A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with some very well-educated, generally liberal friends. The subject of the ‘08 race came up, and much to my surprise, people I had assumed to be of the straight-ticket Democrat variety expressed a good deal of support for John McCain as president. Against Hillary, it was unanimous for McCain. Al Gore made it “tougher” for them, but I got the distinct sense they would still choose McCain over Gore.
His trips to fundie campuses didn’t bug them. They didn’t really see why the US legalization of torture with his signature on it posed a moral dilemma. They still believed him to be a capable, moderate man of principle.
Un-brainwashing the middle and middle-left about the “reasonableness” of John McCain remains one of our most important fights over the next two years.
We might wanna start by connecting it to another of the most important fights over the next few years: protecting reproductive freedoms. This morning, McCain performed a complete flip-flop on Roe V Wade. He’s now calling for it to be overturned and admitted he expects it to happen.
ThinkProgress linked to a SFO Chronicle article from ‘99 in which McCain stated his pragmatic support of Roe v. Wade:
I’d love to see a point where it is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations.
His current stance expressed this morning on ABC:
I don’t think a constitutional amendment is probably going to take place, but I do believe that it’s very likely or possible that the Supreme Court should — could overturn Roe v. Wade, which would then return these decisions to the states, which I support.
That statement came after he expressed support for the afore-mentioned constitutional amendment to ban abortion. Nice principles, jackass. You can practically smell Bushco’s dick on his breath.
Oh, and please note that “it’s very likely or possible” SCOTUS will act against Roe v Wade.
If our newly installed Democratic Congress had any ovaries at all, it would pre-empt the Court’s move by passing explicit, comprehensive abortion protection laws. While Bush would veto, the legislation would push reproductive rights into the spotlight and might help reveal just how strongly most Americans feel about protecting them from legal intrusion.
Failing that, I suppose I’ll have to enlist Bob Barker to help me promote a new national vasectomy campaign. If we can’t save the womb, maybe we can snip the peter.
McCain does seem to be setting himself up as the heir apparent (with ample help from the Bushites). I know several people, right and left who are already talking about supporting McCain in ‘08.
I think if he gets it, we will all have been punked by the Bush Family. I still think they are planning to use McCain as a “breather” to set up Jeb for 2012. If we finally pull out of Iraq, the Bushites will be able to blaim McCain for the sin of losing Iraq, leaving Chimperor blameless and Jeb set to re-reclaim the throne…
I really hope I’m wrong…
Those poll numbers make me feel a bit better. Convincing people to be more openly supportive of the views they already have, or educating the fence-sitters about how the anti-abortion people are coming for their pills next, seems like a less impossible task than convincing people who are against abortion to change their minds.
One thing I don’t think we stress enough is how outlawing abortion doesn’t make it go away, it just makes it more dangerous. Sure, the ones who want to punish women for having sex don’t care, but most reasonable people would see the pre RvW situation as one that no one wants to go back to. Unfortunately, a lot of people simply don’t know about it.
Scott’s got more. McCain has a 0% rating from NARAL. The thing about abortion rights is that being anti-choice is pretty much a sure sign that a candidate is not going to be a good leader. I can allow for a few anti-abortion Democrats to fill up the congressional caucas, but anyone in the business of appointing judges has to support the judiciary’s job of protecting individual rights. Period. McCain shows no evidence of understanding the importance of fundamental human rights.
I too have LIBERAL HIPPIE MUSICIAN friends who are brainwashed (by the Statesman I believe…I don’t dirty my eyes with that rag) into believing that McCain in a “maverick” and “principled” and a “Washington outsider” !!!! And they TOTALLY hate Hillary, for like to reason at all. I think a lot of otherwise sane AMericans see this conflict this way; it is ALL (what’s that word?) ALL IMAGE!!! Image based on the repeating and repeating of what the image is. Groundless.
My only hope is to send articles about what a DOUCHE McCain is to them all the time (thanks for those AManda!)
Repeat this mantra every day: McCain is not a moderate maverick…
As John said right after the last election: Besides picking our candidates and races, I think the most valuable thing most of could do is to help shape the conventional wisdom. We blog, we write letters to the editor, we……
Hey, he wasn’t Bush in 2000. That was enough for me. Not anymore, obviously.
It’s going to be an uphill battle; no politician in the country has gotten better treatment from the media than McCain. I think those who say he’s virtually unbeatable are probably right.
Only thing that might possibly work is hanging a failed Iraq war around his neck, and even there there will be problems — if the war is still grinding along in something like its present state by 2008 then someone calling for more troops like McCain would be in trouble. However, if by that time the situation has more clearly resolved in American defeat, McCain will be able to play the whole stabbed in the back/should have sent more troops/nuked Hanoi/whatever card. And the American people will eat it up.
I’m pretty far left and I don’t like Hillary because she hasn’t proven that she really stands for anything – and she has capitulated to Bushco as well (on the war, etc.). The MSM trying to paint her as “the liberal far left” is ALMOST as assinine as them painting McCain as a “maverick”.
I lost what little respect I had for McCain (as a soldier and POW; his book was an interesting read) when he started kissing GW’s ass after the complete plowing he took from Shrubby’s camp in 2000. If you were any kind of a man, would you play nicey-nice with the guy who screwed you hard to get ahead? I think not.
I am PRAYING that someone else can come forward to take the nomination away from Hillary – Barak Obama perhaps? I doubt Al Gore will come back to politics, and the only person I see with any “star appeal” (which seems necessary these days) is Obama. And he seems relatively clean, politically speaking.
[...] But Blumenthal doesn’t back that statement up with any new info. We’ve already covered his atrocious voting record and vampiric desire for more bloodshed in Iraq. But we’ve also discussed the alarming notion that even self-identified liberals don’t seem to notice this and continue to back him. Yeeargh. [...]
The Straight Bullshit Express: the Condom Edition…
Full disclosure: I have never bought into the belief of the Compulsive Centrists that John McCain is moderate. A detailed look at his voting record shows that he is often very conservative, with the occasional moment of lucidity (e.g., recognizing th…