Own his own, John McCain has invariably created numerous dichotomies for conservatives. To wit, while he was indeed assumed the presumptive nominee by many prior to this primary season, Mr. McCain appeared to purposely confound key conservative endeavors. Whether it was the “Gang of 14”, McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy , McCain-Lieberman, ANWAR or the Bush Tax Cuts, Mr. McCain always seemed all to willing to hone his maverick teeth on core conservative issues. Some might even say he purposely contravened on matters that were important to the overall party platform and on which a great deal of political energy had been expanded.
In their entirety, McCain’s actions have lead conservatives to perform a significant amount of sole searching vis-à-vis McCain’s motives; and that is generally never a sagacious exercise. Nonetheless, we are left to make several considerations; are his actions grounded in resentment towards conservatives - thus borne of an attempt to vitiate the movement? Is it a lack of firm belief for our basic principles? Finally, is it an exercise of self gratification in which the key metric is compromise?
Irrespective of which preceding reason one chooses, it is easy to see how those potential inspirations may not result in either ultimately advancing conservative principals or building the base of voters for our party. That is especially troublesome since it speaks not only to the present, but our future ability to win in the eyes of a public who has lost an ability to clearly distinguish the traits and ideals of our party from connate politics. But that is not solely the fault of Mr. McCain, nor should anyone believe that is the case.
This situation is further obfuscated by a small force of Republicans in Congress that succeeded in damaging our party’s image. Distracted by the allure of power and inculcated by political gentility, these representatives collectively led many to question party allegiance. That is primarily because these trustees behavior reeked of a culture which stood contrapositive to our professed creed and thus attacked core reasons for voter fealty. We still fight against some of them and their destructive proclivities today.
Nonetheless, the coupe de gras comes from an election primary paradigm which is increasingly antipode to the adage that ideas and principles should bring voters to the party and has replaced it with a big tent, open primary philosophy seeking to fill seats at all costs. That’s not leadership; it’s surrendering to weakness because one can either no longer wisely articulate core principals or effectively work with a coalition of interests that truly represent the basic tenets of our primary beliefs. It is an insatiable abyss seeking fulfillment by appealing to all in the interest of none; using as its paradigm the flawed beliefs of our opposition. Disaster, utter disaster.
Conclusively, the status of our party leaves us pining for leadership and a return to the unwavering, collective beliefs which have successfully paved a rise to prominence. We have fought all too often amongst ourselves in order to advance parochial beliefs, not recognizing the point at which our common pillars were diminished. This summarily leads us back to Mr. McCain.
Conservatives have rightfully questioned the ability of Mr. McCain to lead a coalition of groups sharing like interests which represent the future of our party and is ultimately able to win this election. This is a doubt borne of Mr. McCain’s own actions which have unarguably not always coincided with our respective goals. Certainly in contrast stands at least one meritorious counter argument, raising the specter of a Democrat Party presidency as its primary advocate.
However, this latter point invariably returns us to a parochial discussion and further neglects a greater reality; that we all share in the current state of affairs and more importantly the strategy by which we will rebuild in entirety. Therefore, as part of our plan we need to include advancing conservatives in all branches of our government, in all forums. That serves as a counterbalance to any potential presidential outcome and vests power back with the people’s representatives in Congress. It is how we achieved unity in the past and presents us with a roadmap for the future.
In complete summation, I am therefore less certain that voting for Mr. McCain becomes the undesirable choice, especially given the critical issues and decisions our next President will face. I am more apt to believe Democrats when they speak about drastically increasing the size of our government, raising our tax burden, increasing economic constraints, weakening our defense and continuing the federally sanctioned murder of pre term infants. In totality, that does far more to destroy the soul of our country and catapult us down a path of dangerous socialist tyranny; something I believe we all can agree is the most loathsome of potential outcomes.
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