Conservatives: Sitting Out 2008 Is the Height of Idiocy by Ben Shapiro

Family Security Matters ^ | 14 February 2008 | Ben Shapiro

[K-oneTexas]

Published: February 14, 2008

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.

[ZULU]

I understand how you feel.

Its past time for another political party.

But allowing Hillary or Obama 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. All of that will have gone to naught if Hillary or Obama winds up in Washington.

THEY deserve more from US - even if John McCain does not. At least he will not pull out until that area is secure and in that I believe him, if nothing else.

And THAT is the “bottom line” in 2008.

[crazydad]

If Obama is the nominee there is no way in hell I am sitting out this election. The dude scares me.

[roses of sharon]

Dear Ben,

It’s called “mavericking”.

Conservatives have learned from the best!

[Right_in_Virginia]

Conservatives have bent over backwards for the GOP for far too long. We are not going to bend over forwards. McCain prides himself on getting the non conservative vote. Screw him.

Too bad you'll also be screwing our military and America's security.

You must be so proud.

[jaime1959]

Many are prepared to cut off their nose to spite their face. Can McCain be any worse than Jorge Bush? Yet, you criticize “Dubya” here and you’re called a Dim mole or worse.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

I will never “stay home” on election day.

I also will never vote for John McCain.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Bob got my vote. There was very little choice at the time.

[rellimpank]

---that's what I always do, no matter what--

--"Going over a cliff with all flags flying is still going over a cliff"--Ronald Reagan--

[org.whodat]

Don’t need some 24 year old punk giving me advice.

[princess leah]

My feeling is that conservatives need to be e-mailin, calling, sending snail mail, faxes, etc to the McCain headquarters to send John a strong message: Remember your base - give us something like a strong conservative VP that will reach out to us and quit slapping us in the face!

[ARE SOLE]

Too bad you'll also be screwing our military and America's security.

You must be so proud.

An insult in every post. Sorry it offends you that I have a different opinion than you.

[Landru]

"Many are prepared to cut off their nose to spite their face."

Don't you mean nose in spite of their nose, given our choice?

"Can McCain be any worse than Jorge Bush? Yet, you criticize “Dubya” here and you’re called a Dim mole or worse."

BWAHAAAAAAA!!!

C'mon, now.
What's the truth have do with anything.

...anymore. :o)

[org.whodat]

Can McCain be any worse than Jorge Bush?

YES

[eclecticEel]

“the GOP may have to go through the purifying ritual of cataclysmic electoral defeat.”

If Obama secures the nomination (looking more and more inevitable) I don’t see how McCain can possibly win, regardless of what conservatives do. The “cataclysmic electoral defeat” is almost a certainty, the subsequent “purifying ritual” - we’ll see if that can happen.

[NYC Republican]

I agree with the story. Totally

[tumblindice]

“But conservatives are fools if they stay home in November.”

“Matthew 5: 22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”

These McCain supporters/`sweet-talkers’ are really smooth operators: “Fools! Grow up! Calm down!”.

[taildragger]

Can McCain be any worse than Jorge Bush?

J59'

No, but he being an extension of him on issues such as the boarder and McCain Feingold is enough for me.

We are tired of the RNC/GOP taking us for granted and us having to revolt to bring them in line, but they will do it again to us if he gets elected. I don't believe hi on the boarders, and if I can't believe him on that, I can't trust him on anything else.

[sickoflibs]

Terrorist rights. We cant interogate them and he wants to bring them to US and give them ACLU trials. And first amendment rights, how can he pick conservative judges to overturn McC-Finegold??

This is the first time in history (except BoB Dole) that liberal MSM is directing us to march to the republican party tune, only because they picked McCain. But if Obama gets it McCains’ liberal buddies will eat him alive, and we will be Maverics like him and wave at him going down.

[Dreagon]

Anybody else getting the sense that a lot of people in the GOP are starting to get afraid that they may have taken their conservative base too much for granted? That they may have just gone a step too far with McCain?

And now here they are throwing threats about how we better support McCain or else.

[NavyCanDo]

“He’s better than Barack Obama. And it’s not close.”

Right On!

I’m a Fredhead still sulking a little over him dropping out and my 2nd choice did not fare much better, so now that we are down to just McCain, I have to ask myself, who would rather turn the military over to, McCain, Clinton, or Obama?

Two of the above names would destroy the military as an effective fighting force by the sheer number of trained soldiers who would get out as soon as they could. They will be replaced by young people just looking for a job in the poor economy that certainly will come with a quasi-socialist government. Having served in the Navy under Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan I have seen this first hand, the difference in moral. Under Jimmy Carter, FTN was very popular graffiti found on the bulkheads of my ship, the stalls in the heads, and at the top of letters the sailors sent home. I’m not going to spell it out but you know what FTN stands for. When Reagan took over this attitude changed and we had pride once again, and re-enlistments went way up, and that foul graffiti disappeared.

If McCain is our nominee, as much as I dislike him I will hold my nose and vote for him for the sake of the military alone.