I haven't dipped into the political waters on this blog, not that I don't have an opinion on politics (Oh boy, do I) but I've wanted to focus more on writing. But we've got a presidential election coming up, and it's on a lot of people's minds. It's been on my mind a lot, not least because I'm a political guy. I'm a fantasy/sci-fi guy, but I'm also a political guy. I eat this stuff up. Sometimes I love it, sometimes it drives me crazy.
This presidential election is between two flawed candidates, one much more so than the other. Earlier this year, many conservatives felt disheartened when Senator McCain won the GOP nomination. The senator, known for a long time as a maverick, had done a lot to irk conservatives with liberal legislation like McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, or McCain-Lieberman. The idea of a "moderate" Republican winning the White House seemed anathema to everything people like me have worked for.
For that reason, I don't expect anybody who has a deep-seated opposition to McCain to be convinced to vote for him, and that's fine. McCain will have to earn their trust if he wins, if he can. I don't anticipate I will convince anybody of what I'm going to say, and that'll be okay with me.
I will, somewhat begrudgedly, endorse McCain for president.
I do so for several reasons. The chief reason is McCain's opponent. Only he or Senator McCain will garner the electoral votes needed to win. And Senator Obama has shown himself to have no understanding of what makes this country work. None whatsoever. He wants to "spread the wealth" around. He wants to take money from hardworking Americans and give it to those he deems worthy. It is pure socialism.
Furthermore, his judgment is highly suspect. For twenty years, he went to a church where a racist, hate-mongering pastor named Jeremiah Wright shouted racial divisiveness from the pulpit. Wright screams that America deserved 9/11. He says the government invented AIDS to kill blacks. He calls America the "U.S. of KKK-A." And I'm supposed to accept that Obama did not know about this? How about Obama's alliance with former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers? In his prime, Ayers exhorted, "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, Kill your parents." In a news article, Ayers said, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." That article was published, by the way, on September 11, 2001.
Now who associates with people like this? I guarantee you, normal people do not seek fellowship with people who plant bombs in police stations.
And there's also the possibilty of two Supreme Court vacancies. Should we risk Obama appointing those replacements? Not if you don't mind another Ruth Bader Ginsburg. McCain may not be a slam dunk on judges either, but we can at least bend his ear when we disapprove, a'la Bush on Harriet Miers.
The specter of an Obama presidency may keep me voting GOP, but there is a more positive reason, and her name is Sarah Palin. She is the real deal. She is a true conservative, and a true reformer who didn't depend on the party apparatus to get to the top. In fact, she unseated a corrupt incumbent of her own party to win her post as Alaska Governor.
I'm no ingeune when it comes to McCain. I fully expect there will be times when I'll have strong disagreements with him. Oh how I do remember those. McCain-Feingold. The Gang of Seven. "Comprehensive Immigration Reform." No question, I'm going to have a few headaches with a McCain administration.
But I can live with that. I can't say the same about Obama.
And there's also the possibility that Governor Palin may head up the GOP when McCain steps down. And this opportunity is too good to pass up. I believe she is a conservative, and the GOP needs that leadership again. I don't know when we'll have this chance again.
Some will still insist on the third party option, and I wish them well. But frankly, having watched the third parties in motion this election year, I am not impressed. Bob Barr, the Libertarian, cashed in his social conservatism when he joined that party. He's no longer for the Defense of Marriage Act. Well, see ya, Bob. You've only proved you're one of many politicians whose views blow like the wind.
My opinion of the paleoconservative Constitution Party in particular has dropped into the cellar. The turning point for me was when they harshly rejected Alan Keyes in favor of Chuck Baldwin. Keyes, for those who don't know, is an articulate and passionate conservative, though occasionally abrasive and could use a bit more tact. Still, no one could deny he was the real deal. But the CP wanted no part of him. Why? He supports the Iraq War. For that, he was branded a warmonger by the CP's prior nominee, Howard Phillips, and lost the nomination. Instead, the CP nominated Pastor Chuck Baldwin. Now, I don't know how he runs his church; he may be a terrific pastor. But his political views are another matter entirely.
It's not all that easy to criticize the CP because I know people who think it's the way to go. But I cannot, and I doubt I could, ever recommend this party, or the man they've put up to be their candidate. He's written pieces that can only be described as paranoid or incendiary.
He thinks the country will be merged with Canada and Mexico by 2012.
He seems to think it's credible that the U.S. government-not Al Qaeda-could have been behind 9/11, which puts him in such luminous company as former Governor Jesse Ventura and actress Rosie O'Donnell. He certainly doesn't care for Bush. He's compared
Bush to Hitler, even
suggested that he may be the Antichrist. On his website, Chuck Baldwin has a page called "
The Bush Record" where he posts links to stories that accuse the Bush family of taking illegal drugs (one of which is posted by Rolling Stone magazine, a real credible source of news...ahem), and he has posted a link to the Daily Kos, to a story suggesting that Bush's family financied Nazis. The Daily Kos, for those who don't know, is a fringe leftist website whose members regularly post hateful comments about conservatives, and in the case of the late Tony Snow,
celebrated his death.
And this is supposed to be the real, true conservative in the race? With views like this, I wonder why Obama didn't pick him to be his running mate.
This may not be welcome news to Baldwin fans out there, but this, in a nutshell, is why conservatives have made the Constitution Party persona non grata. It indulges in conspiracy-mongering and paranoia, and has a myopic isolationist view of foreign policy. And it has no qualms about nominating a candidate who is giving credibility to slander. The Right would lose all credibility if it went down this road.
This isn't the road the Right should go down. Thankfully, I know it won't. Somewhere, there is a new generation of conservative leadership that will lead us out of the wilderness. It won't be found in the so-called "compassionate conservatism" of people like Mike Gerson, or the paleo-con isolationism of Ron Paul. It may be found with Governor Palin, or some members of Congress, or someone, somewhere in the fifty states, someone inspired by the values of great leaders of the past, by values that never go out of style, that are as old as the country itself.
So with that, I hope very much for a McCain victory, and then we move on to the ideological battles that lie ahead.
