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.

[cripplecreek]

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

Johnny Mac doesn't care enough to do what needs to be done to get info from captured soldiers. Nor have I heard a peep out of him about the fact that the chinese are supplying weapons that are used to kill our soldiers.

[Republic Rocker]

If u want socialist welfare, high taxes outta your checks, the incentive to invest reduced by elevating the capital gains, activist judges overturning everything we stand for and a defeat in Iraq.... go ahead and sit out. When you get your heads out of the sand you will be facing a scary landscape.

[EnigmaticAnomaly]

"But conservatives are fools if they stay home in November."

Bears repeating...

[sickoflibs]

"Hillary, you really are my valentine,, you will force the right wing nutcases to vote for me HA-HA-HA, no matter which of us wins I will always reach across the isle to pass your agenda. Love, YOUR Maverick”

[cripplecreek]

info from captured soldiers. = info from captured terrorists

[Designer]

"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?"

Let's be perfectly clear about where, exactly, to place the blame: Can you say Republican National Committee?

They had their chance to push, influence, advertise, and otherwise promote a conservative, yet they have done nothing of the sort. Instead, we see that all the Republican establishment is fawning over John McCain, as if he is the second coming of Bob Dole, or something.

BTW: John McCain can't win the general, and he is the Republican's next "throw-away" nominee.

"Because he's "earned it", don't you know?"

[Right_in_Virginia]

Nonsense.

[ARE SOLE]

Go to hell. Sell out republican ass kisser. McCain will see to it that our guys have no country to come back to. Illegal lover, Globull warming believer, CFR supporter, Gitmo hater, Ted Kennedy coddler, Hillary Clinton loving, non waterboarding wimp. Traitor. I served did you?

[Ingtar]

If we rally behind McDole and he wins, that sends the message that he is OK. The next batch of candidates will make this year’s set look good.

[Sgt_Schultze]

He has always fought governmental corruption

Except when he was committing it (Keating 5)
I've got to agree though that sitting out is a bad idea. I can understand passing up voting for President, but you have to protect the down ballot candidates.

[ex-snook]

I’m not sitting out. I’m voting Third for President and waiting for 2012.

[Right_in_Virginia]

You’re clearly in the grips of MDS.

Get some professional help.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

You are absolutely correct. It took Carter to open America’s eyes and elect Reagan. This is not the end when we lose. (the GOP WILL lose this one in a big way.)

It is only another beginning in our rebuilding process. Anything the Democrats do can be undone. We can also lobby our hearts out and make so much noise, they will have great difficulty in getting any legislation passed that will stop us.

Now is the time to stand up and fight for what we believe, not cower in the corner and vote for Juan McEvil because some of us are cowards and “FEAR” the Democrats.

On the contrary. Even though my old combat unit was greatly out numbered, we won all of our battles because the enemy feared our great determination and resolve.

The enemy could not understand our unit citation (Emblem of the 101st Airborne) because they had never seen eagles before, so they called us “Chicken Men”. And to them, that meant great respect and fear. Their saying was, “Never fight the Chicken Men, you can’t win against them.”

The Democrats are spineless and lack all moral direction. They are easily defeated by the strong and courageous.

[cripplecreek]

I have to wonder how a soldier in the field will feel when he gets the call that his wife and daughter were raped and murdered by an illegal alien.

[wita]

Whew! I was breezing through the typically ignorant and just glossed over yours until I saw the name. Backup for a reread. Second time I saw where you were, spot on. It seems to be a lesson that many conservatives and Republicans refuse to learn, divided we fall and fail.

There is one thing to be learned from the liberal and democrat side of the isle, they stick together. Rarely any talk about holding your nose, or the lesser of two evils. Leave it to the overly proud and in their mind, principled, who seem to prefer to lay down rather than fight.

The fight is a constant, it never ends, before during and after elections the fight is endless as long as there are folks out there whose minds are not right and are willing to attempt to change the nature of the Republic. I would much rather fight from the high ground than as the party out of power with no control over any branch of government.

It wasn’t so long ago that Ross Perot was able to take 20 percent or so of voters, and the painful result was eight years of WJC, surely our memories are not that short.

[CommerceComet]

I didn't have a problem with Bob Dole.

Nor did I. Dole wasn't as conservative as I would have wanted but he was every bit as conservative as Fred Thompson who was supposedly the conservative savior this year. I still wish Dole had gotten the nomination in 1988 rather than George H. W. Bush.

Bob Dole is given a lot of grief for running a bad campaign but unfortunately for Republicans, Bill Clinton wasn't going to be beaten in 1996, no matter who was the Republican candidate.

[ElectricStrawberry]

I’m not “sitting out”....I’ll vote for the most conservative 3rd party or write in if there isn’t one.

....unless Juan McCain repeals the free-speech blackout periods provisions of McCain-Feingold BEFORE the election.

[K-oneTexas]

I'm not trying to insult or intimidate you or anyone else. That is my opinion. Whether anyone likes it or not. Whether any one agrees or not. Many seem to now lament that the GOP is gone and would allow the country to follow suit. That is alright to let socialism get a larger foothold, saying don't worry we can bring it back in 4 or 8 years. I think that is not the case. If it was the social entitlements of the 60's would not have grown in the 80's.

I am disappointed in the GOP. I'm think that those at the top helped move things left with changing the Primary System. I believe mostly that voters need to become more educated and not revert to a case of amnesia during elections. There is a lot wrong, but I'll not walk away because things didn't go my way.

I'll not hope against hope that some other 3rd party will come alone or be created that will do what I believe is right. Third parties are just that ... third. I will continue to work within the GOP at the local and State levels to bring it back to closer to where I believe it operates best. The GOP has the best chance of making change nationwide.

I respectfully disagree with you. You have the right to your opinion and I have the right to mine. You don't know me from Adam's off ox ... but yet you would insult me by telling me my motives/opinion are base and that I don't know anything because I have a view different from yours. When I saw that picture it said to me what I've been hearing in too many threads in recent weeks. America is doomed since the GOP left conservative values and so we can allow the Dem/Libs/Socials take over.

I originally joined FR because I saw reasoned and cordial discussions. That's not the case anymore. Many seem to have a need to have all see things their way and are not above pointed sarcasm to make a point.

I still believe in what President Reagan spoke of during his life about America. And I still believe, as he did, that the GOP is the vehicle to get there.

[cripplecreek]

My vote will be a write in because the only vote wasted is the vote not cast.