That's not to say that McCain has gotten better, or my principles have changed. He has my grudging support in the same way that Eisenhower and Nixon had the reluctant endorsement of National Review in their times. Today, there is no single publication that has the influence among consevatives that National Review did then--which is, of course, a good thing. But some conservative publications have been less than responsible in their treatment of this presidential race. Ron Paul got a lot of traction and gained a small, loyal following of the same extremist, right-wing isolationists that William F. Buckley kicked out of the movement half a century ago. Certain blogs--admittedly, 0nce including my own--have kept up a steady drumbeat of criticism against McCain, even as he has become the clear Republican candidate and even as he will clearly face Barack Obama, the most radical leftist ever to gain the Democratic nomination.
John McCain has some views that are extremely distasteful to conservative ears. He wants government to take immediate, costly action to solve a global warming that no one knows is coming or what its effects might be. He still thinks his unconstitutional campaign finance reform bill was a good idea. His attempts at passing a disguised amnesty bill for illegal aliens are well-documented. He even has the funny idea that the salaries of corporate executives are somehow the people's business. (Mac: The stockholders can pay their executives whatever they want. It's their money. For now, anyway.)
On the other hand, he's light-years ahead of Barack Obama and his platform full of the same old liberal "solutions" and, somehow, also full of "change." Even more than that, McCain has some policy plans that provide a good first step toward a decline in the size and scope of government. He will certainly be better on judges than Obama, who would certainly nominate the sort of activist judges that have been the Left's major mechanism for advancing their agenda during the last decade. McCain has also not shown the sort of naivete and downright ignorance Obama has in discussing foreign affairs.
Although the principles he espoused were timeless, I believe that we are reaching the end of the Reagan Era, politically. His landmark election in 1980 reorganized American politics, just as Roosevelt's election did in 1932. John McCain is not quite the visionary one wants representing one's party at such a time, but he can be a good delaying tactic while we find someone who is. Moreover, we need to refocus from stopping the long march of increasing government and start developing strategies for shrinking it and presenting to the American people a vision of a freer nation.
But this sort of progress will only come about through the Republican Party, and we cannot fool ourselves into thinking otherwise. Philosophies are not electoral forces, but party organizations are. Just as the Reaganites did in the Seventies, we need to work to promote real conservatism, a real agenda of freedom, in the party that will have us. And sometimes that means holding your nose and punching the ticket for Gerald Ford.
Posts
