There’s something a lot of Republicans need to learn, especially this year: Many voters don’t vote with their heads, but with their hearts. The person they select on their ballot isn’t always a logical choice, but an emotional one. So Republicans who can and do come to the absolutely logical conclusion that the November election is a choice between John McCain and Barack Obama need to understand that for a lot of conservative voters that logic simply isn’t enough.
As Newt Gingrich might say, that’s not a problem, it’s a reality.
Logically, conservatives should vote for McCain as the lesser of the two evils. But many conservatives - fed up with a Republican president who has expanded government in ways even LBJ couldn’t have imagined, and a GOP Congress which has aided-and-abetted this massive betrayal of the party’s most fundamental limited-government principles - aren’t thinking logically. They want to teach the party a lesson. Again. As apparently losing control of both houses of Congress in 2006 wasn’t enough.
GOP partisans can kvetch about this until the cows come home. They can berate, insult and lambaste these conservatives all they want. It just won’t do any good. Bashing conservatives who point to the historical fact that it took the utter failure of Jimmy Carter’s presidency to make Ronald Reagan possible cannot be browbeaten into voting for John McCain. This sledgehammer approach will result in nothing more than conservatives digging in their heels even further.
In fact, the only logical argument which still might hold some sway with some of these frustrated conservatives is the Supreme Court.
It’s an old argument - but its power to persuade is less this election than in years past. The reality is that while there could well be two vacancies during the next president’s term, those vacancies are likely to be for two of the Court’s liberal members, Justices Stevens and Ginsberg. Should Obama win, he’d get to replace two liberals with two liberals. So the philosophical make-up of the court would be a wash. While conservatives wouldn’t gain anything, they wouldn’t lose anything either.
And many conservatives probably could have lived with that - as long as the Court didn’t hand down any outrageous new decisions this summer showing that the Court still had not moved far enough to the right, thus firing up conservatives to the point of again making the Supreme Court a decisive electoral issue in November.
Oops.
First the Court ruled, 5-4, that captured Islamic terrorists with absolutely no regard for American human life whatsoever are entitled to the same constitutional rights and privileges as a United States citizen. Then this week the Court ruled, again 5-4, that it is cruel and unusual punishment for men who rape little girls under the age of 12 to get the death penalty. Replacing even one of the five liberal justices on the wrong side of these rulings would indeed change the course of legal jurisprudence in this country for years to come. So simply maintaining the status quo isn’t looking like such an acceptable thing after all.
And then there was yesterday’s DC gun ban decision. The court got this one right – but only by a 5-4 decision. Citizens of the United States of American damn near lost a critical God-given legal right to self-defense by one stinking vote. While this Court has extended unwarranted rights to suspected non-American terrorists and child rapists in recent days, it almost took away the individual right to keep and bear arms the same way it took away free speech rights when it upheld the outrageous McCain-Feingold law and took away private property rights in the outrageous Kelo decision.
Thanks to these three Supreme Court decisions, many conservatives may now feel compelled to return to the GOP flock, hold their noses REAL tight, and vote for John McCain in November. And if the Arizona senator does end up in the White House, he’d better wake up every morning with this prayer: “God save this honorable Court, because it sure saved my bacon.”
Posted on June 26th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
For conservatives, the problem with the Supreme Court is that there’s unpredictability, but it runs primarily in one direction. Republican presidents have appointed justices who seemed moderate to conservative, then they turned liberal after they took office (Souter). It rarely occurs that a Democrat president will appoint someone who turns out to be more conservative after taking office (the last one I remember is Justice White, a JFK appointee who voted in the minority in Roe v. Wade, but he retired 15 years ago).
When asked what mistakes he made while in office, President Eisenhower supposedly answered, “Two of them are sitting on the Supreme Court.” Nixon appointed four justices, but only one (Rehnquist) turned out to be a true conservative. Ford gave us the disaster of Stevens. Only one of Reagan’s three justices (Scalia) turned out to be a true conservative; O’Connor publicly praised the concept of following the laws of other countries in making judicial decisions in the US; Kennedy seems to relish his role as the decisive vote in every 5-4 decision, and he swings both ways regularly. Bush41 gave us the disaster of Souter to go along with the true conservative Thomas. If Roberts and Alito continue along the path they’ve been following, they’ll end up being Bush43’s greatest conservative legacy. But I really have no confidence that a President McCain will continue that trend. We’ll be lucky if he follows in the footsteps of Nixon and Ford. But like you say, that’ll be a whole lot better than anyone we would get under a president Obama.
The Supreme Court argument still doesn’t hold water for me. The likelihood of even getting a decent right leaning moderate through a Democrat congress is extremely far fetched. Then, as I’ve seen argued by lawyers on the ‘net – a key point for a McCain nominee will be if they’d uphold McCain/Feingold since it’s his key piece of legislation. Good luck finding a Constitutionalist who would side with McCain. Therefore, good luck getting a nominee that is a strict Constitutionalist.
