My Biggest Problem With John McCain and the Republican Party
I have several problems with John McCain. So do the vast majority of conservatives. I am not going to list all of the issues I have with John McCain in this post as I have listed them repeatedly in the past. Besides I think that liberals and conservatives both know what the issues are that conservatives have with John McCain. The problems that conservatives have with John McCain are the same reasons why McCain is appealing to so many moderate and some liberal voters.
Something was bothering me inside about McCain’s nomination and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I have had this thought deep down inside and it has festered over the weeks since John McCain won the nomination of the party he contends to be a member of. I finally realized what it was last week, and during an email exchange that I had with Dee from Conservatism With Heart I wrote about it for the first time. Now I feel that I must share it with everyone and also expand on what I wrote.
I have many problems with John McCain, but my biggest problem actually goes beyond John McCain himself. My problem is about the future of the party and of conservatism. Here is part of what I wrote in my email to Dee:
Over the last couple of days I finally figured out what really concerns me with John McCain winning the nomination. If he were to win in November he would effectively recast the Republican mold, as I think Republicans would then think the key to victory would be to run the same way John McCain did, and I find that troubling, it would really set the conservative movement back.
For all of the problems that I have with McCain, there is more at stake than just this election. My fear is that as bad as an Obama or Clinton presidency would be, a John McCain presidency could also have negative long reaching ramifications. Only the ramifications of a McCain victory would be felt by the Republican party’s future as well as the country. John McCain is not running his campaign as a conservative, he is reaching out to moderates and liberals. He is ignoring conservatives just as he has for the last eight years. AND IT IS WORKING! As disturbing as it is that McCain is running as a RINO, or just as an outright Democrat, it is equally disturbing to me that Republican voters think that this is the right path to the white house. What good is it to have a president in office that shares your party affiliation but not your ideals? When is the last time that a liberal reached out to a conservative? It just doesn’t happen.
Yet this strategy is working. Republican voters seem to be so timid right now that they are afraid to nominate a conservative candidate for fear of getting trounced in November. They would rather nominate a moderate to liberal candidate and hope for the best for the next four years. I find this unacceptable for the fact that it will just worsen the situation for conservatives hoping to get elected down the road. If John McCain wins the presidency this year then it will cast the mold for future “Republicans” and their campaigns. If John McCain is successful in his bid for president than I fear other Republicans will follow the new template for victory. And that template is a liberal one.
And it is even greater than John McCain. Recently there have been several conservative writers and strategists who have come out and written that McCain should choose a Democrat as his running mate. This “re-branding” of the Republican party is being written about and discussed more and more.What does this “re-branding” mean? It means giving in and giving up. It means running away with your tail between your legs. I would rather have fought and lost, than turn tail and run, the way conservatives have this year.
I would rather have nominated a conservative candidate and lost in November than nominate a moderate to liberal candidate and win, simply because of the future. I don’t want to see future Republicans run as John McCain did this year, but the new Republican mold has been cast and the conservative movement has been seriously injured. We have been bloodied and bruised and we were beaten up by our own candidate.
While this new direction, or “re-branding”, of the Republican party continues under John McCain and seems perfectly acceptable to Republican voters it started before McCain’s nomination. It started with President Bush. Readers here know that I am an avid supporter of President Bush, with the exception of a couple of issues, I back him fully. But I have come to the conclusion that the “re-branding” of the Republican party may have started with him. Running for his first term in 1999 he said “Is compassion beneath us? Is mercy below us? Should our party be led by someone who boasts of a hard heart? I am proud to be a compassionate conservative. I welcome the label. And on this ground, I’ll take my stand, I am running because my party must match a conservative mind with a compassionate heart.”
That is when he labeled himself a compassionate conservative, effectively singling himself out and separating himself from “normal” or “traditional” conservatives. He made a distinction between a person being a conservative and a person having compassion. As if conservatives have no compassion. At the time this statement didn’t seem to mean very much, but looking back now it may have started the movement away from conservative campaigning.
I guess what it boils down to is this; John McCain’s nomination may signal a shift to the left by the Republican party. A shift that I fear will continue to grow if he is elected. What Republican candidate after seeing John McCain win the presidency running as a non-conservative Republican would then try to run as a conservative Republican? It will start slowly, but I am afraid the shift away from conservatism will be set in motion and it will be hard to stop the momentum as it builds.
