'But He Didn't Win Me'
It’s a claim the media has made all too often lately. That Northeastern Republicans are a bunch of moderates who have more in common with independent-thinkers like John McCain than they do with conservatism and candidates like Mitt Romney. Apparently the media lost my number; they never asked me.
I'm a Connecticut Republican, but I’m no moderate. I’m a proud and strong conservative. I defy the media’s regional labels. I may live in a Blue State, but I’ll turn it red within a 10-foot radius of wherever I may be. And I don’t care who the media assumed I’d vote for on the day known as “Super Tuesday,” I am one who would never vote for a candidate who compromises my values for expediency or simply because they may be a member of my party. And while John McCain may have won the state’s first Republican presidential primary since he snagged it in 2000 with a majority of 78,741 votes, I joined with the 49,850 others who opted to pull the lever (well, slide their optical scan ballots into the tabulation machine) for the last remaining conservative in this race, Mitt Romney.
When the largest ever nationwide primary event was over, McCain added nine more states to his résumé and took a decent lead over Romney in the delegate count. Romney took first in seven states, while former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee claimed five of his own. Naturally, with McCain’s sudden leap, it must be time for the Republican Party to part ways with the defunct conservative movement and move the party of Lincoln and Reagan to the left in order to remain viable on the political front, right?
My answer is concise: No, because as I’ve said before, I don’t let the media dictate what being a Republican is all about. I refuse to accept the pseudo-Republican mantra that the values which sparked the Reagan Revolution are dead. While the issues may change, the principles remain the same, and they ought to only grow stronger as we pass through time.
That’s why I believe it is essential to examine candidates on their beliefs and on their prior political history. Voters ought to seek out candidates with clear visions for the future. On that note, I staunchly believe that you ought to know why you’re voting for a candidate before you approach the voting booth, and it should have nothing to do with personality, sound bites, or the skewed analysis of media reporters and pundits. It should have to do with the issues. After all, the differences on the issues are where the true distinctions are made between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, and ultimately whether a policy is a wise direction for our nation or a foolish path to go down.
Senator McCain (R-AZ) is a commendable man for his heroics while serving the nation on the Vietnam front. It’s not just an obligatory mention, I really believe it. Anyone who as a prisoner of war refuses the opportunity to leave out of respect for their fellow comrades who were imprisoned before them deserves the salute of the nation. It’s simply the issues on which I, well, have issues with him. His campaign finance legislation to restrict political speech, his cavorting with Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) to draft an amnesty bill designed to give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, his vote against President Bush’s tax cuts, his desires to close Gitmo and relocate all the – yes, I’ll say it – terrorists we’ve captured to facilities on U.S. soil, his opposition to enhanced interrogation techniques, his hostility towards drilling in ANWR, and his overall unpredictability – just a few highlights – make him one I just cannot get behind for the nomination of the nation’s conservative party. (The fact that I strongly urge members of the Republican Party to embrace the Reagan-era conservatism the way we used to is another subject for another day.)
To be honest, chances are I’ll never vote for a Democrat, but it’s not out of sheer party loyalty. I will always make a decision on who to support based on what they stand for, their record, and because of any obviously detrimental positions of the opposition. So, although I hope it doesn’t come to it, I would in all likelihood support McCain should he become the party’s nominee, as I believe the nation would be safer from an attack under his leadership and because Hillary’s (or Obama’s, for that matter) God-awful liberalism is far worse than McCain’s less-than-conservative record. Whether I’d desire that he’d be replaced with a conservative in 2012 is another story, however.
But when it comes down to it all, I consider myself to be a real Republican, one who embraces the conservative message. And that means that when one member of the party detracts from the principles on which that party stands, you put down pure partisanship and take them to task. It seems too difficult a concept for many Republicans to do these days, as they rally behind a frontrunner and abandon a fundamental principle: You ought to be a conservative first.
Yes, if all I did on Super Tuesday was raise the vote total for Mitt Romney in Connecticut by one, than so be it. McCain may have won Connecticut, but he didn’t win me. Proof that principle always wins, no mater who is labeled victor.
