Maybe it was the wide-open field, and maybe the revamped primary schedule. But, in mid-February voters still feel they have some say in who will be the next President.
That is, except for the conservatives. Many are already feeling screwed, which is something that usually afflicts most of the populace by this time in any election campaign.
At this point the Republican race is pretty well decided, with John McCain as the clear frontrunner. Yeah, the McCain who was last seen co-authoring Senatorial bills with lefties Ted Kennedy and Russell Feingold. That McCain.
As soon as Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney stepped aside in this race, conservative talk-show hosts and callers threw the mother of all hissy fits. There goes the neighborhood, many said. Mike Huckabee is a non-factor outside the South, Romney is out of the picture, and Ron Paul (who was, to me, one of the few candidates to actually make a lick of sense around here) is considered fringe material. But McCain?
Many conservatives are suggesting sitting this election out, which is practically unheard of from that camp. Ann Coulter is making noises that she may endorse Hillary Clinton (Hillary can have her). But cooler heads are saying to go with the standard-bearer McCain, warts and all. Simple logic: Better half a loaf than no loaf at all. Suffice it to say, a lot of wagons are circling right now.
A few days ago, Cal Thomas penned a column saying conservatives should take a hard look at themselves and start living in the past.
There’s no disputing Thomas’ credentials. He’s one of the leading wordsmiths of the Christian Right, and has been since, well, the Reagan years. At one time he struck me as one of the more strident voices around, but maybe he mellowed some as he got older. Or, more likely, I was younger and far to the left of where I now sit on the political spectrum. Or even both.
But Thomas now says this: “Today’s conservatives … can’t seem to break with the past and the nostalgia for the Reagan years. Too many modern conservatives seem embedded in a concrete slab of pessimism, preferring to go over a bridge and drown rather than ‘compromise’ their principles.”
Thomas cites former Bush II speechwriter David Frum in saying that the issues today are different from those that brought the Republicans to power during the 1980s and 1990s. And this is true; back then folks were not as concerned about health care, carbon dioxide, obesity, terrorism, or immigration as they are now. Back then the great enemy was the Soviet Union, and that was on its way out anyway.
“If conservatives really want to win, they will adopt ideas based on old principles,” Thomas argues. “Conservatives are in danger of losing the coming election and future ones because they have not reinvented themselves for a new era.”
Thomas doesn’t mention this, but it’s worth noting that one of the things that helped put Reagan in power was that the liberals were living in the past. The Democrats were so busy looking for someone who would look, sound, and act like the Jack Kennedys and Franklin Roosevelts that the party was fast becoming irrelevant. Guys like Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Tip O’Neil – and did someone mention Ted Kennedy? – represented the old liberal line that was several decades out of date and really wasn’t all that promising when in vogue.
Bill Clinton did a lot more than make cigars fashionable. By his example he put the Democratic Party back into step with the times. As I recall, many old-line liberals had a hard time swallowing his ideas of coalition-building and cooperation across party lines. But in future years he may become the yardstick by which liberals will be judged, much as Reagan is now. (A footnote here, just because I couldn’t resist: Hillary is no Bill.)
I’m neither Democrat nor Republican, though my politics are decidedly to the right of where most folks accuse the media’s to be. And, while I have a real problem with McCain’s idea of “preemptive war” as is now being practiced in Iraq, I do like him. I’ve met him a few times back in Arizona, and he strikes me as a straight shooter, a transplanted Southwesterner who follows his own drumbeat. This in itself is not enough for him to earn my vote, and I’m still holding out for a late surge by Ron Paul, I’ve sat through enough November elections to know that the choices are rather limited by then.
For the conservatives who still yearn for the days of Reagan and Barry Goldwater (another straight shooter), McCain’s drumbeat may resemble a peyote shuffle in 5/4 time. But to those who realize the times are different than they were two decades ago, they may warm up to McCain yet.
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