John McCain
Is John McCan’t our abusive husband?
When I was growing up I had a friend, we’ll call him Matt, who came from a broken family. His parents were divorced and he lived with his Mother and her new husband, his step-dad. I knew Matt’s step-dad was abusive to some level, but through the naivety of my youth, wasn’t able to determine the extent of the abuse. It wasn’t until much later in life, long after Matt had moved away and I stopped keeping in touch, that I learned of the true story of his family’s relationship. Matt’s step-dad physically abused both his wife and his step-son, to the point where Matt’s Mom attempted to leave or divorce him on several occasions. However, each time he would seem to redeem himself through some act or non-act that would keep his wife coming back to him.
Not too long ago, Matt’s Mom came home to find that her husband had killed himself, knowing that this time he was not going to redeem the relationship. She threatened divorce and this time she had meant it, and he knew it.
I don’t want to draw similarities between this family’s personal troubles and John McCain, but I know that women often stay in abusive relationships because they feel they can change their husband. In some cases the husbands will do things, buy things, say things that will keep their wives coming back. In the most heinous cases, these abusive spouses create an environment of fear and defenselessness so great that the wives are conditioned into believing they will be worse off it they leave rather than stay and take the abuse.
Unfortunately, in this election, Conservatives have become the woman in an abusive relationship with John McCain. After McCain locked up the nomination we tried our best to forgive McCain for his past mistakes on tax cuts, immigration, campaign finance, his constant reaching out to the left. He spoke to us at CPAC and we welcomed him, we told ourselves it will be different, he will change.
When the media tried to smear him with some illegitimate unfounded claim of an affair with a lobbyist, we rallied to his side.
We’ve had to set aside many, many of our Conservative principles in order to accept McCain as our nominee. We’ve reached out time and again, we’ve tried to support him, we’ve tried to look past the areas we don’t agree on. And in some cases, McCain showed promise, he reached out to us and told us he would be a strong military leader, bringing victory to our troops in Iraq. He promised to reign in spending, make the tax cuts permanent, stop earmarks and rebuild our party. Like battered women in an abusive relationship, we came back to him.
And now McCain has done it again. After sweet talking us with Iraq and government spending, free market solutions to health care and housing, he got angry and lashed out at us. He decided to go on an environmental tour, touting industry breaking, freedom ending, liberty crushing big government regulation, big government solutions to a false threat of climate change.
Will we forgive him this time? Will we go back to him and continue the cycle in this abusive relationship? Or will we pack up and leave? If we do that, will we be better off than if we stay? We Conservatives have some tough decisions to make.
Categories
- Abortion
- Academia
- Awesome Americana
- Barack Obama
- books
- British Politics
- California
- Campaign 2008
- Campaign McCain
- China
- Christian Thought
- Cinema
- Congress
- Conservative Activism
- Conservative Movement
- Cults
- Cultural Reformation
- Defense Policy
- Emergent China
- Energy
- European Union
- Foreign Policy
- General Election
- Glittery Ephemera
- Hillary Clinton
- Historical Backgrounders
- History
- Homeland Security
- Hotlinks
- Immigration
- John McCain
- Liberal Netroots
- Liberalism (Bites)
- Local Government
- Marriage and Family
- media bias
- Mental Mojo
- Militant Islam
- Missile Defense
- Moonbats
- New Russian Empire
- Reformed Christianity
- root of all evil
- SCOTUS
- Second Amendment
- Specious Liberal Arguments
- The Environment
- Ukraine
- Uncategorized
- United Nations
- War in Iraq
- War on Terror
Blogroll
- Ace of Spades
- Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
- Army of Epiphenomenon
- BadgerMum
- BatesLine
- Bored Melo
- Brandywine Books
- Cassy Fiano
- Challies
- Classical Values
- Comment Me No Comment
- Dean’s World
- Hugh Hewitt
- IMAO
- Lintefiniel Musing
- Lonely Conservative
- Michelle Malkin
- Parenting Freedom
- Pro-Life Blogs
- Publius Pundit
- Pyromaniacs
- Rabe Ramblings
- The Rough Woodsman
- Thinklings
- TruePravda
- Walk Thru History
Recent Comments
- TG on Palin and the Experience Issue
- J. L. Bastiat on Palin and the Experience Issue
- J. L. Bastiat on The Gospel of Judas
- Jason on Palin for VP? Woot!
