Why Conservatives MUST Back McCain

All onliners who want to know how to help John McCain should go to an important resource: http://mccainbloggerresources.blogspot.com/. On that site, Kathy Morrison has many suggestions on how you can help build you own small (or large!) coalitions for Senator McCain. I'll review some of her points here on Monday -- with specific emphasis on New Jersey. Hope you all had a great weekend!

NOTE: For those of you interested in the Republican Veepstakes, take a look at Sunday's piece by super-columnist Jack Kelly. He likes both Chris Cox, former congressman and current head of the SEC, and Mitt Romney. You can find Jack's column at: http://post-gazette.com/forum. Scroll down to his name. (My guess is that Romney will get the nod, partly because of his electoral strength in his home state of Michigan.)

For Sunday and Monday, I'll be reprinting Larry Perrault's fine essay on why conservatives need to support John McCain. My comments will appear at the bottom of Larry's piece, which you can find at: http://larryperrault.blogspot.com.

Why Conservatives MUST Support John McCain
I have been resting from my Blog since Mike Huckabee withdrew from the campaign for the Republican nomination on March 4th, after John McCain secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination. I must soon be about changing many of the objects on the Blog, including revising its primary objectives. There are always current events I want to discuss and in fact, some specific writing that I want to focus on.

But for right now, it is a priority that I establish my resolve to support John McCain for the fall election and state why I believe this objective is critical. My feelings are independent of but unsurprisingly consistent with Mike Huckabee's expressed intention to direct his infinitely greater influence to the same end. With respect to me, some may find my disposition odd, given my history of dissent and criticism of conservative drift in The Republican Party. Perhaps I am a little different, but I certainly think the immediate situation is a LOT different and I will explain why I think so.

It is important first, to briefly explain my own background. I am a lifelong conservative who began reading conservative thinkers and ideals as a teenager in the 1970’s. After developing multiple sclerosis in the 1990’s, I became an activist participant in Republican politics and the convention process. I went to the 1998 Republican Party of Texas convention armed with flyers about my problems with John McCain.

Even today, on most of the standard conservative catalog of McCain infidelities, I may generally agree. And in fact, I declined to support or even vote for George W. Bush, whom at the time I saw as only marginally better than McCain. I didn't and don't dislike Bush. I just thought he was not constrained by sound conservative principle.The profligate spending and federal government usurpation of the past six years have born that concern out.

But looking back, perhaps Bush was more politically constrained. What has become clear is that on the things that he strongly believes, John McCain has been an uncommonly resolute United States Senator, including on urgent issues on which we agree. And, he has run his campaign this year in an uncommonly civil and gracious fashion. Let me explain why a few of those points of resolve and agreement rise categorically above any list of disagreements:

First, all of us other than some Ron Paul enthusiasts understand that on the primary duty of the federal government and the president, defending the American people and their interest, John McCain is not only with us but most assertively so and most prepared for the responsibility.

America’s physical defense is of course, constitutionally established as a priority for the federal government generally and the chief executive specifically, who is the commander-in-chief of America’s armed forces. And in a world that technology has brought close and in which America is the technological and military supreme power, defending American principles of humanity is a duty the neglect of which is a human dereliction. As we know, today, these concerns are not incidental but pressing priorities.

Secondly, there is another great crisis upon us that some have warned of but many Americans seem to have slept through the approach of. For decades now, we have had warnings of the long-term insolvency in government’s accrued liabilities versus reasonably expected revenues. But, when plans to devise a correction have been raised, political rhetoric has killed the effort. In fact we have only continued to widen the shortfall.

Well guess what? We are only barely talking about a future problem, now. For the next decade the entitlement liabilities will devour the disbursements of the federal budget. Discretionary expenditures will be cut. And the gap won’t be near filled. The yawning debt will be expanded. New taxes, benefit cuts, and accelerated currency printing (i.e., rapid inflation/devaluation of money) will be the only options to try to meet the liability.

Unless a dramatic change is made to boost productivity and revenue (a massive tax reform – like The Fair Tax plan) is implemented, all three of these supposedly more modest solutions would probably be tried. But, the net effect would be to make matters worse. John McCain has the resolve to resist these efforts.Whatever course is taken to infuse the system, America will have to stop the bleeding; that is, the spending. Say what we might about John McCain, there has not been a more resolute actor in Washington against budgetary extravagance.