Will McCain be a lesser evil than either Barack Obama of Hillary Clinton, the answer is yes. But to me it isn’t enough of a difference for him to win my vote. Conservatives may be better off in the long run if Obama or Clinton was to become president in November. At least it would buy us enough time to regroup the conservative Republican base, to “re-brand” the “re-branded” Republican party back to where it should be.
If McCain wins the presidency the “re-branding” may be complete and irreversible. It will be too hard to start a conservative movement within the Republican party if the party wins an election without holding conservative values. It will be much easier to start a conservative movement in the party if John McCain loses in November. As bad as an Obama or Clinton, (Obama would be far worse), presidency would be, it may be worth it in the long run if we are able to nominate a strong conservative in the 2012 election.
The prospect of President Obama makes the idea that conservatives would be better off if we lose the election sound pretty foolish, the damage he could do to the country in four years would quite possibly be irreversable. I could never route for the scenario that I wrote about above. That alone should be enough for me to vote for John McCain, but I can’t.
The last two paragraphs illustrate how conflicted I have become during this election cycle. So to draw this long, rambling, convoluted post to an end let me summarize it this way; John McCain’s nomination may change the Republican party forever if he is to win, that is what my biggest problem with him is. If he were to lose, we may be able to mount a new conservative movement but the damage done to the country by an ultra-liberal president may be far reaching and irreversible.
So here is where I stand, I refuse to be a part of the “re-branding” of the Republican party by voting for John McCain. I hope he wins because he will be better than either of the Democrats, (slightly), but he will have to do it without me. And there are many others out there who feel the way I do, I can’t be alone. Can I?
I will not sell out my beliefs, convictions and ideals by voting for a candidate who doesn’t share them just to ensure that my party wins the election. What would it actually mean to have convictions if I was so easily willing to throw them away?
America's Watchtower 
You aren’t the only one that feels this way.
I plan on continuing to support/vote for conservatives that support the Constitution and ideals of the founding fathers. That being said, I can no longer associate myself with the Republican party.
I believe that the cancer inside the party has metastasized to the point that it is no longer treatable. The Democrats will most likely win in November and the Republicans will become an even smaller minority in the House/Senate due to their actions over the past eight years. It is my hope that a new conservative party arises over the next 4 years that holds firm to the ideals this country was founded on. My greatest fear is that the Democrats will abuse the executive powers that the Bush Administration has put into play to further remove our freedoms.
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My husband and I were just having this discussion. We have been loyal and consistant republican voters (16 and 25 years every election) We never considered ourselves to be straight ticket voters but the republican candidate always edged out any opposing candidate.
This year I believe we are researching other parties, Libertarian and constitution party. Only this will be a hard switch here too. I am uncertain as to who most closely aligns with my beliefs, but this year I am researching ALL alternatives! I am really saddened to do such a drastic measure. And more I don’t know if I would admit to anyone the switch. But so many others feel the same.
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I was a little upset at you for quitting the Republican Party, thinking maybe it was caused by your youth and a knee-jerk reaction; possibly it was the result of a trick of the Democrats. However, you hit the nail on the head when you wrote about W’s compassionate conservatism. That bothered me at the time but, foolishly, I dismissed it as just a political ploy and didn’t take it seriously enough as a false accusation against conservatives. Thank you, Steve, you have really got me thinking and as you know my husband and I were W’s greatest supporters.
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But I was watching the Libertarians on C-span last week and they just don’t have the speaking thing down. I only heard one young guy from the southwest, I didn’t hear Bob Barr. But it’s scary to think that this is where we have to go. Something has to be done, we will just have to figure it out. It won’t be easy in this area, I mean NH & MA b/c of all the libs running things. Taking a deep breath…..
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Once again, this isn’t anything new. It is Ford and Dole all over again. And to be honest, Bush Sr. was even more moderate than his son. But I do think we are better off in some ways if McCain loses. I hate to say that and I am careful to who and where I say that but in many ways its probably true.
My fear is if McCain wins, our chance of getting a better candidate stretches out even further. When Ford lost we got Reagan and when Dole lost we got W. I think both of those were significant improvements.
In response to T, the Libertarian and Constitution parties are just too far out on so many issues that I think they would be a hard match. Once again, if the Republicans would just stick to the Republican philosophy and to Hannity’s 10 items we would be good to go.
This is the year to support our local politicians and U.S. Reps and Senators, not the presidential candidates, unfortunately!!
