I’m not a McCain fan either - but we’re not looking at McCain in the abstract, or McCain compared to some perfect conservative candidate, or McCain compared to Reagan.
We’re looking at McCain, compared to Hillary Clinton, or McCain, compared to Barack Obama.
In the end, it comes down to “half a loaf being better than no bread.” I don’t accept the theory espoused by a few here that the doomsday scenario is a better option at this point, because with a democratic congress, either Clinton or Obama will be able to do damage that we will be unable to undo. We have no choice but to play the hand we’re dealt, it’s a lousy hand, but maybe, just maybe, it will be enough.
If we win it, and merely hold the line for the next four or eight years, avoiding a major policy shift to the left in exchange for a few small ones, we can come back. Let’s use our power with McCain (and he needs us now, and he knows it) to push for a solidly conservative VP, who could become president in 2012, 2016 or given McCain’s age and health, maybe sooner.
I see it much differently. Presidents don’t act in a vacuum. If they did, the analysis would be easy—McCain crappy, but Hillobama worse. But that is a shallow analysis that ignores key aspects of the situation.
McCain will do more damage than either Dem because he is philosophically aligned with the Dems while having the imprimatur of the Republicans. The Republicans won’t fight him, as they have not fought Bush’s slide toward socialism, because he will head the party. The Dems will not oppose him because he will be enacting their agenda.
In the meantime, the Republican party will be associated in the average voter’s mind even more closely with progressive socialism, and we will have lost the only party left that even makes a gesture toward respect for the Constitution. I won’t be a part of that.
Hillary and Obama are empty suits, and the Republicans are a decent opposition party. They have held the Dems in congress to accomplishing essentially nothing over the last year, and there is no reason to think that can’t continue, even if voting margins decrease, as they are apt to.
My decision not to vote for McCain is neither emotional nor rash. It is completely thought through and based on principles and fact. I believe that in ten years, the country, conservatism and the Constitution will be in better shape if John McCain is never President, and no amount of false, intemperate, emotion-laden appeals to vote for McCain “or the troops will die in vain” will change my mind.