"This is my faith, the faith that unites and never divides, the faith that bridges unbridgeable gaps in humanity. That is my religious faith and it is the faith I want my party to serve, and the faith I hold in my country. It is the faith that we are all equal and endowed by our creator with unalienable rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
-Senator John McCain, February 28, 2000.
Remember when John McCain called people like Jerry Fawell and Pat Robertson, "Agents of Intolerance?"
These days, we are seeing a John McCain who is basically whoring himself to get the vote of people whose religion is less about "binding together" (which is what religion means) than it is about dividing people.
And we thought Mitt Romney was the only flip-flopper.
The sad thing is that McCain and Romney have not really read the tea leaves. While the far right might have some pull in the GOP, the average person is looking for a new kind of politics. American conservatism is in a crisis. George Bush has basically made his bed with the far right and we got a GOP that got us into an unwise war, ran up the deficit and targeted gays. This should not be what conservatism is all about, and McCain and to a lesser extent, Romney could have argued for a more sensible conservatism that was inclusive, strong on defense and the war on terror, respects civil liberties, and adheres to the old value of fiscal conservatism. Instead, they have basically tarted themselves up to get people like Fawell to like them.
What is interesting is that while McCain has gone to Relgious Broadcasters Convention to court social conservatives, Rudy Giuliani has opted not to go. It might be too early to look into what this means, but it is nice to see Rudy isn't trying to suck up to hard right in the way that McCain is. McCain very well might win over enough hard right supporters to win the nomination and yet lose the general, because he has angered centrists and independents like myself.
McCain can have his lovefest with Fawell and Co. Just don't expect liberal conservatives like me to join you.
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2 comments:
The first thing a Republican Presidential candidate has to do is take the fundamentalist pledge of alliance. After that pledge you don't have to do anything about abortion. prayer in school, gay marriage, etc. It is lunacy but that is a requirement - promise everything and deliver nothing!
I've been saying it for awhile, McCain lost my vote. And this was before he was monstrously sucking up to the religious nuts.
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