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America will wake up and demand progress from our politicians in a fiscally conservative way when the threat from our enemies or economic pressure reaches levels that demand it. Unfortunately the populus is slow to react to just common sense logic. Freiman wrote in Current Events, Conservative Outcomes that the impending threat from the Chinese over natural resouces in there hemisphere will kick off the next world affecting confrontation. It makes sense, if you look over history resources are one of the major reasons peoples fued.
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Call me crazy but isn’t the GOP just regressing to the pre Reagan country club click with a 21st century twist. There is money to be made in green policy. The domestic populism knows all the parties and sadly no good in the long term since they are short term glossy fixes.
If voters expect to wait around for a new Reagan or for conservatism to get cool again I think they’re in for a long wait.
The nation is center right and the answer for America is in embracing that. In doing so I think we’ll all see that which we call conservatism is there and wondering where we were.
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Although I am now a Democrat, I have long roots in the conservative party, my grandfather being the county Republican Party chair for years. My family is still mostly conservative (save for one of my sisters), and so I have had long conversations with my family over politics. I brought up the fact with my father/brothers early on that I thought the term “compassionate conservative” was an odd term – it was like Bush was saying that conservatives were innately *not* compassionate. I’d say to my father that you don’t ever use the term “round bowling-ball” because it’s immediately assumed the ball is round. So by putting “compassionate” in front, you are inferring that conservativism and compassion are not usually linked. Very odd…
I think that many of the conservative values are very valient, and have recently told my father that the Republican Party has abondoned him, putting power in front of principle. (one example I put to my father is the Mark Foley incident, where GOP bigwigs knew this was going on, but did not act because they did not want to lose his seat. This is an exact interpretation of “power before principles” since there is no way that true conservative values would have stood for a grown man using sexual innuendos towards teenagers, no matter if they were boys or girls).
Although I support Obama, I am not saying this simply because I want my party to win but instead for the fact that I think our country works best when we have shared power between two principled parties – I feel that if you are a true conservative and you vote for McCain you are supporting the idea of power before principle. And, in the end, a political party that continues to do this loses its way, which eventually leads to corruption and hubris.
Thanks for this article – I fervently think this is true, and I wish you well in making your decisions, for our country needs 2 strong parties to assure checks and balances. But if both parties end up looking more and more like carbon copies of each other, this will never happen.
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It’s a shame that the Dems have no one to challenge him! Obama can’t beat McCain!
Worst thing is…we never have anyone to choose from…they’re all cut from the same mold…
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This is my biggest problem with McCain:
http://www.stuffwhitedbagslike.wordpress.com
BTW, most of the presidents on your sidebar up there were Deists and revolutionaries! Jefferson said “the tree of liberty must be fed by the blood of patriots every twelve years” because he hated authoritarian empire builders named George.
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T, I agree with Dee, I have researched the Libertarian and Constitution parties and they are a little to out there for me. The Constitution party especially. My problem with the Libertarian party is the anything goes mentality actually goes too far. And that is saying something, because I believe the smaller the government with as little intrusion as possible is best. But the only consequences for a person’s actions in the Libertarian party come when you hurt somebody else. The way I interpret that is that I can drink and drive legally until I kill somebody. By then it is too late. If there are any Libertarians out there please clarify this for me if I am wrong.
Gram Andrews, don’t worry about me. I am just undeclaring myself as a form of protest to show my displeasure with the party, maybe if enough of us do this it will slap some sense into them. I will still be voting for local Republicans to unseat Carol Shea-Porter and John Lynch.
Dee and Alfie, I guess I just can’t believe that Republicans haven’t learned from past mistakes and are ready to do it again. Dee, you may be right about McCain losing. If he wins it will take us longer to get a good conservative nominee than if he loses. But I don’t want to think about the direction this country will head under Obama either. Damn, this is quite the dilema.
Scotty, you hit the nail on the head, by putting the qualifier “compassionate” in front of conservative it implies that conservatives are not usually compassionate, it implies that you are different.
Chuque, You are right about Jefferson, he did build up an almost hateful relationship with Washington, he also lost his friendship with John Adams because of his disdain for Federalism. He opposed the constitution also, he preferred the Articles of Confederation. See while all of the founding fathers wanted seperation from England, not all of them agreed on which direction the newly freed country should go in. So there were many fights and debates in the early days between the founding fathers and when you think about it that should have been expected and is perfectly understandable.
BTW, Ben Franklin wasn’t a president.
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Chunque:
They weren’t Deists, that is a common misconception and myth:
http://www.wallbuilders.com/
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