Vote for a better Republican Party

I’ve been tempted to categorize Republican politicians and voters into a few basic groups: 1) Mean and/ or power-hungry, like Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, or Carl Rove; 2) Stupid, like Sarah Palin, or any other snake handling toothless inbred in America; 3) Religious zealot, like Sarah Palin, Pat Robertson, or anyone who attends an Assembly of God church; 4) Deranged ideologue, like Sarah Palin, Grover Norquist, or Timothy McVeigh or; 5) Uninformed or Willfully ignorant, like Sarah Palin, or the 31% of Americans who can’t name the Vice president (not to imply that none of those people are Democrats, but ultimately, if you are that ignorant, do you really have a valid political identity?)

But I’ve met enough Republican voters who don’t fit neatly into any of those groups to think that perhaps I ought to rethink my thinking on that, or add at least one new category, or stop putting labels on people (perish the thought!). So here’s the latest entry into The Human Animal Republican Taxonomic Schematic:

6)Well-meaning-but-myopic-and-glassy-eyed-libertarian-leaning-government-mistrusting ideologues, like, well, maybe John McCain, and quite a number of other people I know. These are people who identify themselves as fiscally conservative, socially progressive, and tend to have libertarian ideas about the role of government in economics, business regulations, and tax policy. They are also generally concerned about the preservation of civil liberties and believe that laws should be based in Constitutional principle. They are concerned about the environment. Basically, they like the Republican Party platform.

I do too, kind of. Or at least, it’s not that bad; a valid political philosophy.

The problem is that when you vote for Republicans, you’re not voting for the platform, you’re voting for Republican politicians; you’re voting for what Republicans do, as exemplified by the past eight years of fiscal recklessness, socially regressive policies, disastrous economic policies, the shredding of civil protections and the rule of law, the expansion of culture wars, the ignoring of science and research in shaping environmental and educational policy, the shredding of environmental protections, the widening of the class gap, expanded power of corporations, expanded power of the executive branch, appointment of very dangerous Supreme Court Justices, and the total alienation of America from the rest of the world. If you think the Bush administration was okay, there’s probably nothing I can do for you.

“But McCain isn’t Bush”, you say, “He’s for “Change”, a real “Maverick”? Here’s the thing: we knew those were the sorts of things Bush would do, because we know what Republicans do. Moreover, Republicans knew who George Bush was, and they put him in office anyway, and supported his policies across the board. McCain, the “Maverick”, famously voted with him 95% of the time.

The Log Cabin Republicans, a well-known group of gay Republican supporters, have been roundly criticized for continuing to support a party whose unwritten platform includes keeping them socially repressed and disadvantaged. They, like the aforementioned Human Animal Group 6, want to remain loyal to the party in order to “change it from within”, or get it back to its foundational principles, or whatever. But clearly, such an approach is counterproductive. What these people are doing is enabling the party to pander to fringe elements while still maintaining their blind loyalty, in effect, moving the party away from having to confront the issue of gay equality.

This is what happens when you accept all that crap from the Republican Party, simply because you admire their foundational principles, to which they fail to adhere. You enable them to continue to promote policies with which you disagree and still get your vote.

But it gets much worse.

McCain has not shown any restraint when it comes to pandering to the extremist segments of his party.

Most notably, by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain has squandered an opportunity to move his party away from the worst and most fundamentally un-American elements in our society. The religious and philosophical context which shaped her political and cultural identity, embodied by the Assembly of God church, represent the most intolerant, hateful, and, frankly, looniest agents of right-wing extremity.

But my point is not that a vote for McCain is a vote for Palin, but that in choosing Palin, McCain has spectacularly failed to address his party’s alliance with, and dependence upon, these extremist elements, and has instead embraced and emboldened them.

When the McCain campaign goes around making absurd claims that Obama associates with terrorists, in a post 9/11 environment, they are stirring up hornets and racists, or worse, assassins.

McCain has not been a “Maverick” in this campaign. To the contrary, like Bush, he has failed miserably to run an honest campaign and stand up for everything that is good about America, and instead has embraced the worst elements among us. He therefore does not deserve to be President.

McCain had a historic opportunity, after the failed, corrupt, and wearisome Bush administration, to take the high road and monumentally improve his party by moving it back toward its foundational principles. In a profoundly woeful lack of judgment, he relinquished this opportunity, and he should be held accountable by all reasonable Republican voters.

So a vote for Obama is a vote for a better Republican party. A vote for Obama sends a message that you, as a decent American, are no longer willing to compromise all of your core social, environmental, and cultural values to vote for a party whose platform has been historically, consistently, and systematically violated by the very people who purport to uphold it. A vote for Obama is a vote against the kind of Republicanism that has met with spectacular failure, and must change or come to an end.