- Domestic Intellectual on Palin and the Experience Issue
Most Emailed
- Leave Barry Alone! - 15 emails
- Lead Story: “Christian Street” Erupts Over Verhoeven Jesus Book - 9 emails
- Republicans and Evangelicals Have Babies, Democrats and Seculars Buy Small Dogs - 6 emails
- Conservative Activism: Reduce, Reuse, Reprotest - 3 emails
- Can’t Shake the Devil’s Hand and Say You’re Only Kidding. - 2 emails
beyond a doubt. it is HARD to deal with McCain sometimes. And other times you just love him.
We would be better off not electing him. But worse off electing Obama or Hillary.
It is enough to make one consider Quebec.
Quebec? Whoa now… Let’s not say things we can’t take back!
my French would get me skinned alive in Quebec.
The conservative “Christian Right” has been the Republicans whore for far too long. They court the Right enticing with promises in order to get elected and then dump them like a cheap trick.
The Republican Party has strayed far from its roots so that they are no longer recognizable. This Republican is coming out of the closet. I’m supporting Obama. He might deliver on his promises where the fawning, courting, pandering McCain and others like him continuously fail to deliver on their promises. They know the Right will come back, even after they’ve been thrown to the curb time and time again.
Deliver on his promises of what? Socialized health care? Higher taxes? More government programs? More spending? Defeat in Iraq?
Those are exactly the kind of promises I don’t want to see kept.
I would go so far as to say anyone who votes for Obama is NOT a republican. You, sir, are not a Republican and you are better off not identifying yourself so as to help stop the watering down of our party.
Thanks for your comment, though.
Torchbearer’s comment made no sense.
I think moving to Quebec was infinitely more intelligent.
Anyone who would move to Quebec hasn’t a lick of sense! I say, move to Fiji!
We’re not abandoning ship!
The line must be drawn HERE! And no further!
Bonus points if you can name the origin of that statement.
Fiji and no Obama for $100, Alex.
And, Joe, ya lost me.
Torchbearer-
“The Republican Party has strayed far from its roots so that they are no longer recognizable.”
Actually, I think it’s kinda gone back to its roots. For most of the 20th century you had moderate Republicans, “me-too!” Republicans, Rockefeller Republicans or “Progressive” Republicans in charge of the party.
This move toward wishy-washiness is just a return to old, bad habits. Don’t forget, until the mid-1990s Congressional Republicans were led by two moderates — Bob Dole and Bob Michel.
Conservatives got the influence they did by engagement. They were an insurgent force which took over the party apparatus at the local level and built up a counter-establishment in Washington.
The Republican Party is losing its way because conservatives have. Compassionate Conservatism and the like have fractured us. Our movement has intellectually ossified. Our loss of influence within the Party is just a symptom of our own, systemic problems. . .
Torch-
“This Republican is coming out of the closet. I’m supporting Obama.”
I can understand the impulse, but I can’t second it. We’re likely to have a 70+ deficit in the House after this election, and a proportionally huge deficit in the Senate. With a President Obama in office and an insufficient number of Republicans in Congress, the normal checks and balances won’t apply. Liberals really will be able to pass whatever they choose.
Can you remember the last two times this happened? The New Deal and the Great Society. Both fundamentally reordered our country in ways conservatives haven’t even been able to scratch. Without a Republican veto in the White House, the conservative cause, and the liberty of our citizens, will take hits which we won’t EVER fully recover from.
Oh, and the Dems will get 2-3 Supreme Court justices, killing our hopes of a solid conservative majority for the next 15-20 years.
And OBama will make a hash of Iraq, pulling out prematurely and destroying the progress we’ve made there. Our enemies will be emboldened by having an anti-war president, even if he chooses to pull-out slowly. And our troops will be demoralized, knowing they have a C-in-C who is committed to defeat and retreat. As occurred back in the 70s, no one will want to be the last to die for a losing war.
You have to vote your conscience. I just can’t understand a good conscience suicide vote in a year such as this. 1992, sure. 1996, sure. 2000, sure. 2004, not really. 2008 is a critical election — we’re involved in 2 shooting wars, the economy is tanking, and the Congressional Dems are resurgent.
Also, if you’re a member of the “Christian Right,” my curiosity is even more piqued. I could understand sitting out the presidential election, but how does a Christian in good conscience vote for a man who not only supports abortion, but even supports partial-birth abortion. That would weigh heavy on my mind.
Joe-
“We’re not abandoning ship!
The line must be drawn HERE! And no further!”
Was that Hillary after Super-Tuesday?