There is a lot of silliness on the part of McCain supporters when it comes to why conservatives are having such trouble with McCain. It is because they are don\u2019t\u2019 control him, or because they don\u2019t like his style, or because he isn\u2019t pure enough,\u00a0 implying that he has only minor deviations from core conservative principles and conservatives just need to get over themselves and support him.<\/p>\n
Such arguments are at best counterproductive.\u00a0 One of the worst things you can do when trying to win over someone is to misrepresent or distort their grievances, as this only leads at minimum to a renewed effort to be understood, and more likely a hardening of the divisions.<\/p>\n
While I by no means speak for all conservatives, I do think my views are fairly common among conservatives.\u00a0 Long before McCain\u2019s political resurrection to capture the GOP nomination, I believed there were six main issues of importance in the upcoming election.\u00a0\u00a0 The War on Terrorism, the Economy, the Courts,\u00a0 Health Care, Global Warming, and Immigration.<\/p>\n
McCain is said to have solid credentials on war, and for the most part this is true.\u00a0 Yet he has also been a pretty consistent critic at the same time, particularly over water boarding and other tough interrogation methods, arguing if we do these, then others might use these methods on our soldiers. Not only do I disagree with such reasoning, I find it very troubling.\u00a0 Does McCain really believe that when He, Hillary or Obama gets in the White House next year and announces that we will no longer use such practices, that suddenly Al Qaeda will start treading any soldiers they capture by the Geneva Convention?\u00a0 If not, then why use this argument?<\/p>\n
As for the broader war effort, McCain has spent so much time taking credit for the surge, that I don\u2019t really know where he stand on the broader war on terror, but my assumption is that he is probably ok,\u00a0 but I would like him to speak a bit more on issues such as Iran.<\/p>\n
But this goes to another key problem with McCain.\u00a0 He is not a conservative, is a politician who has largely voted conservative, thought less so in recent years.\u00a0 Frankly I never know where he will come down on a given issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In short, McCain on the war is Ok, but there are several key question marks.\u00a0 \u00a0This is also my concern with the courts.\u00a0\u00a0 He has made some good comments, and has been reported to have made some troubling ones.\u00a0 But when it comes to judges, will the Conservative McCain pick them, or will the McCain who reaches across the aisle pick them? \u00a0I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
When it comes to the economy,\u00a0 McCain has admitted he does not know very much, as was demonstrated by voting against the Bush Tax cuts.\u00a0 He now says he wants them extended, but it is very hard not to see this as driven by the campaign.\u00a0 It would not at all surprise me should he become President, to see him taking a page from Bill Clinton and claiming \u201cI tried as hard as I could but\u2026\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
He seems to be getting some good advisors, but what troubles me the most is that given his lack of understanding he does not realize the effect of some of his other proposals will have.\u00a0 Given some of his other proposals, and his past history, I would not at all be surprised to see a net tax increase under a McCain administration. Thus for me this is a slight negative.<\/p>\n
On Health care, McCain\u2019s propensity to reach across the aisle combined with his lack of understanding of how economies work cause me to be very concerned.\u00a0 The current strategy of the Liberals is to incrementally move towards single payer, Government run health care.\u00a0 Will McCain take a strong stance for individual freedom and control over their own health care, pushing for a solution based on market forces, or will he link up with a Senator Clinton to reach a bi-partisan (read liberal) solution? \u00a0Again his history is hardly comforting in this area.\u00a0 His comments about the drug companies are very troubling and make this a negative.<\/p>\n
When it comes to the last two items Global Warming and Immigration, McCain is clearly and solidly on the other side.\u00a0\u00a0 I consider both to be very important issues.\u00a0 Global Warming represents a massive shift of power away from individual people to have control over their lives, giving it to the Government.\u00a0 This is yet another indication of why McCain so troubling. He claims to be a low tax, small government conservative, yet he supports Global warming initiates that will greatly increase the tax burden, along with the size and scope of Government.\u00a0 This is a big negative.<\/p>\n
As for Immigration, while he claims to have \u201clistened and learned\u201d he clearly hasn\u2019t. The biggest message from last years\u2019 failure of the immigration bill was, build the fence, enforce the laws, and after this is done, then we will talk about those who are still here.\u00a0 Yet, a recently campaign commercial here in Wisconsin sounded like it could have been said by McCain during last year\u2019s debate, except that he has added the phrase \u201clistened and learned.\u201d Another big negative.<\/p>\n
So on the six issues that are most important to me, on none does he get my unqualified endorsement.\u00a0 One is at best a big question mark, one is a slight negative, one is a negative and two are very large negatives.<\/p>\n
So when McCain supporters claim that conservative opposition is simply about style, purity, or control, they are just showing me that they really don\u2019t have a clue, or they do and are just lying.\u00a0 It has been a very unusual year and perhaps McCain will be the first President elected without the support of the base of his party.\u00a0\u00a0 For me, my current plan is to vote for McCain in November, and I will detail my reasons why in a future post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is a lot of silliness on the part of McCain supporters when it comes to why conservatives are having such trouble with McCain. It is because they are don\u2019t\u2019 control him, or because they don\u2019t like his style, or because he isn\u2019t pure enough,\u00a0 implying that he has only minor deviations from core conservative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,13,15,16,18,22,35,36,37],"tags":[211,323,1995,1998,558,2002,2003,665,838,2016],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-domestic-policy","category-economy","category-election","category-enviroment","category-foreign-policy","category-iraq-war","category-social-issues","category-taxes","category-terrorism","tag-bush-tax-cuts","tag-conservatives","tag-courts","tag-economy","tag-geneva-convention","tag-global-warming","tag-health-care","tag-immigration","tag-mccain","tag-terrorism"],"yoast_head":"\n