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.
The Beaver County Times, lol.
It’s easy to tell that a handful of liberal scumbags wrote this editorial. What does “diversity” have to do with my aversion to having money confiscated from me by big government under threat of jail? If “conservative purity” means I want government (ie., Democrat parasites) out of my face and out of my wallet, and means I believe that government’s job #1 is to protect national security with a strong military, then I am an “ideologue”.
Oh boy, conservatives are hysterical little children throwing a temper tantrum, kicking and screaming, what a bunch of babies, they need to just grow up and elect the person we told them to ....
News flash to all media idiots that use this tired line, it isn’t working and McCain is a lost cause that will wipe out the Republican party. If he is so great and we are so wrong then he should have no problem winning with those who admire him.
After McCain and the established Republican leaders crash and burn this election they should just remember the immortal words of Bill Clinton, “you better put some ice on that”, because the conservative base is not bending over for you this time.
“(PS — A really poor argument, that. Try again.)”
I don’t think so. What it comes down to is a very simple dichotomy. One either believes that McCain is an imperfect candidate who is nevertheless nominally on our side, and thus better than either of the two absolutely leftist candidates on the other side who share almost none of our views; or you don’t.
Zell Miller’s ACU rating in 2004 was 96, compared to McCain’s 72.
I agree with the viewpoint. But the author ignores McCain’s recent ratings on conservatism in favor of more conservative lifetime ratings.
Nor do I. And President Reagan wouldn't call a conservative someone who guts the First Amendment.
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