If you have read this thread, I think you will see that your pro-McCain views are in a minority here. I am a former Thompson supporter and consider myself a very mainstream conservative. I’ve voted for every GOP nominee for President since Ronald Reagan.
That being said, like many of us in this forum, I am also a conservative first and a Republican second. A fluke of circumstances, terribly weak candidates, MSM fawning, and a substantial minority of moderate to liberal, misled, and/or uninformed GOP primary voters have conspired to make Sen. McCain the presumptive GOP nominee. It should be noted that he has managed to become the frontrunner of the party while losing 2/3 of GOP voters in almost every primary state.
John McCain not only supported and promoted amnesty for 10 to 20 million or more illegal aliens, he CONTINUES to do so with a wink and a nod to the liberal media and editorial boards. I have no doubt that if he becomes President, in addition to sabotaging conservatives at every turn, he will DESTROY both the GOP AND the country by legalizing these 20 million plus illegals PLUS the 80 to 100 million more immigrants who will then arrive soon thereafter via chain migration and “family reunification”. This doesn’t even address the tens of millions more children of these illegal aliens.
The results of Sen. McCain’s policy would be the demographic destruction of conservatism and in fact the entire culture of the country as we have previously known it. Iraq, abortion, and spending are also irrelevant if you no longer have a country, and his continuing implicit and explicit support for amnesty is a DEALBREAKER for me and should be for any true conservative. It’s not simply a matter of SAYING “The people don’t trust us” and “I will secure the borders first” (a hollow promise in any event given his clear disdain for even doing the rudimentary things necessary to do so such as building a fence) He needs to ACKNOWLEDGE that our opposition is legitimate, ADDRESS our opposition substantively, MAKE SPECIFIC PROMISES that he will not foist his destructive views on us, and stop treating the 80 percent or so of Republicans that oppose him on this crucial issue as a bunch of racists and yahoos.
The fact that he was for the “surge”, is nominally pro-life, and against excessive spending are nice but SECONDARY to me as a mainstream conservative. On the most important issues, from taxes to judges to immigration to the environment, he is a complete and total liberal panderer.
That being said, I would further add that if McCain is the GOP nominee, and there is any chance of having a united GOP against Hildebeat in November, given his track record, the onus would be on HIM to make amends with conservatives, NOT vice-versa. HE has to show that he would sincerely change from being the “Anti-conservative” he has been since 2000, and that he truly UNDERSTANDS and RESPECTS why most conservatives hold him in such low regard. He will have to do something he has shown a complete unwillingness to do - namely LISTEN to opposing views even if he disagrees with them and work WITH conservatives instead of AGAINST us.
The reality is that Rush and Sean Hannity are not causing the dissension - they are merely REFLECTING the dissension and disenchantment that we conservatives have with McCain. And it should also be noted that Both Sean and Rush’s views on substantive issues are far closer to those of most Republicans on most major issues than John McCain’s views are.
So far, McCain has done NOTHING to mend fences. He has instead shown every indication that he will STILL push for an amnesty bill which will destroy the country, will create a coalition with Democrats and RINO’s rather than work with conservatives, and spend the next 4 years continuing to vindictively sabotage every conservative initiative that may come up. Even on Judges we’re almost certain to get Kennedys and O’Connors instead of Scalias and Alitos.
As horrible as it is to contemplate, like many other conservatives, I feel that at this point the prospect of 4 years of a destructive, liberal Democratic President may in fact be the lesser of two evils.
All I can say is you get what you vote for..
McCain has an 83 percent conservative voting record over his lifetime... that ain’t too bad. Romney is getting a pass on his Conservative credentials.
Do some investigation, legitimate not Sean or Rush talking points and then find out who is the More Conservative of the two don’t just jump on the Hate McCain Train cause someone told you to.
Just one example of the problems I have with Romney: He morphed and contorted his positions to pander to the right. Here is just one example. The position on Iraq. Is it fair that Romney gets a free ride on the surge? McCain staked his entire candidacy on the Iraq issue (which by the way is the defining issue of our time) he said that winning in Iraq was more important than running for POTUS. Now Romney needs to be made to answer on why he morphed his Iraq position and cannot be allowed to ride the gravy train of the force surge which can be argued that he did not exactly support 100 percent at the time it was implements and Romney did say that maybe you conduct secret negotiations with the Iraq leaders for drawdown of troops and now its being played as if McCain is being unfair about Romney’s position? I just don’t get that. Another example is Romney’s position on Abortion... morphed to pander... Romney’s position on taxes ... morphed to pander... Romney’s position on illegals.. .morphed.. sure he says what you want to hear now but what about before it became such a hot button among Republicans...McCain changed his position too but you hear nothing but McCain/Kennedy being force fed to you by the talking heads...
So if you want to elect a candidate that is going to get ripped apart by Obama or Hillary then go right ahead...
Sean and Rush are banking on you being the disgruntled Conservative that continues to listen to them as their ratings sky rocket under a Dem president...
Me there is simply to much at stake for our posterity to make such an assinine choice.