John McCain Is Not A Moderate
With elections around the corner, and so many of us looking for an end to Bush's bumbling reign of terror, I'm really worried that McCain will be the Republican front-runner, and that lots of left-leaning moderates will vote for McCain for the wrong reasons.
Wrong reason: “Well, if we HAVE to have a Republican president, it may as well be McCain.”
I have heard this said (heard it a lot, actually, in 1999 and 2000), but I don’t really understand it. Is it because he’s supposed to be a nice guy?
Will you still think that if he institutes a draft?
Honestly, I do not see how McCain would be better than Bush.
McCain is pro-war and militaristic. His views on foreign policy are pretty much in line with the those of the Bush Administration (although he would like to see us stronger in Iraq, and is advocating sending thousands of more troops there).
And while McCain does not always toe the party line when it comes to some things (like Big Tobacco and campaign finance reform), that doesn’t suddenly make him moderate. It simply makes him a little less predictable.
Okay, so he doesn’t blindly agree with the Christian right…but that doesn’t mean we should overlook things like oh…I dunno…that he supports teaching Intelligent Design in public schools.
Go look at his voting records. Look at who supports him (e.g., terrifyingly neo-con groups like John Birch and the Eagle Forum).
I am afraid that because he comes in a more palatable package than Bush, people will think he’s a far better choice. But who cares what the package looks like if it’s wrapped around the same bullshit we’re trying to get rid of?
Seriously. Imagine the kind of damage Bush could do with just a little less swagger and a little more credibility. Imagine the kind of mess we’d be in if more moderates and most leftists didn’t think Bush was a joke.
McCain’s credibility scares me. He is most certainly not a joke, and I am most certainly not laughing.
Wrong reason: “Well, if we HAVE to have a Republican president, it may as well be McCain.”
I have heard this said (heard it a lot, actually, in 1999 and 2000), but I don’t really understand it. Is it because he’s supposed to be a nice guy?
Will you still think that if he institutes a draft?
Honestly, I do not see how McCain would be better than Bush.
McCain is pro-war and militaristic. His views on foreign policy are pretty much in line with the those of the Bush Administration (although he would like to see us stronger in Iraq, and is advocating sending thousands of more troops there).
And while McCain does not always toe the party line when it comes to some things (like Big Tobacco and campaign finance reform), that doesn’t suddenly make him moderate. It simply makes him a little less predictable.
Okay, so he doesn’t blindly agree with the Christian right…but that doesn’t mean we should overlook things like oh…I dunno…that he supports teaching Intelligent Design in public schools.
Go look at his voting records. Look at who supports him (e.g., terrifyingly neo-con groups like John Birch and the Eagle Forum).
I am afraid that because he comes in a more palatable package than Bush, people will think he’s a far better choice. But who cares what the package looks like if it’s wrapped around the same bullshit we’re trying to get rid of?
Seriously. Imagine the kind of damage Bush could do with just a little less swagger and a little more credibility. Imagine the kind of mess we’d be in if more moderates and most leftists didn’t think Bush was a joke.
McCain’s credibility scares me. He is most certainly not a joke, and I am most certainly not laughing.
posted by kristy at 10:03 AM
5 Comments:
All the more reason to make sure Democrats take back Congress this election.
I'll be doing phone-banking this weekend for MoveOn.org and also for the No on Prop 85 campaign.
john mccain or newt gingrich will be our next president. neither obama or hilarious have a snow balls chance.
Newt Gingrich? Seriously?
Actually the snowball has polled really well opposite Gingrich.
sure, as morton downey's audience used to say..."newt newt newt".
alot of candidates are percieved in a certain way before they get down and dirty in nationwide campaign - i think that mccain has been able to brand himself the "outsider" republican and get alot of people to believe that he is moderate. but i believe that any increased scrutiny of the guy in a larger national light would show what he is.
i have a decent level of respect for mccain because he, for the most part, is true to his stated idealogy. he is much more of a real goldwater/reagan small government conservative. i happen not to agree with much of his political views, but at least they seem to hold a modicum of internal logic.
the thing that makes me rip my hair out about the current administration is that it says it's for one thing and just completely isn't. for example, the current republican leadership says things like "we're for the free market" and then ladels out huge corporate subsidies and engages in unilateral international trade negotiations. which is about as non-free market as you can get.
my impression of mccain is that he, with allowance for the fact that every politician must spin and compromise at times, is much truer to his conservatism than anyone else. i don't think he's asked anyone to believe he's a moderate, perhaps i'm wrong, and if he's used a quasi-outsider vibe to make moderates like him, that's different than simply lying about what you're for.
the biggest thing that would help him with the republican nomination in '08 is a bad mid-term for the gop. if they're scared he's the only way to retain the whitehouse, he's in. if not, he's either got to pander to the right so much to win that he hurts his national standing or he'll lose to a more conservative republican. if he can get the nomination without getting to bushy in the process, he'll be a solid candidate for the gop. but under the spotlight of a larger election, i don't think he'll be able to sustain the moderate image.
newt gingrich is even more unelectable than hillary, i'm assuming that anonymous was kidding on that one.
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