Why They Hate McCain
- 02.05.2008 - 6:02 PMThe snowballing anger among conservative opinion leaders toward John McCain — an anger that is not mirrored among Republican rank-and-file, whose approval-disapproval rating for McCain is 72-19, according to the Pew Poll, fifteen points higher than Mitt Romney’s in both categories — suggests they are confusing ideological convictions with political tactics, and infusing a disagreement on how to approach problems with a moral edge it does not deserve.
Whatever John McCain is, he is not a liberal. But he disappoints conservatives because, astonishingly enough, he lacks the Right’s partisan combativeness — which seems surprising, given his background as a warrior and his stiff-necked heroism in staring down his North Vietnamese torturer-jailers. He may be a military man through and through, but he is not a team player, to put it mildly. In partisan terms, he often seems determined not to march in lockstep simply because others expect it of him. That’s why, among other things, he has been so wildly incompetent at using his own perfect pro-life record iin the House and Senate to his own benefit in seeking support from Republicans who share his anti-abortion views. Such a thing would require him to fall in line, and McCain does not fall in line.
These are not words of praise, merely of description. The truth is that this flinty individualism has a profoundly self-destructive aspect to it. He has made his own pathway to the top of his party extremely difficult because he does not wish to play the game the way it needs to be played. He offends people he need not offend, and acts in ways that are considered disrespectful by people who only need him to show them a little kavod. If he becomes the nominee of the GOP, he will be required to mend fences he need not have broken down in the first place.
But his opponents are engaging in a terrible mistake as well. McCain likes to make common cause with politicians across the aisle from him. They can’t stand this. They prefer someone who fights Democrats to someone who makes deals with Democrats. Fair enough. But this is a difference of degree, not of essence. McCain is a deal-maker. Perhaps, having engaged with a real enemy who broke his arms and tortured him and sought to destroy him body and mind and soul, he doesn’t see an enemy when he sees a Democrat but rather just another American whose ideas on many things differ from his but with whom he might share some common ground.
McCain would, there is no question, be a lousy leader of an ideological movement. But the Republican party is not an ideological movement. It is a political vehicle for the American right-of-center. Those who confuse the Republican party with the conservative movement are indulging in a fantasy — that there is purity in politics and that there is something immoral about ideological impurity.
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February 5th, 2008 at 6:18 PM
John, you’ve demonstrated in five simple paragraphs why you just don’t get it. Crossing over the partisan divide may seem noble and gracious unless in so doing you adopt liberal progressive initiatives.
McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Feingold is a wholesale sellout of Republican principles. Where you see deal-making, the objective judgment is capitulation.
Perfect pro-life record? Does that include the destruction of human embryos?
Oh, and here we go with another nickel’s worth definition of Republican. There is a reason why many Republicans are asking themselves: Is this the end of the Republican Party? With McCain, the answer is a resounding “yes”.
February 5th, 2008 at 6:31 PM
Does Captain America really think John McCain is going to be weak on foreign policy, the budget deficit, or social issues. That was what I thought the Reagan revolution was about. I was never under the impression that the center of the conservative movement was opposition to campaign finance reform or any of the other above mentioned issues. On the record I did not support any of those bills, but the idea that this was some giant reversal of conservative principles is revisionist to put it mildly.
February 5th, 2008 at 6:35 PM
And Captain America has just demonstrated in four why he’s got no one to vote for. If you make your tent that small, there’s no room for anyone but you. We’re electing the president of the Unites States, not the president of Captain America.
February 5th, 2008 at 6:36 PM
Captain America, I share your frustrations with McCain, believe me, but I think you and many others recently are going over the top here with the ‘McCain is the end of the Republican Party’ routine. If he’s the nominee, let’s at least let him try and walk back to where he ought to be, let’s see what he’s willing to give and let’s repose at least a modicum of trust that he’ll live up to his commitments. I know you haven’t raised it here, but plenty of movement conservatives lately have been bemoaning that there’s no Reagan in the field today … but Reagan yielded plenty on all sorts of big issues, including taxes, including spending, and even on foreign affairs, with the bailout from Lebanon and the nearly disastrous Reykjavik Summit. I’m just sayin’ ….
February 5th, 2008 at 7:06 PM
“McCain is a deal-maker. Perhaps, having engaged with a real enemy who broke his arms and tortured him and sought to destroy him body and mind and soul, he doesn’t see an enemy when he sees a Democrat but rather just another American whose ideas on many things differ from his but with whom he might share some common ground.”
That is some of the weirdest hyperbole I have read recently. McCain need not see Democrats as toturing jailers in order to disagree with them at all. There is plenty of room to disagree with McCain on principle without resorting to purely partisan arguments based on party lines. It is quite possible to disdain a McCain candidacy based on issues of legal, moral, and even ideological import without becoming some kind of reflexive ideologue for the perfect “Republican Party.”
February 5th, 2008 at 7:13 PM
William Kristol on Fox News just called McCain hatred: McCain Derangement Syndrome. The only cure for MDS would be a Clinton victory. This seems more and more unlikely due to CDS.
I’m recovering from CDS, and hope not to catch ODS.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:19 PM
I’m really not asking him to invite me to his luch table. This is not 90210. The objections by conservatives to McCain are extensive and substantive.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:42 PM
Here goes nothing:
Groucho wouldn’t marry a Jewess (because they all “reminded him of his sister”) and Maverick can’t commit to Republicans. So maybe if we let Mister Straight Talk roll around with some Democrats on occasion, he’ll be loyal when it counts most?
Just askin’.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:41 PM
John Podhoretz, I think you got it exactly right! The battle is over the Republican Party going forward as center right (liberal, in the classic sense), or a disciplined minority party catering to the extreme positions of some of their members.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:53 PM
I agree with a lot of what JP has to say here, but I’ve got to quibble a bit with him on a couple of points:
1) It’s not that McCain lacks “combativeness”, he displays it from time to time; but it’s usually (or at least more memorably) directed against conservatives. He seems to delight in sticking his finger in the eye of what should be reliable supporters.
2) I don’t think it’s ideological purity exactly that is being demanded of McCain; if that was the case how could these conservatives be throwing in with Romney? It’s his lack of political temperament combined with his prickly temper and the above relish in screwing his own side to the delight of the NY Times that is the problem.
3) “If he becomes the nominee of the GOP, he will be required to mend fences he need not have broken down in the first place.” I’m not so sure. The conventional wisdom has always been that you need the right to win the nomination, and then move to the center for the general election. If he wins the nomination without mending fences, I doubt McCain will feel the need to do it at all. To much pride and stubbornness; he’ll just expect them to come along or be irrelevant.