Why McCain: Part Two

To be fair, I’m not a conservative. I see little value in the status quo unless the status quo is founded upon good principles that make good sense and especially if history affirms that they make good sense.

I’m a liberal. I’m a liberal in the classical sense of the term. Not the hijacked Democratic version of neo-marxist democratic-socialist nonsense. I believe the Constitution is a living, breathing document because we can amend it for changing times and changing needs. Not just ignore the parts we don’t like later. If we can do that for provisions we don’t like, are we truly a government of law, or by appointed men (Supreme Court)?

I’ll happily quote founders like Madison right and left (I'm a member of the Federalist Society for crying out loud!), and selectively quote other founders like Jefferson whose aristocracy sometimes lent him to make statements that seem a bit too idealistic. He did trumpet some great ideals… and it is best that he be remembered for the Declaration of Independence more so than advocating “States Rights” at the expense of liberty of States’ inhabitants.

I have a mind of my own, but that mind has come to appreciate the principles enshrined in our Constitution and proved through the test of time.

McCain is not my ideal. But he is the closest candidate to my ideals in the running given my priorities. One may think that a guy like me who has libertarian leaning views for the central government may lean more strongly to the Ron Paul camp… but I am not so naive that I believe that a foreign policy two centuries out of date and crafted for a runt nation trying to protect its existence should be applied to the super power we’ve become. The Constitution does not so limit our foreign policy in spite of Paul’s rantings.

The complaints against McCain have been superficial at best to me. We’re in a time of war and the disagreements seem to distract from that as opposed to embrace that THAT should be our number one priority and the other issues, while important, are secondary.

You may very well know my pain. Watching innocent civilians faced with the choice of burning alive in those buildings or jumping to their deaths to escape the inevitable agony. You may very well know my broken heart as one of the most vicious regimes continued to brutalize and oppress his people while we sat on a perfectly valid reason for war against that regime… and the Clinton Administration argued eloquently at the threat posed by Iraq and its WMDs and the possibility that they may arm terrorists and how it was in material breach of the ceasefire agreement. And a limited bombing campaign was all that resulted. You may very well know my pain of watching the wounded and disfigured veterans at the VA hospital here at Danville or in your area proudly proclaim they’d do it again if that’s what it took. You may very well know my pain in watching the country slowly slip towards defeatism as what we fought and bled for is tossed aside as some pointless misadventure that we should abandon.

You very well may know my pain.

But if you know my pain then you can never make the conflicts we’ve undertaken against those regimes that supported our enemies and those regimes that violated our post war agreements while it brutalized its people some second tier importance as those conflicts rage on.

All of the GOP candidates with the glaring exception of Ron Paul at least had the right policy for Iraq. John McCain, in spite of his baggage knows, understands, and literally bleeds how I feel about the conflicts right now. His policy stances happen to be more in line with my own than other candidates but the differences hardly disturb me.

His views on federal judges alone, which include strict constructionist such as my personal hero, Clarence Thomas, but also recent appointees Roberts and Alito. There is little reason to doubt him even with the "Gang of 14" complaints as he was fighting for a compromise to ensure they got the vote they deserved and fought behind the scenes for them. I see no adverse legacy from McCain beyond the most qualified man to be Commander in Chief at a time of war and continuing to swing the court back to interpreting the Constitution for what it says, not what the public fads of the day wishes it said.

I hope the words of one of the most notable conservatives of the modern era may sway you more than I:

"Let’s grow up, conservatives! If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." - Barry Goldwater, encouraging his supporters to work for Nixon in 1960.

We, as those who care a great deal for the defense of America’s ideals, must come together after the beating that movement got in the last election, and compromise to ensure its survival. Reagan would have won regardless of whether or not Jimmy Carter would have mangled the economy and left us with foreign upheaval that is inching towards becoming nuclear threats to us and our allies later. Being frustrated with your options in an election is one thing… losing hope in American ideals to the point you’d capitulate to enemies of those ideals is unacceptable.

Champions of those American ideals will live on to carry on the good fight regardless of who wins in November. If we hand it to those who absolutely oppose them it will only make the battle to reinstate and protect them even harder later. I don’t know about you but I’d rather live on to face the battle of correcting some of McCain’s faults than the laundry list of faults of a Clinton or Obama administration with a Democratic Congress to ensure those faults are enshrined in law with Supreme Court Justices to help set them in stone.

But maybe I’m a bit of a maverick.

Related:

Why McCain: The Nitty Gritty