Under the Bush administration, a Republican majority expanded government at a rate not seen for forty years, since Lyndon Johnson and a Democratic Congress. Most dramatically, these Republicans greatly increased the Medicare entitlement that along with Social Security was already long-term insolvent. John McCain was among the few who opposed this action. There probably is not a more stark demonstration of why fiscal conservatives like Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn and former Senator and economist Phil Gramm are enthusiastically supporting McCain.

Thirdly, we are looking at long-term social imprudence prevailed upon the country if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton appoint the next generation of federal jurists, including 2-4 Supreme Court justices. The folly will be broad and deep, but for example, the social calumny of “legal” abortion will be guaranteed until at least the middle of this century.

I always emphasize that, as hard as it is to believe, the most tragic victims of this would not be the innocent lives lost over what will have been 60-80 years. God has always dealt with and will continue to handle the deaths of innocents. They are a class that will bypass this vale of tears and be delivered directly to perfect justice.

However, as usual, the true sufferers and victims will be our children that have to live in a society that has assimilated this most fundamental and grave selfish incivility. Why will neighbors and commercial relationships be afforded a respect that is not held up even for our own offspring? Relatively speaking, dog-eat-dog sounds like an innocuous social standard.For all of last year, until he withdrew on March 4th, I was a Mike Huckabee supporter.

I studied Mike Huckabee’s record and campaign for over a year, and found the supposedly “conservative” criticisms of him to be misrepresentations. But, most remarkable about his candidacy was his distinctive positive and engaging approach, which often disarmed and engaged even liberals who disagreed with his policy conclusions, but trusted Huckabee’s honesty and sincerity, which was particularly ironic in that those were precisely the thoughtful qualities that many conservatives were suspicious of. In defending him, I often found myself oddly cast as a “liberal,” just like he was.

But, John McCain conducted a campaign that was likewise civil and genuine. For the sake of the nation and an American model for an elevated disposition, it is critical that conservatives rally around John McCain and engage him by putting their concerns before this genuine and resolute American patriot. Let’s help him with everything we have and ask him to help with our sincere and noble concerns for America.

Conservatives: Avoiding a Political Deathwish

See the bottom of this column regarding angry e-mails (these ones by me)

A McCain supporter sent out an angry e-mail today that seemed designed to offend most of the groups John McCain needs to win the election. Let me give you one example: I had made the obvious point that Barack Obama has a tremendous online presence, one much greater at present than McCain's. (If you want to check that out for yourself, just Google Obama and then McCain and count the numbers, especially with emphasis on the past year.)

The McCain supporter said the following about Obama's online supporters: "When your core base is a bunch of stoned college kids spending mom and dads money with little else to do than make it to the next beer funnel . . .well you get the picture."

In other words, he's saying Obama's supporters consist mainly (exclusively?) of a bunch of drug-crazed college students "spending mom['s] and dad[']s money." Not exactly a "politic" statement.

Do I believe John McCain shares in any way his supporter's comments? I don't. McCain is a good enough politician to know that he needs support from all groups in America. He especially needs support from moderate-and-conservative young people (usually categorized as those between age the ages of 18 and 29).

McCain does well with people over the age of 45 (a demographic that includes me). But to win, he also has to do well with people under the age of 45. In fact, McCain's status as a POW/war hero and the father a daughter who graduated recently from college, should give him significant appeal to younger voters. There's no reason he should cede the nation's young voters to Obama, whose pretty words eventually will grow thin with all age segments.

In the months past, I've argued with my fellow conservatives about their political shortsightedness. We can't afford to hand over huge segments of the electorate -- including younger voters -- over to the Democrats.

In the mid-1960s, we basically gave the Democrats a big political gift: the nation's Black vote. In more recent times, some conservatives have appeared ready to give up on the Hispanic vote, which comes from the nation's largest -- and fastest-growing -- minority group. (Blacks are the second largest.)

