Posted by
flagwaver on Friday, July 25, 2008 5:12:17 PM
Let me be upfront, I am NOT a John McCain supporter. I have major problems with his policy positions, as they have generally listed to the left side of the political aisle and despite his recent sop to conservative sensibilities, I do not trust him to govern from the right if elected. He has co-sponsored a bill that gutted the 1st Amendment, he sponsored a bill that would have granted amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants if it had passed, he opposed the very tax cuts that he now lauds, and he is suspect in his taste in judicial appointments. For those reasons, and others, I cannot in good conscience support McCain’s candidacy for the Oval Office.
However, I am becoming more and more appalled by the way too many conservatives are attacking McCain; too much of it is becoming personal and not focused on policy differences. I am seeing conservatives attack the man’s honor on a personal level that is totally unbecoming of the conservative movement. Generally conservatives have claimed to be about ideas, and have always tried to explain their differences with others by pointing out the differences in ideas, not by taking personal potshots at their adversaries. That has generally been the province of the liberals, who stoop to ad hominem attacks when they are unable to refute the ideas of the other side; but in this election, and with this candidate the right has unleashed a torrent of abuse on this man.
One of the things that many are using to assail McCain’s personal honor and integrity is his divorce from his first wife. “Why, she stood by him while he was in Vietnam,” they say, only to have him divorce her after he returned from his captivity. “The fact that he divorced his first wife,” say the anti-McCain crowd, “is evidence that he has no honor.” But honestly, how silly an argument is that? We do not know the circumstances of their marriage before he went to Vietnam, we don’t know the circumstances of the marriage while he served in Vietnam, and we have no idea of what their circumstances were after he was released from his extended stay at “The Hanoi Hilton”. I am pretty sure that 5 years of captivity and torture will change a man, so that the John McCain who came back from Hanoi was not the same dashing young pilot who shipped out.
But the point is, this has nothing to do with his qualifications to be President, and should have no place in the debate over whether or not to support him. Electing a President is supposed to be about ideas and the direction a candidate plans to take the nation; not about his personal failings from decades ago.
If you want to support McCain, that’s your business…, I’m not trying to sway anyone for or against him. But if you are one of the people who cannot find it in themselves to support him, would it kill you to base your opposition on something substantive? Confine it to the issues and policy differences at hand, and leave the personal attacks out of it. I would like to think that conservatives could argue their points without attempting to destroy the man holding an opposite viewpoint.
I would like to think that we are better than that.