While Conservatives learn to, ‘live with’ McCain as their nominee, another issue is about to take shape: the realization that a Presidential election is not just about solving today’s issues, but also making sure that we have a clear vision about what we want our nation to accomplish, and thusly, our President.
It is becoming abundantly clear to me that despite the Conservative movement failure to elect a true social conservative there still lies ripe opportunities for the Republican agenda to advance.
I will point you to this story in today’s NYTimes.com.
Simply put, the elephant in the room that both parties are equally responsible for is the ballooning federal budget. We can talk universal health care, the war in Iraq or NSA wiretap violations all you want, but unless a party emerges to challenge the current budget orthodoxy we will be left without a horse to pull the cart. There simply won’t be the horse to the proverbial government.
There may well be one ‘benefit’ to the McCain nomination: the liberal press is willing to embrace this Republicans eye for tax cuts. We have elected the man who has stabbed us in the back over and over and over again, but hot damn, at least the NYTimes is willing to listen to his fiscal policy!
I talked with one of my Idaho State Representatives yesterday at a GOP function. His passioned argument is this, “getting behind McCain now will allow us time to heal before the election. Hillary and Barak should still be fighting then, in the mean time we can develop real answers for the challenges that lie agenda”. In other words, get over it now so we can have the most concise Republican agenda mapped out.
The theory is this: we get behind McCain now. Heal our wounds and infighting. Develop our ideas for the future, ideas that are consistent with lower taxes, less government and family values. By focusing on the Federal waste in the form of earmarks, budget deficits, unfunded mandates and bureaucratic regulations.
Meanwhile the Democrats are in a state of virtual ‘civil war’.
Now tell me, all things aside, isn’t getting behind our party’s Democratically elected nominee in our own best interest? Especially considering the Presidents, Congress and the GOP’s public approval ratings? Do we really want to lose on issues like the War On Terror, balancing the federal budget, constitutional Supreme Court appointments because we are fighting over who is the most conservative?
By accepting John McCain now, Libertarian and Conservative Republicans can position themselves with the best possible chance to get the party to take up their key issues in the next election.
And that, my friends, is a benefit the Socialists and Atheists on the Democratic side will not have while they squabble over KKKlinton or Osama.
Just food for thought. And yes, I am still voting Ron Paul in the Idaho Primary elections on May 27th. But that doesn’t mean things should have already been long decided by then.
