Posted on 02/14/2008 7:43:09 AM PST by K-oneTexas
Conservatives: Sitting Out 2008 Is the Height of Idiocy Ben Shapiro The conservative base isn't fond of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. They disagree with him on a wide variety of issues, and they feel insulted by McCain's ardent desire to please those across the political aisle. But conservatives are fools if they stay home in November. There's plenty to question about John McCain, but there's one thing conservatives can't question: McCain is better than Hillary Clinton. He's better than Barack Obama. And it's not close. McCain is a hard-line proponent of victory in Iraq. He has pledged to lower taxes. He has always fought governmental corruption, even if that has led him to absurd extremes like campaign finance reform. He is a strong pro-life voter. He says he will veto any bill that has any earmarks. In 2006, McCain received a 65% rating from the American Conservative Union, which measures whether members of Congress are in line with conservatives on major issues. In 2005, his score was 80%. Here are Hillary Clinton's scores in those same two years: 8% and 12%. Obama scored 8% both years. It's simply unthinkable to equate McCain's record with either Clinton's or Obama's. McCain is a left-leaning Republican, which means he ranks in the upper half of the Senate in terms of political conservatism. National Journal, by contrast, ranked Clinton the 16th most liberal senator in the Senate in 2007. Obama was No. 1. Despite the vast difference between McCain and his Democratic opponents, many conservatives are threatening to boycott the 2008 election. They argue that the Republican Party has abandoned conservatism, and that in order to reclaim the Party, the GOP may have to go through the purifying ritual of cataclysmic electoral defeat. This is historically ignorant. Intraparty squabbles are constant with regard to choosing presidential candidates. Parties do not move toward a particular ideological group because of electoral defeat they move toward a particular ideological group because that group is most motivated to back a single candidate. Ronald Reagan was a rising force in the Republican Party before Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter -- he almost wrested the nomination from Ford in 1976. The Democratic Party's recent move to the left has not been a reaction to their electoral defeats in 2000 and 2004 after all, Al Gore and John Kerry were certainly quite liberal. The problem with the conservative movement in 2008 wasn't the movement -- it was the lack of a candidate. And sending the GOP to ringing defeat in 2008 won't push the Party back to the right unless there's a candidate to rally around. If conservatives think they can rally around a challenger in 2012 and oust an incumbent Democrat, they should think again. Conceding the White House in 2008 could easily mean an eight-year term for either Hillary or Obama and such an eight-year term would wreak havoc on a country already overburdened by taxes and under assault from Islamic terrorism. The proposed conservative boycott of the GOP in 2008 also demonstrates a massive misunderstanding of the GOP's role. The GOP isn't constructed to nominate conservative candidates. It is constructed to win. It's the conservative base's responsibility to nominate conservative candidates. In 2008, the conservative base failed. That isn't the GOP's fault. Punishing the GOP fruitlessly punishes an organization that isn't to blame. Conservatives must recognize that the choice in 2008 is between John McCain and Clinton or Obama. It isn't about McCain vs. Romney or McCain vs. Huckabee anymore. And if McCain wins, that doesn't preclude conservatives from rallying around a more conservative candidate next time. Dooming the country to at least four years of Democratic incompetence and appeasement won't solve conservatives' problem.
FamilySecurityMatters.org contributing editor Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School. He is also the author of the recently published "Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future" as well as the national best seller "Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth." He practices law in Los Angeles.
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With McCain in there, it will sail through as fast as the Republicans in the House and Senate have proven they will not stand on principle to oppose a president from their own party.
We lost the battle because we were fighting with the wrong weapon. It reminds me of the Book of First Samuel. The Philistines convinced Israel to give up their weapons and the Philistines gave them farming tools instead. When the went to war Israel had few weapons and King Saul and Johnathan were killed.
We’re trying to fight with a weapon given us by the enemy. The weapon: The Republican party, the enemy: The political elitists.