So we *might* get a Kennedy or an O’Connor. With the wishy washy way they come to their conclusions – I’d rather have a Stevens or a Ginsburg. At least I know where they’re going to come down on an issue!
The Republicans are screwed and they have no one but themselves to blame.
Martina, you’re right about the inconsistency in McCain’s judicial philosophy.
In May, Senator McCain said, “I have my own standards of judicial ability, experience, philosophy, and temperament. And Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito meet those standards in every respect. They would serve as the model for my own nominees if that responsibility falls to me.”
However, in last year’s FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life case, Senator McCain filed a brief in favor of the FEC’s right to silence Wisconsin Right to Life under the provisions of the McCain-Feingold Act. Wisconsin Right to Life won the case, with Justices Roberts and Alito voting in the majority against Senator McCain’s position.
McCain-Feingold is the hallmark of Senator McCain’s legislative record. Does he really expect us to believe that he will appoint justices like Roberts and Alito who will be hostile to the Constitutionality of this law when cases like FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life come before the Supreme Court?
On the one hand, Bush 43 appointed Roberts, but only after one of the most concerted, expediently organized grassroots efforts we have seen in modern history, when Harriet Miers’ nomination was derailed and extinguished and Roberts’ nomination was moved forward and successfully completed. Leadership for the coalition of grassroots activists in position, Bush followed this turn of events with a formidable nominee in Alito.
On the other hand, we can look at the un-likelihood of McCain leading for any coalition of social and free market conservatives if we look at California’s experience in backing Schwarzenegger for Governor. He has been on the wrong side of liberty in regard to property rights, energy, education reform, and free market solutions for healthcare to name just a few examples.
We, a lot of committed conservatives, supported him as the lesser of two evils. We knew he was green, but thought his professed discipleship of Milton Friedman would guide his principles of leadership and that he would do no harm to the economy for the sake of advancing green policy. We were wrong. He’s caused major damage, not just to California’s economy but, because of the size of CA’s market and economy, to the US economy, by ushering in green policies that are costly, and do not have a sensible cost/return factor. He has come out against two property rights measures that would have stopped the powers that Redevelopment Agencies have over defenseless individual property owners, he supported an initiative to impose a statewide takeover of the healthcare industry and has expanded government and spending instead of limiting its powers and reducing its size as promised.
I think we need to look at our prospects via our numbers of purveyors and protectors of liberty in the Senate and Congress, and not count on McCain to be our point man.
He gave us McCain Feingold, and backed cap and trade to curb ‘global warming.’ These are not small transgressions. Both strike deeply at the heart of a free society and the political economic policy fundamental for its existence. He says he’ll protect the Bush tax cuts, even though he opposed them when they were passed in the Congress.
We can only hope that he understands and believes the dynamic relationship between taxes and a strong economy. It would be great if he really does back saving the Bush tax cuts and eliminating earmarks. We need to have a strong enough team in Congress to support him on these two issues.
We have to pay equal attention to the task of electing and re-electing candidates to congress, to protect our Constitutional liberties and freedom. We won’t have control over the Judicial Committee, but we’ve seen how it doesn’t require a majority to obstruct policy or nominees whom we oppose. We have to have enough representatives who can defeat efforts to impose cap and trade, nationalizing our energy resources and production and other draconian policies that will kill jobs and wipe out people’s disposable income and savings. Healthcare is at high risk for becoming socialized.
It’s hard to disseminate free market ideas that promote liberty when we’re graduating pubic school educated citizens who can’t read, write or think critically, and don’t know what distinguishes a Free Republic from a Democracy.
Manny Miranda, who was a key figure in the campaign to derail Harriet Meier’s thinks McCain would be solid on nominees to the bench. I hope he’s right, but I’m a skeptic, based on his mixed bag of ideas. Meanwhile, I’d like to see more analysis of our overall chances of holding the line in the Congress, against the Democrats and their leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
Another point to consider is the approval to the Supremes of the head lawyer for the Anti-American Communist Lawyers Union, Ginsburg. The vote to confirm was better than 90 senators. I didn’t know the senate had 90 democraps. The one no vote I remember was that of that old crazy right wing nut Jesse Helms. In fact Benedict Dole pushed the republicrats to vote for her. And before someone is upset at comparing Dole to Arnold. Arnold was a war hero, Battle of Saratoga and the defense of West Point. He was also wounded in battle at Saratoga, he limped the rest of his life. He turned traitor because his wife was jealous that he was passed over for promotion. Sort of like Dole who thought he had a devine right to be king (oops President). What we need is another push like the Harriet Myers case to get the republicrat leadership (still an oxymoron) to get McPain to drop out. Stranger things have happended. Remember McGovern’s VP pick Eagleton dropped out when it was found out thta he had mental health problems.
