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.

[Sprite518]

Hey Ben you SOB. When the Republican party screws conservatives over. Guess what???? You are not getting our vote. Rest assure I along with many conservatives I know are sitting this election out. I am done with the Republican party.

[Hegewisch Dupa]

Thank you for making the election about what's best for the country instead of being about how cool and "principled" you can be by helping put Obama in charge.

[MSRiverdog]

The thing is everyone that lets the Dems win because they don’t like McCain (I don’t either) know what they are in for. Kinda stupid to let that happen isn’t it? I’m going to hang up my ego and vote for him, he’s the best man for the job, given our alternatives.

[beandog]

I swear some people are dumber than dirt. Do they really think that continually insulting people is going to get them to come around to their side.

[ARE SOLE]

It’s really telling that McCnutts could make his way forward easier if he’d promise unconditionally that there would be no amnesty, yet he won’t do it.

He is one loyal guy, solid and unyielding, a rock, a man you can count on if you are illegal or want to employ illegals.

[cripplecreek]

One more graduate of the John McCain school of how to win friends and infulence people through insults and intimidation.

[CodeToad]

The fools are the people running the Republican party who think no matter the candidate we can be conned into voting for him just because he is represented by the Republican party. I don’t vote party over country and I refuse to vote for someone who stomps on the Constitution and our freedoms, arms Muslim terrorists, uses the US military to aid illegal alien Muslim terrorists to try to take over another country, supports banning various firearms, etc.

[Sprite518]

Sometimes you have to destroy it in order to rebuild it. The Republicans have sold out the conservatives. I cannot support a turn coat liberal like John McNut.

[Right_in_Virginia]

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

You're not the least bit sorry.

And by allowing your political disappointments to deliberately place our fighting men and women in the hands of Clinton/Obama is an insult to THEM.

Shame on you.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

McBane came right out earlier and said he didn’t need our vote......

I’m honoring that request. I will write in the name of one of my POW/MIA Brothers in the PUTUS slot, other wise, I will only vote for THE most Conservative candidates on the ballot, any moderate RINO’s get a blank beside their name.

It’s time to suffer a little temporary pain and clean house once and for all, or else simply sweep this mess under the rug AGAIN and have to deal with an impossible, mouldy garbage heap much later on. Not to mention having to rebuild Conservative credibility from scratch, all over again.

[Designer]

"But allowing Hillary or Obama in.."

FYI: John McCain can't win.

"And THAT is the “bottom line” in 2008."

[ARE SOLE]

Two posts, two insults. Thats the last that will go unanswered.

Anyone who voted for Bush and didn’t like what he has done say on illegals has been slammed on this site ever since ...” you knew his position when he ran ...he said he was a compassionate conservative, he said he wanted to bring these folks out of the shadows ...” Well no more. To hell with McCain. I am not going to be hit for tacitly approving what he does by voting for him.

[cripplecreek]

FYI: John McCain can't win.

Just look at the numbers from last week's primary races. Hillary lost every race with far more votes than McQueeg won with.

[NavyCanDo]

Which one of these candidates does not support the Fairness Doctrine? In fact led the way in a stand against its passage.

McCain, Obama, Hillary?

You want to see the GOP in a world of hurt, you want to see the demise of free speech on the radio, the end of radio stations devoted to conservative talk, then lets all turn our backs on the GOP nominee and give the election to Hillary or Obama.

[AmericaUnited]

This man is NOT afraid to leave the plantation.

Neither are drunks, toddlers, the mentally insane afraid to run out into a busy highway.

[tumblindice]

In their defense:
An old mountain man stopped a motorist in the boonies outside Toad Suck, Arkansas, by standing in the road and leveling a shotgun.
He handed the driver a quart Ball jar filled with a clear liquid—`moonshine’, the man figured.
Pointing the shotgun at his stomach, he said, “Drink that city boy.”
His hands shaking, he did what he was told. A minute went by, no ill effects.
Then the old fellow handed him the gun and said,
“Now, you hold it on me while I drink.”

[Right_in_Virginia]

You’re spitting in the eye of every honorable American soldier.

Somethings are true whether you like it or not. This is one of them.

And, I repeat: There is NO justification for harming our soldiers as part of your political tantrum. Shame on you!

[pnh102]

1) Abortion. McCain has a good record on supporting the life of any fetus in the womb.

McCain got the endorsement of a pro-baby-killing group "Republicans for Choice" (sic).

2) The Supreme Court.

Three words for you... Gang of 14. McCain sold Bush's strict constructionist judicial nominees up the river when it suited him politically.

The War against Islamic Jihad.

McCain wants to close Club Gitmo and grant terrorists civil rights. He is also against the effective aggressive interrogation techniques that have saved countless American lives.

Personally, I believe that McCain is such an attention whore that he would entertain the idea of surrendering in Iraq if the leftist media pushed the issue. He wants so badly to be "their hero" that he has consistently sold conservatives up the river to achieve that "maverick" label he so covets. What is to say he won't further compromise to win more popularity?

4) Tax cuts.

McCain opposed both of Bush's tax cut packages in 2001 and 2003.

At least Obama is honest about being a pro-surrender socialist.

[SkiKnee]

I have to agree, I was Navy under Carter as CIC (USS Truxtun, CGN-35). I cannot let our guys get saddled with an Obama or (worse) Clinton as their CIC, they would be abused and used as fodder for every dimwit UN “meals-on-wheels” program under the sun and never, EVER allowed to do anything in defense of the US.

[Hegewisch Dupa]

Bless ya Sprite. You are one of the few anti-McCainites who really does have some type of plan in order. Most can't wait to brag about sitting on their rump on election day not because of a master plan, but because it makes them feel good about themselves.

It's like a couple anti-abortion dudes I've run into, on the Michael Vick threads. They were going on about who cares about dogs when x-many babies were being killed every day. I suggested, and not rudely for once, that since the people on this thread obviously were compassionate, maybe this would be a good forum to bring them into the fold, point out similarities; not turn them off and therefore away. I was laughed at, people told me they "don't care about changing anyone's mind." Then I learned - it's about telling us all how cool they are, not saving babies for some people.

You are not one of those people. I understand your stance. I don't agree - seems too much a danger to the country to have an idiot like Barack in charge in time of terror. BUT - I can be wrong - been known to happen. Hope I am. Regardless, you are thinking of the country first, and thank you.