Well then by all means vote for Obama! With McCain, the glass is half full, with Obama its empty.
“Conservatives: Sitting Out 2008 Is the Height of Idiocy”
Getting just about sick and tired of being bullied and called names by Republicans in order to eat their sh*t sandwich.
Obama. In a 40 state landslide.
With McCain the glass is about 90% empty.
You are assuming that there will be an America by the next election cycle. You are having faith that the Democrats will not totally convert this nation into their socialist utopia by then. You are banking on the people getting sick of the Democrats' destruction of this country's honor, integrity, and productivity. You are flirting with the devil here if your gamble does not pan out, my friend...
If we can stop him from passing the midnight shamnesty bill with the democrats I will hold my nose and vote for him.
Can we stop him from doing this? Lest he forget, his campaign was all but dead in the water after his proposed bill and I hope he remembers it well.
I am going to take some convincing on this to the point that I demand a public pledge from him that he will not grant any form of amnesty to illegals at the convention before he gets my vote. I hope millions of others demand the same thing of him because I think that is the only way we can save him (and what is left of the GOP) from himself.
Our house of entitlements is on fire and we can ill afford pouring the gasoline of illegal immigration on an already doomed structure.
I honestly believe this is the issue he can win on because independents and blue collar democrats seem to share my concern.
“Campaign finance reform was not about cleaning up corruption. It was about ensuring that the spoils of corruption only went to club members.”
Amen! Shapiro, whoever that is, is willfully ignorant of that fact. Or he’s stupid. Or he’s lying.
Somewhere along the line the strategists have convinced enough people that a true conservative can't win. This is a mess we have created ourselves by believing the wrong people and voting strategy rather than conscience. Sure by the time we actually have a nominee you have to look at who the race is between. But what everyone does is give up on a true conservative before the race even starts. How many people endorsed Guiliani because he could beat Hillary? Not only was Guiliani never a contender, but Hillary may not be the Democrat nominee. The strategists know nothing but what THEY personally want. We should fight for a conservative from the very start all the way up until someone has 1,191 votes. If we face a brokered convention then fine. Whoever wins it is the nominee. Fight until you cannot fight and THEN weigh the situation between the Republican and Democrat nominee.
That is one of the things I disagree with him about but I would rather have him in office where we as a group have a chance of changing his mind instead of someone who we have no chance of swaying. McCain does love America and has far more character than Obama. Even Clinton loves her country more than Obama. Obama hates America.
All poiticians do that crap. Its part of politics.
“Obama hates America.”
Well he IS a socialist, but other than that, on what evidence to you base this opinion?
That is the same as saying we have to have someone hold our hands and tell us who to vote for. Americans chose who they wanted.
But allowing Hillary or Obama or McCain in would be a betrayal of all the brave fighting men and women in our armed services and all the deaths, sufferings and grief they and their families have undergone in Iraq.
I see nothing in McCain's past that indicates he would oppose any of the same agenda. His history of pushing the Democrat's agenda in order to say he accomplished something leaves me thinking it is a wash on who would be worse.
The Democrats are spineless and lack all moral direction. They are easily defeated by the strong and courageous. But they will be in charge. Scares me even more.
You commented to ARE SOLE,
Too bad youll also be screwing our military and Americas security.
I then added: ...and you and me in the process, but what the hell they (unreferenced pronoun meant to include that group you were addressing) have principles (principles as explained in your comment to me by this "over the "principles" of irrational politicos any day", or for that matter, the mythical and false principles of certain conservatives willing to cut off their nose to spite our military specifically and the country in general. Meaning you and I will be added to the screw list you began in the previous comment to post number 24.
Hopefully that, (unreferenced pronoun) will help.
If not, what it all means (nothing personal) I'm on your side.
Then again maybe I have completely misunderstood.
A voice of sanity and reason. Not very welcome in FR these days. People are having too much fun wallowing in self pity. Of course you are right and you said it very eloquently. Thanks.
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