The Madness Of John McCain
There was a time when I respected John McCain. Early in the 2008 primary campaign I was on record saying that John McCain was a Republican that I could actually vote for. I was not alone. Many moderates and liberals felt a respect for McCain that transcended traditional party lines. That respect was shaken somewhat by his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. It seemed to be a purely political choice designed to placate the Republican base while at the same time pandering to moderate women voters. Maybe it was all understandable. Running for President, after all, can impose on any candidate a sort of temporary insanity which makes him say and do things which are not reflective of his fundamental nature.
We all hoped that in the aftermath of Obama’s election John McCain would put the election behind him, revert back to his bi-partisan ways and work with this new President to push through important programs like health care reform and immigration reform. However, that was before the rise of the tea parties and the formation of a unified Republican opposition to the President’s agenda. Instead, McCain’s reelection campaign has forced him into the familiar “Republican electoral two step”. First you lurch to the right, and then you sprint back to the middle before the general public gets wise. This year, however, McCain’s job is made even more difficult by the Republican Party’s inexorable move to the right.
The Tea Party movement distrusts and even hates John McCain. He is constantly fighting an uphill battle to prove himself with a disappointed, angry, organized conservative electorate. In his attempt to ingratiate himself with this new radical right power base, he has attempted to change his message, his friends and his tone. The result is a John McCain who is completely different from the man that moderates and liberals once admired. After voting against a health care reform bill that in better days he would have been co-sponsoring, he stomped his foot like a third grader and announced unequivocally that he would withhold his cooperation from any Senate business for the rest of the year. He wanted to be seen talking tough to the Democrats,. instead, he simply sounded like a petulant juvenile. Since the election, he has backtracked on immigration reform, financial reform and energy reform as well.
Now he is attempting to jettison his well cultivated image as a political “maverick”. In an interview with Newsweek Magazine, McCain stated that he “never considered himself a maverick”. At the very least, this is belied by the massive amount of campaign material from 2008. Then there’s the title of his autobiography; “Worth Fighting For: The Education of an American Maverick”
Unfortunately for McCain, the right wing conformists don’t want a “maverick”. They want a man in congress who will stand firm against Democrats at all costs and against all reason. Compromise has become the language of the traitor. Crossing party lines is now the equivalent of treason. Everything that made John McCain so appealing to the moderates and the liberals has become political kryptonite. In this toxic environment, he believes his only hope is to not only leave his past behind him, but to bury it 6 feet deep.
McCain’s problem is that nothing that he does will truly help him with the extreme right wing. They will continually see him as a RINO. (Republican in name only) It doesn’t mean he won’t win. There is still some question about how effective the Tea Party movement will be in getting out the vote. If he does win the primary, he will then be a favorite to go on to win another term as Arizona’s senior Senator. But at what cost to the legacy of John McCain. For a man who prided himself on withstanding the tortures of enemy imprisonment, he seems to have sold out quickly and completely to a set of party ideologies which he has always resisted in the past. So in the end, McCain will have lost his fans on the left and in the middle to please people who will never respect him no matter what he does. He has sold his soul and his integrity to the right wing and received nothing of value in return. It is sad to see and sad to say, but John McCain the “Maverick” has been saddled, bridled and broken. Instead of an “American Maverick” he is now running to become nothing more than a Tea Party “plow horse”.
I too had a deep respect for John McCain, even if are views on policies were polor oppisites. He was a man the fought for his country, survived as a POW, and continued to work for his country afterwords by representing his constituents in Arizona as a United States Senator in Congress. However, this “maverick” has along with the rest of his party drop bi-partison tactics in favor of obstuctionism and pandering to their new republican tea party base. The man that campaigned in 2008 as the maverick that would cross party lines to help this country is gone and I fear he isnt coming back. He has so far renounced his “maverick” title, which broke my heart because it was that part that even a hard core lefty like myself could respect.
Little an awkward teenager, John McCain is suffering from peer pressure. When the Republican party changed and moved towards the radical right and with the Tea Party movement, McCain followed obediently behind, comprimising his long held stances on bi-partisonship.