…But, I have reluctantly come to a decision to try to vote for John McCain.
“Reluctantly,” because McCain represents the first half of the choice between statism and socialism. Rewarding McCain sends the wrong message. “Try to,” because I know that moment of truth in the voting booth will be a challenge.
Because my resolve is necessarily weak, I’m word-for-word memorizing Obama’s redistributionist comments and his calls for surrender in Iraq. I’ve been slopped in the fetid swamp of ACORN and dunked in Obama’s Chicago-style definition of campaign finance deform. I’m making up a mnemonic of his Chicago allies’ names in order to repeat them to myself. Even so, blackening the box next to McCain’s name will be a close run thing.
This choice eventuated from the machinations of RINOs who wanted a pavilion lavish enough (a tent would be insufficiently grand) to effectively include liberal Democrats, and who, like Colin Powell, Chris Buckley, Ken Adelman and Doug Kmiec are even now jumping ship to preserve their access to dinners at the White House. They’re besmirching even the reputation of “country club Republicans.”
McCain’s nomination and his (if not Sarah Palin’s) subsequent campaign rhetoric have included shameful repudiations of principle – bashing free market concepts for actual government failures as a prime example. This is as shameful as George Bush’s failure to veto McCain-Feingold, his imposition of steel tariffs or his enabling of the largest increase in entitlements of all time. However, Bush was already elected when he commited failures of principle. John McCain, as the nominee, has been the standard bearer of an effort to redefine the principles into oblivion – in order to satisfy his “maverick” self-vision as much as to appeal to Democrats and Independents.
Don’t mistake the angst of my vote, it’s not that I think McCain is your classic lesser-of-two-evils, he’s set new standards; it’s just that Obama has also set new standards – as the greater evil.
If you are looking for a cynical and corrupt Chicago ward-heeler who has the least relevant experience of any Presidential nominee in two generations, Barack Obama is your man. He sports the most leftist voting record in the Senate, lies about how he regards the 2nd Amendment and has voted in favor of what can only be described as infanticide. The damage of which he is capable is dismaying. And he’ll not be doing it alone.
The Democrat oligarchy, emboldened by the the prospect of an Obama administration, is proposing to nationalize your 401(k), cut defense spending by 25% and is openly bragging about raising taxes… Eventually. They don’t think it’s such a good idea to raise taxes now, when the economy is as much in the tank as the media. The assumption seems to be that raising taxes discourages economic growth. So if raising taxes when times are bad is a bad idea, why is it ever a good idea? As Joe Biden might say, two words: “Redistribution of wealth.” You might say “purchasing of votes.” And you can count to three.
Democrats also favor eliminating the secret ballot in Union organizing votes and want to reintroduce free speech restrictions via the “Fairness Doctrine.” (Note that if the fairness of media was the point, there would already have been outrage from the left about the Obama cheerleaders in the Maim Scream Media™. Even some of the media are ashamed, though the Democrat party proper is not.)
With Obama and a Dem majority, you get all this and increased looting, too:
Frank envisions post-election stimulus from Democrats
Meanwhile, we’ve learned Obama was less circumspect about redistributing wealth in a 1995 NPR appearance than he was in answering Joe the Plumber’s question. He obliquely blames the founders for not including “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” in the Constitution.
Finally, we need barely touch on Obama’s feckless foreign policy ideas which would see us withdraw immediately from Iraq in order to attack Pakistan while Obama is having an unprecondtional kumbaya roundtable with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez and Kim Jong-Il to explain the invasion is because he needs to establish a reputation for toughness. Could be the crisis Biden is predicting.
In sum: John McCain may not deserve to win, but this country does not deserve to lose.
PS, If you can’t bring yourself to vote for McCain, at least try to get non-Democrats into the House and Senate. That could certainly include rejecting putative Republicans; a Joe Leiberman, for example, would be far better than a Lincoln Chafee.