Folks,
I was having a conversation today with one my colleagues, a young, bright and impressionable moderate with conservative leanings. He was making a point about John McCain putting a new face on the Republican Party by being more moderate, a candidate likely to motivate the "Reagan Democrats" in the upcoming presidential election.
As a good progressive, I have some problems with that.
Ronald Reagan appealed to disaffected northern blue-collar workers in the '80's who no longer believed that the Democratic Party represented their interests. John McCain may be less ideologically- and more issue-driven than his predecessor, but he represents the same interests: the wrong war in the wrong country for the wrong reasons, a weak stance on the deficit, and a willingness to continue to prop up a healthcare system that rips off the working man and woman and undermines the social and economic strength of our country. Unless McCain can pull off a Rove-like deception to drive the election with social issues that have high emotional content but little real meaning to the well-being of the country, he will have a hard time explaining how his positions benefit the average Joe.
But even more troubling to me is that McCain is the default nominee of his party. He has apparently achieved the nomination only because the ultra-conservative vote was split between Romney and Huckabee early in the primary process, preventing either one from achieving a critical mass, not because he inspires his party to more enlightened thinking. The Neo-Cons hate his guts. Just ask Rush or O'Reilly. McCain will eventually have to pay his dues to the demagogue alliance that has co-opted the Republican Party.
Maybe, just maybe, if the Republican Party renounced the antiscientific, unconstitutional, and deceitful practices they have endorsed for the last 8 years and joined together to support a moderate candidate as a whole party, I might buy the idea that John McCain best represents the political center of the nation.
McCain is simply a sheep in wolf's clothing. The Republican Party cannot be rewarded for the accidental nomination of a moderate candidate.
Your Pal, and Doin’ the Left Thing
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Perhaps the most beleivable and ferocious wolf in sheep's clothing of them all is Mr. Obama himself. Obama is a shining light of exuberance on the UW campus for his inspiring speeches, appealing to the majority of my peers not for the issues he represents, but by the message of change he brings.
In the last 2 weeks, I can think of two things that have undermined his character. The first is his position on NAFTA. While fiercely opposing NAFTA and calling for greater restrictions on trade in a state susceptible to populist ideology, his campaign is telling Canada and Mexico that it is just campaign rhetoric and he won't really change the NAFTA agreement. The second, is the positions that his pastor of 20 years takes. While I firmly believe that a man's pastor is his own business, the beliefs of this man and the propaganda he spreads is absolutly freightening. Obama can denounce his political affiliations with this man all he wants, but I feel he has some serious questions to answer concerning this man.
I am not an Obama-hater. I think he is a good man with a special gift to lead this country. If he does not win this election, I firmly believe we are watching a president in the making and he will some day achieve it someday.
It is also worth pointing out that what is most troubling to me is not that McCain is the default nominee, but that his democratic counterpart could be chosen by a small group of super-delegates while not receiving a plurality of the democratic votes.
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