I'm a Connecticut Republican, but I’m no moderate. I’m a proud and strong conservative. I defy the media’s regional labels. I may live in a Blue State, but I’ll turn it red within a 10-foot radius of wherever I may be. And I don’t care who the media assumed I’d vote for on the day known as “Super Tuesday,” I am one who would never vote for a candidate who compromises my values for expediency or simply because they may be a member of my party. And while John McCain may have won the state’s first Republican presidential primary since he snagged it in 2000 with a majority of 78,741 votes, I joined with the 49,850 others who opted to pull the lever (well, slide their optical scan ballots into the tabulation machine) for the last remaining conservative in this race, Mitt Romney.
When the largest ever nationwide primary event was over, McCain added nine more states to his résumé and took a decent lead over Romney in the delegate count. Romney took first in seven states, while former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee claimed five of his own. Naturally, with McCain’s sudden leap, it must be time for the Republican Party to part ways with the defunct conservative movement and move the party of Lincoln and Reagan to the left in order to remain viable on the political front, right?
My answer is concise: No, because as I’ve said before, I don’t let the media dictate what being a Republican is all about. I refuse to accept the pseudo-Republican mantra that the values which sparked the Reagan Revolution are dead. While the issues may change, the principles remain the same, and they ought to only grow stronger as we pass through time.
That’s why I believe it is essential to examine candidates on their beliefs and on their prior political history. Voters ought to seek out candidates with clear visions for the future. On that note, I staunchly believe that you ought to know why you’re voting for a candidate before you approach the voting booth, and it should have nothing to do with personality, sound bites, or the skewed analysis of media reporters and pundits. It should have to do with the issues. After all, the differences on the issues are where the true distinctions are made between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, and ultimately whether a policy is a wise direction for our nation or a foolish path to go down.
Senator McCain (R-AZ) is a commendable man for his heroics while serving the nation on the Vietnam front. It’s not just an obligatory mention, I really believe it. Anyone who as a prisoner of war refuses the opportunity to leave out of respect for their fellow comrades who were imprisoned before them deserves the salute of the nation. It’s simply the issues on which I, well, have issues with him. His campaign finance legislation to restrict political speech, his cavorting with Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) to draft an amnesty bill designed to give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, his vote against President Bush’s tax cuts, his desires to close Gitmo and relocate all the – yes, I’ll say it – terrorists we’ve captured to facilities on U.S. soil, his opposition to enhanced interrogation techniques, his hostility towards drilling in ANWR, and his overall unpredictability – just a few highlights – make him one I just cannot get behind for the nomination of the nation’s conservative party. (The fact that I strongly urge members of the Republican Party to embrace the Reagan-era conservatism the way we used to is another subject for another day.)
To be honest, chances are I’ll never vote for a Democrat, but it’s not out of sheer party loyalty. I will always make a decision on who to support based on what they stand for, their record, and because of any obviously detrimental positions of the opposition. So, although I hope it doesn’t come to it, I would in all likelihood support McCain should he become the party’s nominee, as I believe the nation would be safer from an attack under his leadership and because Hillary’s (or Obama’s, for that matter) God-awful liberalism is far worse than McCain’s less-than-conservative record. Whether I’d desire that he’d be replaced with a conservative in 2012 is another story, however.
But when it comes down to it all, I consider myself to be a real Republican, one who embraces the conservative message. And that means that when one member of the party detracts from the principles on which that party stands, you put down pure partisanship and take them to task. It seems too difficult a concept for many Republicans to do these days, as they rally behind a frontrunner and abandon a fundamental principle: You ought to be a conservative first.
Yes, if all I did on Super Tuesday was raise the vote total for Mitt Romney in Connecticut by one, than so be it. McCain may have won Connecticut, but he didn’t win me. Proof that principle always wins, no mater who is labeled victor.
© 2008 Justin Margeson for A Forum for Freedom. All rights reserved.
Labels: 2008 Presidential Election, Connecticut, Conservatism, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Politics, Republican
posted by cptsteel31 at 12:03 AM
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