Nathaniel

Shockey

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July 28, 2008

Offended Conservatives: Maybe McCain Just Doesn’t Agree With You

It appears that conservatives find themselves constantly wondering if John McCain cares about their vote at all. They feel taken for granted, as McCain seems to be continually treading the left edge of the right wing. But perhaps we have to ask ourselves, is he really taking us for granted, or are his opinions simply different than those of the traditional conservative? Maybe it’s not so much that he’s taking us for granted. It’s that he doesn’t really care what we think.

Here’s the thing about politics. Every time a candidate does or says anything, he knows it will be scrutinized. Political analysts will speculate and nitpick everything through one perspective: How is this supposed to get the candidate elected? Many analysts fail to ask whether or not a candidate’s positions or actions are good ones. They assume getting elected is his one and only motivation.

Watching The Birdcage again last night, I couldn’t help but cringe at this classic example of Hollywood’s opinion about politicians. (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that featured a soulless Democrat, but that’s beside the point).

In this particular piece of Hollywood propaganda – OK, it’s a great piece of acting and writing, and I laugh out loud every time I watch it – Gene Hackman plays a Republican senator up for re-election whose daughter is engaged to marry the son of a gay couple, played marvelously by Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. Actually, they are not just a gay couple. One of them is a drag queen, and the other runs a club called the Birdcage that features drag queens. Although the couple gives new meaning to flamboyant, or “over the top,” the two are portrayed as models of self-awareness and comfort, while the Republican senator is obsessed with nothing but getting re-elected.

When he discovers that his colleague, with whom he helped found “The Committee for Moral Order,” died in the bed of an under-aged, black prostitute, his first reaction is “I’m ruined!” He thinks of his daughter’s impending wedding merely as an opportunity to distract attention from his connection to his late colleague.

As extreme an example as he was, it is only one stretch away from how many people seem to view politicians. Consider Dick Morris, a prominent conservative political analyst. Here are some of his column headings taken from just the past two months:

“Romney: A Mistake for McCain”, “McCain's Way Forward”, “The Way to Box in Barack on Iraq”, “Obama Strikes First”, “Obama's New Strategy”, “McCain Scores With Offshore Drilling Proposal”, “How Obama Can Win”, “Hillary Circles Slowly Overhead”, “What's Up Hillary's Sleeve”, “Obama's VP Search Mistake”, “Obama's Iraq Achilles Heel”.

There’s very little about analyzing issues. It’s all about political strategy. In Morris’s defense, he understands the issues very well, and the reason he has maintained his prominence is that he constantly makes good points. But this incessant speculation as to political scheming exists for two reasons – it’s entertaining (the money), and very often, the analysts are right about the politicians. But the obsession is not at all good for our country. Not everything a politician says comes from a political angle. They are people, not animals, like Hackman’s character. Sometimes they maintain their convictions even when it’s not popular. George W. Bush certainly has.

It seems like, on the surface, many of us want candidates to play ball. The media certainly does. They are begging to catch the politicians pandering to one demographic or another, because that’s news. But that’s not really what most of us want. And down deep, even members of the media, who are also people, also want leaders who act based on their convictions.

And that’s the thing about McCain. Conservatives like me get so weary of feeling neglected, of the sense that we’ve been abandoned this presidential election, we start wondering if this is just the way it’s going to be from now on – that we will always feel completely taken for granted. But perhaps McCain isn’t taking us for anything. Maybe he really isn’t just another example of politics at their worst.

We fear that he’s moving toward the center to pick up the swing votes. But when has he not been a more centrist Republican? When he rejects the idea of drilling in ANWR, when he brazenly compliments Barack Obama on his improved Iraq strategy, when he says he would not support the overturning of Roe v. Wade, maybe he’s not catering to the middle. Maybe he’s just not that conservative.

I hate that there isn’t a more conservative candidate on the ballot. But what I’m starting to appreciate about McCain, who truly is a patriot, is that he might not be the politician so many of us are making him out to be.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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