Right Wing Nation

“There will be no earmarks for teapot museums, First Lady Libraries and taxpayer-funded hippie flashbacks in a McCain administration.”

–Tom Coburn

Now that everything is calming down, let’s talk McCain, and why I’ll vote for him without holding my nose — and I’ll list the things that bother me first, just to be fair. But let me say first that I haven’t voted for an “ideal candidate” ever in my life, because no such animal has ever been on the ballot. And I’m paying no attention to what he says here, only to his record.

Government intrusion

You can’t make a case from his voting record that he’s a “compassionate conservative” (Bush.41, Bush.43), but he does tend to think government should stick its nose into places it shouldn’t. See the current Congressional fiasco about steroids, or the congressionally-mandated switch to HDTV (or the “conversion box” TV welfare program).

“Sin” taxes

He supports them. ‘Nuff said.

McCain-Feingold

Do I really need to explain? I wouldn’t think so. I will say, however, that I doubt very much that McCain’s intentions were malevolent. Road to hell, good intentions, etc.

Government regulation

He’s way too fond of it for my tastes. After all, if the legislature caps drug prices or allows Americans to import them at capped prices, who is going to pay for all the R&D to come up with new drugs? Similarly, thowing government money at R&D for stem-cell research is bullshit. Nearly all advances in medicine happen in the private sector. Fact. Why not give tax breaks to pharmaceutical companies for doing research on stem cells instead? And again, why is steroid use in sports any of the government’s business?

Enemy combatants

I strongly disagree with him here, but all of you who also disagree and have been screaming about it, stop and think. He was tortured by the North Vietnamese in a prison camp for six years. Don’t you think it’s understandable that this may have colored the way he sees this particular issue? And although I disagree with him, I do not, for even a second, believe that John McCain would do anything to endanger the security of the United States. Not for a second. In fact, of every elected politician, McCain is the least likely to do so (see below).

Now, here are his strengths.

Tax cuts

Yeah, yeah, he opposed the Bush tax cuts — because the bills contained no spending cuts or caps. Look at his record. He has supported every tax cut that came down the road otherwise. His record on cutting spending is also very good.

School choice

He’s a staunch school choice supporter.

Free trade

He gets a big A+ and a gold star for his record on free trade. And speaking of gold stars,

Pork

John McCain is the original anti-pork warrior. He’s been fighting earmarks as long as he’s been in Congress, from long before it became fashionable.

Entitlements

McCain is pretty good on entitlement reform, much better than one could reasonably expect from the current Republicans in power. And unlike nearly every other elected politican, McCain has the guts to tackle it.

Tort reform

Johnny Mac has a better record on tort reform than nearly any elected Republican, except for a few of the younger Congressmen. Nothing to complain about here at all. Okay, you could complain, but then you’d have to complain about every Republican in office.

A hawk’s hawk

His greatest strength is his stance on the war, the military, national security, and foreign policy — and for me, this alone would get him my vote. John McCain isn’t only the only hawk running, he’s a hawk’s hawk, much like Barry Goldwater, and much better than Bush. He won’t be singing kumbayah and smoking dope with every filthy dictator in the world like Obama wants to do, and I doubt very much that we’ll have to put up with a crippled, PC military under McCain’s tenure as Commander-in-Chief. He’s an old-fashioned warrior: kick ass and take names.

John McCain has constantly and strongly supported the war and the troops — even when nearly every other Republican kept his mouth shut, afraid that he wouldn’t get re-elected. He sharply criticized Rummy and his idiotic PC war effort, and Rummy deserved it. Had McCain been in the White House instead of Bush, we wouldn’t have had months of medicre results, because we would have surged from day one. Think about that.

As many have pointed out, McCain can be a real SOB (he can also be extremely charismatic, but that’s another issue). This isn’t a bug; it’s a feature. After eight years of the Bush Administration, I’ve had it with nice. Every time the monkeys start throwing shit in the cage, the Bush Administration does exactly nothing, and the result has been more monkeys throwing more shit.

The first time some castrated weenie bureaucrat from the EU or the UN tries to tell McCain what the US should or should not be doing, I have no doubt that John McCain will tell him to go straight to hell, and in exactly those words. That’s exactly what I want in the White House, a man who will put up with no shit from anybody. I realize that’s going to upset liberals who have their tongues as far up the asses of Europeans as they can get them. I’m supposed to care?

Speaking of, those of you who are waiting for McCain to kiss your ass are wasting your time. He’s not going to do it. McCain does what he believes is right, and he doesn’t apologize unless he believes that he was wrong. That’s called character. Sorry, but even though I think he’s wrong sometimes, I’d rather have a President with character and a strong moral compass than somebody who panders to you, or me, or anybody else. Over the last twenty-odd years he’s been in office, he has done what he believes to be right, sometimes at great political cost to himself. Good for him — even though he isn’t always right.

And don’t even start on immigration. You immigration hawks have largely yourselves to blame for the problem. You refused to deal with reality, and instead, stamped your feet and screamed that you wanted it all right now. Do you see a fence being built? No? I thought you scored a big victory by getting funds appropriated for it. What happened? Wait. Do you suppose it didn’t happen because it’s never going to happen? Note that we have the status quo still, and the only change has happend as a result of local government actions. So maybe that should be a clue, eh? A federal mass deportation is never going to happen: Deal with it. Try working with your local and state governments if illegal immigration is a problem in your area. And what the hell are you calling yourselves conservatives for if you’re depending on the federal government to take care of your problems?

As for those of you who think eight years of Democrats running the government will somehow magically get us elected, put down the crack pipe and walk away. How many entitlement programs have been dismantled? None? So what are you going to do about the socialized medicine we’ll have, except whine about it? And I remember hearing that before. How did that work for you in 2006?

I’m voting for McCain, and quite happily. As far as his negatives go, I’d rather have him in the White House kicking ass than in the Senate where he can pass laws I don’t like. You people do understand the separation of powers, don’t you?

Compared to the war, national security, the military, and foreign policy — the President’s most important Constitutional duties — all other issues are, to me, way down on the priority list. Note that I’m also voting for the most conservative Congressional candidates on my ballot, to support McCain when he’s right, and rein him in when he’s wrong. It’s Congress, not the White House, that makes laws. In fact, McCain would have no power to directly affect any of the issues that conservatives are howling about if he’s in the White House, but he will in the Senate. Think about that, too.

Finally, say the following:

“Feel, don’t think.”
“It takes a village!”
“I’d rather lose an election than lose a war.”

Now say these three:

Barak Obama, Commander-in-Chief
Hillary Clinton, Commander-in-Chief
John McCain, Commander-in-Chief

Any questions?

Note: Comments are great, but keep it civil and factual. If you want to slobber and scream, do it on your own blog. Thanks.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 10:52 am and is filed under McCain, '08, Conservatism, GWOT.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.