Chuck, your viewpoints are well considered and your assessment is right on. Unfortunately, you have lost the ball when it comes to the state of our Government. Because of our propensity, encouraged by both major parties, to vote for “evils”, our system has devolved into a socialist morass. Special interests with substantial money have bought the vast majority of elections since Teddy Roosevelt turned the “Republican Party” on its ear in 1901. Disgusted with the politics he could not effect as president (and substantial corruption in the “republican party”), he went third-party in 1912. His very strong showing revealed the possiblity that third-party politics can prevail under the right circumstances. In my mind every candidate has been the “lesser of two evils” since. A sad commentary on the electorate in that they are mesmerized into voting only for evils. And we thought the Jedi mind trick was only a movie reality.
I realize that if you tell people something enough times, they will probably believe it. I also know that there is a great war between republicans and democrats to “win” elections. It is clear, however, that this is just a power play for each side for the spoils of power and advantage garnered to the winner. So the game is clear. Each side puts lipstick on their pig, finds reasons to scare the populace, and competes only to “win” for their party. It is not that I do not understand the game, it is just that I am disgusted at how far we have fallen from Constitution principals and how tolerant the populace has tolerated it. I am not surprised, mind you, just disgusted.
I am disgusted at supposedly upstanding citizens who think nothing of deceiving obviously ignorant and scared voters with no view to their wellbeing. I am disgusted at the hypocracy laded on the “election issues” speeches with a guise to tell the “truth”. The depiction of McCain as a conservative would be laughable if it were not dangerously close to the Kenny Guinn deception right here in Nevada. The republicans touted Kenny as a “republican” and I defy anyone to defend that position now (based on actions, not words). McCain is the same. What both parties are doing is basically making empty promises to the populace so their candidates look good. Granted the populace has trained you to be that way, but the culpability is on the “parties” for destroying the Constitution of the United States when they know better. The vast majority of the populace cannot even spell Constitution, so they are counting on their saviors to deliver them. It is simply immoral to take advantage of this position to sieze power and money by taking advantage of an ignorant and mentally disadvantaged populace, yet that is what both parties are doing. If McCain can be a republican based on his past actions with taxes and immigration, I guess there are no republicans left.
The bottom line is that I cannot take the hypocracy any more. The insult to my intelligence has exceeded even the obvious scare tactics of “think what will happen if Obama gets in”. Frankly, Chuck, nothing will be any different. The years since Teddy reduced the deficit by 90 million dollars through reduction in budgets have been nothing but a steady rise in Government control and a evolution to socialism. With the advent of deficit spending being tolerated by the electorate after WWII, there are no more limits to the deception game. There is not even an effort to hide it anymore. There are simply no statesmen left and the power and money likes it that way. I simply cannot endorse the system anymore.
I love the Constitution, which is another reason I must take this approach. The provisions of the Constitution have eroded through overt actions by every branch of politicians in Washington. You make a big deal about the gun control decision by the Supreme Court, which, I agree, is a good decision. But remember, they also voted to allow municipalities take citizens’ property to boost the tax base. This is Nazism at its finest, Chuck, and we just sit by and watch it happen. All branches have been corrupted simply because some people like to be in power. This is certainly not the view of the founding fathers and not the intent of the Constitution. Jefferson only went along with a central government at all because he believed that the citizens, if given control, would never voluntarily give up their control. He was wrong and we are suffering the devestating results of that eventuality.
Sorry, Chuck. There is no longer any semblance of a Republican party. Your candidate is a liberal democrat at best, and a socialist at worst. He is lipsticked up like the rest and I simply cannot endorse this approach any more. We simply cannot cave to a total abrogation of our Constituion any more and hope to keep our way of life. I will not be part of it. I will heartily support Bob Beers as I think he is the last hope for Nevada. I think it unfortunate that he is in the republican party, but he is a good man and the only politician that says in public what he says in private. His actions have earned him the right to serve. But no others. You talk about the great promise of Ronald Reagan, but he raised Government spending like a socialist and could do nothing but make “great statements” about the idiocy of our “Government”. Even the great Reagan could not stop the flood of socialism and, indeed, did a great deal to increase it. Republicans? The party no longer exists. Therefore, everyone is throwing their votes into the toilet of socialism if they vote for either “major party”.
I have been saying these things on blogs for over two years, and have yet to hear a logical refutation. I can only assume I am right and people would prefer I just shut up. Well, I might do that, but I would love to have a sincere debate on this subject with some concrete evidence that I am wrong before I quit. So far, nothing. I guess I am hitting a nerve. If you really believe in “Muth’s Truths”, please consider every aspect of the “truth”. I look forward to your explanation of why I am wrong.
The truth is that the most likely Supreme Court Justice positions that will be up in the next four years are those to replace liberals, meaning that the 5-4 balance is secure.
Sure I would like to gain ground but I don’t believe McCain will replace a liberal Supreme Court Justice with a Conservative one.