way? I thought McCain was a “Foot Soldier in the Reagan Revolution”?
Conservatism’s only hope for the future is to campaign against the liberalism that will certainly be forced upon our country in the next four years. How are we supposed to campaign against a disaster if a Republican President brought about?
That’s not a rhetorical question and an answer would be appreciated.
I posted this in another thread, but there is a lot of ‘Vote for McCain or ELSE’ threads out there right now.
I think you misunderstand. Most of the people that want to vote for him are INDEED voting with their hearts. They FEAR Clinton, and LONG for a Reaganite. Most of his backers know in their heads that he isn’t.
If you look at the man’s record, his career, then you can only come to a single conclusion, and that is that he’s a social democrat - fiscal/foreign policy conservative, and with liberal domestic and social leanings. Even saying that, he tends to be on the more moderate side of that descriptor.
On the spectrum, Scoop Jackson is to the right of John McCain. For that matter, so was both John Kennedy and Daniel Patrick Moniyhan. Moniyhan even wrote a book about ‘unmeltable ethnics’, and specifically mentioned latinos. Contrast that with McCain’s choosing a Mexican Cabinet Minister as his Hispanic outreach chairman.
Mark Levin last night made some good points about his speech at CPAC - what did anybody expect him to say, and we did he bus in three busloads of supporters to prop him up there? Even McCain doesn’t believe he’s a conservative. He nearly left the party in 2001.
This isn’t about ‘love’ or ‘hate’. It’s about engaging the headgear and voting for somebody that actually has some integrity between what he says he believes and what he actually believes.
It’s been a long time since there was a candidate that had that sort of integrity in our party - what’s left of it, and rather than have the ‘brand’ co-opted by coalitionists, who are hoping people will continue to vote the brand and not the product, you can choose not to buy what the party is selling.
Make no mistake, the republican party, as it is lead today by McCain and his centrists, is a coalition government in the same style as the democrats. There IS NO unifying set of governing principles left in this party, but instead a balance of competing special interests.
We were small government, but now we aren’t. Pro-sovereignty, but now we’re not. Pro-life, yes, but let’s not upset the apple cart on Roe v. Wade, even if it’s bad constitutional law. Strict constructionist? Not practical in the political and economic reality we live in, which is why the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 10th amendments aren’t safe with R’s in both houses and the Oval.
More damage was done to those Amendments in the last eight years than the previous 50, save Roe v. Wade.
So all you have is the brand, the Elephant, the color Red, and the capital R on the back of the name on the TV. McCain’s coalition is even trying to convert Reagan into a brand too. McCain doesn’t have any excuse either. He knew and worked with Ronald Reagan, when the Republican party had become a punch line. It’s not like he didn’t have a first-hand example to follow.
No, he went the politically expedient route, and courted the press, and if he were ever cornered in a room by himself with the camera’s off, he’d tell you flat out that the only constituent that matters in 2008 is the one holding the microphone. They don’t call him ‘John McCain R-Media’ for nothing.
Bottom line: To vote for McCain, you have to follow him with your heart. To not vote for McCain, you have to listen to your head.
I respect the man for his service in the military, but he’s been an embarrassment as a Conservative, a representative of his State, and to the Senate as an institution and deliberative body.
Sorry.
I’d ask ya what conservative think tank you work for, but uhh.. on second thought ;-)
Yes, history will repeat itself with a Hillary! Presidency, but it's essential that we get as many conservative voters out to support the down ticket races so as to have strong opposition to her (Or Obama, for that manner, who, even though his beliefs might be more dangerous, I personally believe would be easier to oppose because he doesn't have the "machine" in place that Hillie does). We need a reason for people to want to get to the polls.
IMO if people would quit trying to be pragmatic and figure out who could win and just vote for their choice of candidates we’d be far better off.
How many people really wanted to vote for Tancredo or Thompson or Hunter but were afraid of wasting their votes?
What would happen if people actually voted their conscience instead of holding their nose in revulsion?
Sorry, I cant see any circumstance that would allow me to vote for McCaine with a clear conscience.
Good try, but useless. ALL three candidates are Dems as far as I am concerned. WHOEVER is elected, the scenario is horrible; Taxes go up, amnesty will be granted, more govt programs that need OUR money arrive, while they pay homage to the Euro elite, our economy slides deeper into recession and we morgage our childrens future for social programs..etc. etc. I wont be responsible for watching it and knowing I played any part in it. I am firmly focusing on the AFTERMATH and what it will take to help our country.
It reminds me of my teenagers—sometimes they need to be faced with the results of their actions by non-action from me; just quietly letting it hit them without my intervention. This is that time; for McCain, for the GOP, and for the liberals.
As far as being a good little rep? Im withdrawing from the GOP and registering Independant, until a third party that truly represents MY stand on issues, evolves.
I see McCain telling us that he is a conservative; Remember the story about the snake who bit the one that helped him after denying any danger? The last line was, “Im a snake, what do you expect?”
I have two words for McCain—Calm down.
Jimmy got elected and we survived and got RR.
Billy got elected and we survived and wound up with both houses of congress.
I’m NOT voting for McCain. I hope when the Rat wins we wind up with something like a true RR disciple + both houses.
I’ll take my chances. There is no way in hell I’m voting for McCain after what he has done. No Way.
To get my vote, McCain needs to assure me that:
1. He will support drilling in ANWR
2. He will build the border fence.
3. This is the most important, he will choose a Conservative as his running mate, i.e. someone like Mitt Romney, Jim Tallent, or Fred Thompson. Definitely not Huckabee.
Simple, you need our votes. We don't need McCain's Democrat Lite politics. Screaming "WE know you are but what are we" isn't going to win McCain any votes
It is not good to be better than the worst. And I only vote for good conservatives.
Nope. Your opinion and you're welcome to it, but when Hilary wins the presidency will you be flatulating this same bs? Time for freepers to rally round her? A difference in degree rather than a difference in quality.
LOL
Absolutely great!
And how can mccainiacs refute your logic?
Short of that happening, the #1 issue on whether I vote for Mccain or not will be based on who he picks as his running mate. A moderate-liberal ticket will be hard to support.
I think rightwingers who are watching McCain's every move at this point would agree. McCain needs to pick a movement conservative with solid credentials. Otherwise, he's just pissing in the wind.
I blame "party first" lemmings for the destruction of America.
But the concept is too advanced to grasp for the "better vote for the ~R~ or "the boogie man will get you" mentality. How many times does this have to fail before people figure it out? It's so warm and cozy in the back pocket, right?.
Have fun voting for Johnny Boy, next will be Arnold or worse.
Hope you knife is sharp cause that meat doesn't cut all that well.
That’s why I intend on voting CP in the General Election on the Presidential Level.
I don’t quite understand how you can argue that McCain will deliver on anything for conservatives when all the objective, verifiable evidence indicates otherwise.
Your logic reminds me of someone who would advise a battered wife to go back to her abusive husband because he might buy her a new dress.
I agree, we need to look at things pragmatically. McCain was not my first choice. I may disagree with him on several points, but he is infinitely better than Hitlary or Osamabama.
The first step is to accept the fact that Constitutional Amendments are not how conservatives change society.
A dedicated core of 60-70 House members and 25-30 Senators can do more than a squishy, wishy-washy majority of 54.
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