Something Not to Like

I've said before that I like John McCain. The way he talks to you rather than down to you. That he seemed to always speak his mind. The self-deprecating humor. The sense that he was always giving it to you straight. I was appalled at the speculation that he might join Bush on the ticket in 2004 and then briefly intrigued at the thought of the cross-party ticket of Kerry and McCain. (Of course, I think that we ought to vote for the President and Vice President separately anyway--add another layer to that quaint notion of checks and balances. But that's another post.)

I was willing to overlook his pro-life stance because, as important as it is, there are a lot of other issues to which attention must also be paid. And McCain had stated previously that, while he was pro-life, he believed that the decision had to be made by the woman. But now as he looks to the White House again, he is learning from "mistakes" made in 2000. He has to get the right wing of the Republican party to trust that he is no maverick, and no friend of the Democratic party, either. Translated into action, this means sucking up to Jerry Falwell, that self-appointed arbiter of morality and Christian decency.

To further burnish his credentials, McCain recently stated that he would have signed the South Dakota abortion ban--the toughest in the nation--as long as exceptions were made in the case of rape, incest or to protect the life of the woman. Is he trying to have it both ways here? If these provisions had been included, the South Dakota ban would not have gained the national attention that it has. It would not have become such a hot issue and his opinion would (probably) not have been sought. So: Evangelicals could be swayed by the fact that he didn't condemn the ban outright and would have signed it with a few tweaks. Moderates could find comfort in the knowledge that he would have required the provisions, and then maybe they would overlook the fact that the law wasn't roundly condemned in it's existing form.

I know I'm not alone in my disillusionment, nor in my embarrassment at being so thoroughly taken in. Perhaps, as Andrew Ferguson writes in Bloomberg, we wanted to be taken in. We wanted to believe that John McCain, Republican war hero, was actually a closet progressive. But throughout his 25 years in the Senate, McCain has voted with the most conservative members of the Republican party often enough to earn high marks from the National Right to Life Committee (82 in 2003/04), the American Conservative Union (80 in 2005) and the Christian Coalition (83 in 2003). On environmental issues, he scored a 50 from the American Wilderness Coalition (granted, this is much higher than other Republicans scored: Ted Stevens, anyone? Anyone?) and the ACLU rated him a meagre 22 (2003/04) on civil rights.

Why were we so desperate to find a champion that we would willfully ignore the record? It was all there in black and white. I just have to hope that it wasn't based on personality--that worked out really well the last time, right? How many millions of Americans have decided that, on second thought, they'd really rather not have that beer with W after all?

Since it seems to be in the average politician's nature to mislead, misinform and, in some cases outright lie, we have to better educate ourselves and anyone else we can get to listen. I like to think that I'm fairly well-informed on the issues and the players, but I still get the warm fuzzies when John McCain shows up on The Daily Show. Up until about a month ago, that is. So, a couple of resources to get started with:

Project Vote Smart is "a national library of factual information, [that] covers your candidates and elected officials in five basic categories: biographical information, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances and interest group ratings" (the numbers I cited above came from here), as well as plenty of political resources.

Polling Report is "an independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion." NOTE: A subscription is required to access some content.

More to come in another post.