Jonah Goldberg argues that conservatives have some growing up to do when it comes to McCain. Without offering his own support for McCain’s candidacy and admitting his multiple flaws, he makes a good case that there is more to admire in him as a conservative than there is to decry. But McCain is so annoying . . . and that may be his undoing. Even so, Goldberg argues, will this hurt him more than it hurts us? That is a toss up, to be sure.
He’s right that McCain is a lot more conservative than Giuliani, who is probably the most liberal major candidate from either party. By the same token Hunter is more conservative than McCain. But the assumption that the typical GOP voter is conservative is unproven. The party has been shedding voters to the right and picking them up to the left for decades now. It’s arguably more "liberal" than the Democrats in some respects.
The typical GOP voter is certainly conservative. Any view to the contrary is sheer political ignorance.
Goldberg is right that some conservatives need to grow up. But this has always been the case. And their (general) rejection of McCain is wise, not childish.
I have perspective about McCain. If he gets the GOP nomination, even though Campaign Finance Reform was a Constitutional travesty, I’ll vote for the guy.
He irritates the hell out of us. But have any of you cared to speculate that it may have been that SPECIFIC trait of his that enabled him to get through the vicious beatings, day after day, after day, after day. And all the while, the beatings would stop if only he agreed to read their propaganda. The trait we bemoan is the thing that may have empowered him through his dark night of the soul.
McCain was on the verge of suicide, not like some Hollywood starlet. McCain was pushed beyond human endurance, and he has described, over a decade ago, in moving terms, what it was like for him to go alone into the depth of his soul, and find a God, THE GOD, who alone enabled him to tough out his ordeal.
McCain is one of those few men who have gone through something horrendous, yet wend his way through the Valley of the Shadow with the ABSOLUTE conviction of the existence of the Almighty.
McCain is a COMPLETELY different breed than the rest of us. Not to mention he’s a former fighter jockey, they too, they’re all independent types, overflowing with inherent aggressivity.
The three men who are something special in this campaign are all Republicans, Giuliani, McCain and Gingrich. Each of those men has a resume that’s compelling, for EACH of those men has done something superhuman, something that others barely thought possible. EACH of those men has weathered a criticism, a hailstorm of criticism that would have broken to the saddle any other man.
Just think about this, RUDY AND McCAIN have had movies made about them, GOOD MOVIES too.
And why should we care what the culturally illiterate neocon Jonah Goldberg says?
Afterall, this guy did not even know what the Austro-Hungarian Empire was...
https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/cgi-bin/rockfordfiles.cgi/Sweet%20Neocon/2006/05/24/The_Invincible_Igno
The Republican Party has not always been to the right. Just read Russell Kirk on this. From the Civil War to the 1950s, there were by and large more conservatives in the Democratic Party. For much of its early history, the Republican Party was a very radical, left-wing, big government party.
Don’t think you can call them "left-wing." I’d call them economic nationalists -- the only thing they had in common with today’s Left is a desire to use the government to make "improvements," but in the GOP’s case it was infrastructure. Their philosophy was simple: "What’s good for Henry Ford is good for America!"