John McCain and the Destruction of the Republican Party

Posted by Larry Miller on October 7, 2009 under How | Read the First Comment

It seems the Senator John McCain is not satisfied with his glorious second place finish in last November’s election and the massive losses of the party that rode his coattails to defeat. Undeterred by by his rejection by both the right and the left, he is pushing forward with his plans to remake the party in his own image. It is one way to justify the approach he used by spreading it throughout the entire Republican system… or it may just be revenge on those in the party who never really accepted his “moderate” candidacy.

There are many in the mushy middle of the party quietly cheering him on in his attempts to render irrelevant the conservative base of the party and the religious influence, in particular. His campaign manager Steve Schmidt commented about Sarah Palin, “I think that she has talents, but my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for the Republican candidate in 2012, and in fact, were she to be the nominee, we would have a catastrophic election result.” And Mr. Schmidt knows catastrophic election results!

The question is why do we even listen to these people? And why do we give them credibility and the time of day? We have McCain’s cohort Lindsey Graham, who has stood shoulder to shoulder with him as they threw both their party and the country under the bus time after time, chime in with, “I think he’s endorsed people with center-right politics because he has an understanding that the party is in trouble with certain demographics and wants to have a tone that would allow us to grow.” However, it is interesting to contemplate just who Senators Graham and McCain see as center-right from their point of view… people like California’s Meg Whitman who was quoted as saying “Van Jones is doing a marvelous job.” With Republicans like this, we don’t need Democrats to destroy our country!

Should he be successful, it would encourage those who have, for years, been frustrated with the inability of the party to stand for principle and have been flirting with the idea of energizing a third party to make the leap. Usually this results in the more statist oriented candidate cruising into office and the people, and country, getting the short end of the stick. On the other hand, maybe the Republican Party has run its course and outlived its usefulness. We must remember that the party began its life as a third party when the Whigs lost touch with the American people.

One of the problems with McCain’s thinking is that it assumes that all demographics are monolithic and pretty much set in their thinking. If that were the truth, we would all be in serious trouble. This thinking neglects the Ronald Reagan phenomenon where the man articulated conservative ideas in a way people could understand them and respond. McCain, Graham and their fellow travelers apparently do not think this is possible, or perhaps, not desirable. While it is true many have been damaged by the leftist bent of much of our public school system, they are fellow Americans and we cannot just write them off without presenting them the truth.

It is reported that Senator McCain is roaming to and fro about the country searching out moderate candidates to oppose more conservative contenders. He is doing fund raisers and opening the list of donors to his chosen warriors marching forth to lock the party into the downward spiral of unprincipled moderation. We are watching attempts at making the infection of compromise work it’s way through the entire party.

For Republicans, the choice is to follow the decorum of respectfully allowing those who carried McCain’s banner suffer with his mark on the entire party, or take steps to move the party in the direction needed to help both the party and the country find their way. The question of following decorum at the expense of truth leads us to the situations like the one where Joe Wilson where he was criticized when he spoke the truth, even though every one knew it was the truth. In my humble, but accurate opinion, we can never permit truth to be overruled by the niceties of the political game.

John McCain has proven that he is a patriot… following what, I believe, he thinks is honestly the best path for the country. Unfortunately he is wrong now, like he was during the campaign against Barack Hussein Obama. He is no longer appreciated by the voters, even back in his home state of Arizona. It’s time we thank him for his service to the country and encourage him to ride off into the sunset and enjoy a peaceful and well deserved retirement.