Friday, February 1, 2008

John McCain A Different Type of Conservative

I read this morning that Ann Coulter would rather support Hillary Clinton than John McCain, and my reaction was ‘that’s fine with me.’ I don’t mind Ann Coulter abandoning the Republican nominee, not because she’s a conservative, but because she is often mean-spirited. One doesn’t have to be Liberal to think her attacks on the 9/11 widows were nasty and unnecessary. This just highlights the fact that protests of late about John McCain aren’t coming from pure conservatives, they’re coming from angry conservatives. They’re coming from many of the radio talk personalities that belittle people with opposing opinions. However, John McCain’s potential nomination is not a sign that Republican are turning away conservative politics, it’s a sign that they are turning away from the bitter partisanship that has fueled political discourse over the last two decades. The remark from Ann Coulter points to the fact that there are people both are the far right and the far left that feed off of this nastiness that has come with the successive presidencies of Bush/Clinton/Bush possibly Clinton again. A vote for John McCain doesn’t betray conservative ideals, it’s a vote for changing the tone in Washington. John McCain’s appeal to Independents stems from the fact that he’s respectful with people who disagree with him, and I think that’s a change that should be welcomed in Washington regardless of ones political leanings.

3 comments:

Moose and Squirrel said...

No, McCain's own history is the weapon that is attacking him. Conservatives are simply loading that information into our cannons and firing away.

mike volpe said...

I think we see things fairly the same. I believe that McCain is a conservative however he isn't a lock step conservative.

I wouldn't call the folks that oppose him as angry conservatives, but rather establishment conservatives.

The problem I have is that they despise McCain because he dared to stray on anything. What really gets me is that they all adore Joe Lieberman for the exact same thing, only it is because he strayed toward them not away from them.

What really bothers me is that they have given Romney the Conservative mantle. There are many reasons to support Romney however most of his conservative positions are brand new. They frankly are rewarding pandering. Here is how I just wrote about this myself...

http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2008/02/mccain-conservatism-and-pandering.html

jm said...
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