Young people (under 30) aren't a minority group, but if they were they'd be almost as big as the Black and Hispanic minority. Many conservatives have also given up on the gay and lesbian vote, about 20%-25% of which went to George Bush (according to CNN exists) in 2000 and 2004. In fact, if George Bush hadn't won tens of thousands of G/L votes in Florida eight years ago, well, President Al Gore would be nearing the end of his second term. Thus, in one sense, GWB won Florida because of the gay vote!

Currently, we conservatives also aren't doing well with working women who, in the primaries, are voting by huge majorities in the primaries for the Democratic candidate. For decades, women professionals (lawyers, doctors, teachers, journalists) have been deserting the GOP in droves. We must turn that around.

Again, much as I love older white males, being one myself, they aren't enough by themselves anymore to win elections.

We Republicans can't prevail with strong support only from angry white males, such as the McCain supporter cited above. We don't need to agree with every group on all issues, but we do have to listen to their concerns, treat them with respect -- and ask for their support. We don't need to stereotype diverse populations and dismiss them as somehow contemptible..

John McCain desperately needs support from every group I've mentioned. If we imply otherwise, we're playing a role in sinking John McCain's heroic effort.

Note: John McCain needs your love and support, but he also needs your money to remain competitive. Obama has raised a whole lot more money than McCain. So, please click on this link and make a contribution.

There are a few (blessedly few) people who are supposedly McCain supporters who are doing everything possible to damage John's chance of winning. I sent out the following ABOUT them, although not too them.

In regard to some e-mails I sent out today, I always got a kick out of the line in Apocalypse Now that goes, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." I also like the following line, "It smells like victory."

The McCain Campaign should take the following as its motto: "We are well behind now, but we are committed to doing everything it takes to prevail." As Churchill once said, "Victory at all costs."

I remember in 1967, during Israel's war with ALL the Arab states, my wife nervously asked me, "How is little Israel doing?" I said, "It appears they are fighting on five fronts and winning on all of them." Anyone who wants a good summer read should take a look at (Major and Professor) Michael Oren's book The Six-Day War, especially the part about how the Israelis destroyed the entire (and huge) Egyptian air force in a period of about two hours. (Hosni Mubarak was one of the Egyptian pilots.)

Israel likes to wage wars by committee, with a whole bunch of politicans exerting "administrative control" supposedly and taking votes (and usually not taking votes). The way miltary people like Ariel Sharon, Yitzhak Rabin, and Moshe Dayan got around that was by basically ignoring the committee. Since they won, all was forgiven (and they also let the politicians take credit).

A CONSERVATIVE DEATH-WISH?

I sent the following to members of a conservative group on Yahoo. A member of the group was complaining that Nancy Pelosi and friends had bascially gutted spending for the Border Fence designed to keep out illegal immigrants. My response speaks to the current situation, where single-issue conservatives are doing great damage to the conservative cause.

I have been talking on here [in this group] about the practical politics -- the kind that ends in electing good (not necessarily great) people to Congress and passing good (not great) legislation. My impression is that I'm talking to myself.

In 2006, the American people (a large majority of them) voted for candidates who opposed border security and voted against candidates (e.g., George Allen, Rick Santorum) who supported border security. That is called a political reality.

Now, we're reaping the fruits of the 2006 disaster. The Democrats would not be doing what they are if they didn't feel 2008 will be a bigger disaster for Republicans. They're raising twice as much money as we are, which is a very ominous development.

Many of my fellow conservatives have reacted to the situation I described by attacking . . . Republicans! People like John Kyl and Lindsay Graham and John McCain are not the problem. That is obvious to anyone with eyes to see.

In many states (see Santorum mention above) opposition to illegals is NOT a winning issue. In 2006, it wasn't even a winning issue in border states, where the Dems did very well. No Democrat who opposed the fence was defeated in a re-election bid. NONE.

The prevalent notion in this group seems to be that Republicans got beaten becaus4 they weren't "conservative" enough. There is no evidence that point of view is correct.
The way you win on issues is NOT by attacking your political friends. It is by building coaltions of like-minded citizens. It is also by contributing to conservative candidates, something the Republican base has NOT done.

As long as Republicans continue shooting the (Republican) wounded things will go from bad to worse. Ideological fantasies are not going to repair an awful situation.

We conservatives have to stop blustering. We need to wake up and wise up. Otherwise we will have no real say in what our government does.

steve maloney