Conservativism and McCain
I find myself back at a Panera (note I was at a different one yesterday). I am taking a brief break between the things that I have to do today in different locations and I really needed some coffee. Panera has both good coffee, decent wireless connection, and is right along the path I had to drive anyway. It would have been foolish to pass it up.
As I was sitting here I was reminded of a conversation from some obviously very conservative gentlemen at the Panera yesterday near to me. They were all in agreement that Senator McCain was not the right guy for the republican party. They all had the opinion that he was not conservative enough for the republican party but the exact issue that he was not conservative enough on varied between them.
Having generally identified over the years more with the republican party I find this a bit aggravating. First, they were holding up Ronald Reagan as a measure for McCain to achieve. Now I liked Ronald Reagan, and during his first election back when I was all of 10 years old I lead the classroom debate in his favor (incidentally in our mock election he was elected in the entire 5th grade class). I will concede that Reagan was very conservative in most things, but arguably his most conservative policies came in the form of his fiscal policies. Compare that to the republican that is currently occupying the same office and his bloated spending on a continual basis and WOW what a difference.
By the way, I heard (not directly) that the extremely conservative talk show hosts (whose names I want mention, as I personally can’t stomach most of them for the most part, especially when they try to start saying, “let me do your thinking for you”) are all saying the same things. One of them has even been quoted as saying if McCain is the republican candidate he will vote for the either Obama or Clinton as the better choice. I can’t figure that one – they obviously – like many others – are not understanding the fundamentals of what conservative means.
Anyway, I guess part of what is really getting me about this whole thing is just what the definition of conservative is. Now I am going to start with the definition I learned in political science from a Mr. McMurray back in my junior year of high school (a conservative himself, who had been around long enough to have been my mothers US History teacher in high school as well). According to McMurray, a conservative was one who did not want to interfere with the general natural workings, government should be applied very lightly, or conservatively applied if you will.
I will grant you that not everyone agreed with McMurray then and certainly he would not be considered an authority today. But by his definition not wanting to spend money and bloat the budget – conservative. Wanting to tell people what they can and can not do in the bar, or worse, what they can and can not do in their own bedroom – that is not the government’s business and is certainly not conservative by his definition.
Given his possible lack of authority on the matter though, I looked up conserve on dictionary.com. I started with conserve, as that is the root word. The first two definitions are applicable here, which state roughly to prevent injury, waste, decay, or loss of and to use and manage wisely; preserve; save. Now I will grant you that maybe the idea of changing a the stance on immigration is a bit of a change, but again I ask about the fiscal situation of the country. And I will note, that I am particularly not in favor of our being in Iraq (a whole other blog – the deception that got us there) but now that we are there, we have to see it through and withdraw with respect – anyone think Obama or Clinton are up to that – but yet we know that McCain is going to see it through based on his statements.
Take this one step further with dictionary.com and look up conservative. Take the first definition: disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change. One can certainly argue that the restoration of traditional conditions and institutions fits what a lot of the extreme right are looking for today, but I would point to the last three words. I will further point out that to restore to conditions of the original, and thus, most traditional, US would be to not have the government telling us what we can and can’t do at every turn – but rather it would be a restoration of the civil and social liberties that we have allowed ourselves to lose over the last 200 years or so, especially during the last eight of those years. Keep in mind part of our break with Britain was over to many rules and laws, especially without our input. Certainly no one would have been telling George Washington or Thomas Jefferson where they could and could not have a sip of their own rye whiskey or hard cider.
The point of all this, well, I have been strongly in McCain’s camp I suppose since his stumble in 1999. I dare say if he had been elected then we would not be in the current shape we are in as a country – but that is of course just speculation. But how anyone who can remotely consider themselves a strong conservative and suggest they will vote for Clinton or especially Obama instead is just beyond my wildest imaginings. Some one tell these folks to wake up.
