Can’t we all just get along?
The famous Rodney King hackneyed plea that disingenuously asked the looters, rioters and killers in South Central Los Angeles to stop looting, rioting and killing jumped immediately into my mind this morning as I read dueling Conservatives Rush Limbaugh’s interview in the Washington Post and Bob Dole’s letter to Rush at Fox News this morning over John McCain. But then my mind has been affected by the Obama ad I’ve been victimized by all weekend.
First Rush;
“If I believe the country will suffer with either Hillary, Obama or McCain, I would just as soon the Democrats take the hit . . . rather than a Republican causing the debacle,” he said. “And I would prefer not to have conservative Republicans in the Congress paralyzed by having to support, out of party loyalty, a Republican president who is not conservative.”
Now Bob;
I worked closely with Senator McCain when he came to the Senate in 1987 until I departed. I cannot recall a single instance when he did not support the Party on critical votes.
(At my age, I cannot be entirely certain but here are a few key conservative examples:)
1. Consistent pro-life record
2. Strong advocate for strict constructionist judges (We were misled on the Souter nomination)
3. Supported voluntary school prayer
4. Supported Constitutional Amendment for a Balanced Budget (needed two-thirds and lost by one vote – 66-34)
5. Strong advocate for reducing spending and opposing pork barrel “ear marks†which has, I might add, angered some of his colleagues
6. Consistent on defending Second Amendment rights
7. Opposed “Hillary Care†which would have been devastating
8. Probably the Senate’s strongest advocate for strong national defense
9. Of course he has cast many votes since I left. I totally disagreed with the McCain-Feingold legislation. On immigration, Senator McCain was not in the Senate when Congress passed President Reagan’s immigration legislation which passed overwhelmingly. It granted amnesty to 2.7 million illegals. It was not much different than the 2007 McCain, Kennedy, Bush effort.
I disagree with his votes against the Bush tax cuts but I believe his pledge to make them permanent….
Well, it has certainly become clear why McCain became the media darling, oh, so many years ago. He’s accomplished what the media has been trying to do since Richard Nixon – fracture the party to the point of crippling us. Is it McCain’s fault? No, not really. He has his stance on issues just like every other Joe in America. The problem is with the electorate.
I don’t like Spanish President Zapatero very much, but in the famous exchange that resulted in the “Porque no te callas” line, Zapatero defended his predecessor, Aznar, to Chavez’ juvenile name-calling by reminding Chavez that he, Chavez, was not only showing disrespect for Aznar, but also the Spanish people who’d put him in office. After all is said and done, it’s the voters who are responsible for the people they elect. But in the current climate of personality and identity politics, sometimes we forget that.
I’m no dyed-in-the-wool McCain supporter, but I’m a huge supporter of the American voter. I figured out that voters are largely easy to sucker, but mainly because they want to believe candidates, they want to trust the media. Americans are naive like that, I suppose, but endearing nonetheless.
I don’t listen to Rush anymore because the requirements of my current employment don’t permit listening to him, but I’m thankful to him for all of those years I did listen to him – he was the one that influenced me to step outside my comfort zone and seek a new life where I’d never lived before. But, it’s my opinion that Rush and the legions of other “conservatives” that are willing to throw the country to the likes of Pelosi, Reid, Clinton and Obama are being irresponsible.
Suppose Obama or Clinton get their wish and get universal health care…does Limbaugh or anyone else think a Republican who follows them will reverse that? They haven’t gotten rid of that bloated, corrupt and inept Education Department that Jimmy Carter built. They haven’t done away with any of the bloated corrupt and inept programs of the Johnson Administration’s New Deal. We’d be living with that universal health care albatross for the rest of our lives (and deaths).
Does Rush or any of the others think that Clinton or Obama will accidentally name Conservatives to the Supreme Court? Or that terrorists will magically stop targeting Americans?
Look, I’m not happy about the potential of a McCain presidency, but I’m not going to threaten to take my ball and go home just because the Republican voters selected the candidate I don’t like. I guess I learned a lesson from 1992 that everyone else has forgotten.
Fortunately for me, I don’t labor under the misapprehension that my opinion will change anyone’s mind and cause an immediate halt to the intramural mudslinging. But, in good conscience I needed to say it regardless.
