John McCain: The Dem’s Best Hope?

John McCain is clearly, by any stretch of the imagination, a Democrat; he is not a businessman, he is a man of big government. Were it not for his experience in Vietnam, he would be an absolute nobody in politics. The fact military veterans support this guy tells us more about their emotional state than anything to do with their understanding of economics, liberty, or, in fact (and stunningly curious) the rule of law. He is quite convincingly the textbook definition of a Republican In Name Only.

When John Kerry was approached about McCain becoming his running mate Kerry wasn’t all that concerned about the philosophical/political issues – Kerry simply wanted to be President. And McCain was a natural compliment to disinfect Kerry of the Swiftboat virus. Just consider a few of McCains views; on drug re-importation from Canada (defacto price controls – a clear anti-capitalist mentality), severe limitations on how much, when, and what can be spent and communicated in campaign promotions (McCain-Feingold), and his flip-flop on the immigration issue. This last one has resulted in convoluted mental gymnastics of the sort which made Bill Clinton famous. To say: “I got the message,” and then somehow deny he had the wrong position to begin with, is playing fast and loose with reality. And then to attempt to create this veil of amnesty not being amnesty, but rather compassion, is yet another mark of a good Democrat. Moreover, consider that his bedfellows in Washington on major legislative initiatives included Joe Lieberman, Ted Kennedy, Russell Feingold, and John Edwards. McCain would have been a good fit for Kerry, and had Kerry had the sales skills needed, foresight, and political battlefield sense of things enough to grab McCain when he had the chance, I suspect we would be facing part two of the Kerry-McCain Administration. If McCain were to become the 44th President of the United States it would not surprise me to find one of those individuals sitting as the Vice President (including, ironically, John Kerry).

What is potentially the most troubling and damning of McCain’s stated positions is his intransigent, non-thinking, and frankly idiotic message regarding comprehensive regulation regarding emissions of greenhouse gases in order to “prevent catastrophic global warming.” McCain, like Al Gore, has stated that the debate is over. Worse, he has made the following comments regarding the role of government in dealing with global climate change (Jan 07, United States Senate Testimony):

“it has become clear to us that any responsible climate change measure must contain five essential components:

First, it must have rational, mandatory emission reduction targets and timetables.
Second, it must utilize a market-based, economy wide “cap and trade” system.
Third, it must include mechanisms to minimize costs and work effectively with other markets.
Fourth, it must spur the development and deployment of advanced technology.
Fifth, it must facilitate international efforts to solve the problem.

. . . If the scientists are right and temperatures continue to rise, we could face environmental, economic, and national security consequences far beyond our ability to imagine. If they are wrong and the Earth finds a way to compensate for the unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, what will we have accomplished? Cleaner air; greater energy efficiency, a more diverse and secure energy mix, and U.S. leadership in the technologies of the future. There is no doubt; failure to act is the far greater risk. ”

The above testimony is naked in its advocacy for governmental interventionism as a prerequisite, and an unbridled belief that humans are not only causing measurable, significant, global climate change but have the ability to un-change it…

>Of course the government has a role here, that debate has ended.
>Of course humans are responsible for global warming, that debate has ended.
>Of course government interventionism and regulation is needed required to protect the huddled masses, that debate has long since ended.
>Of course if we do not allow government to control our daily lives the sun will not rise and utter catastrophe is the result of not letting big government get far far bigger- that debate has ended.

Anyone with half a brain should clearly see that these are not the vision of anything remotely resembling the Grand Old Party of limited government, lower taxation and a focus on individual liberty – nor anything remotely resembling the vision of this country’s founding. Precisely, George Will wrote recently: ” Interesting, is it not, that no one considers it necessary to insist that “the debate has ended” about whether the Earth is round. People only insist that a debate stop when they are afraid of what might be learned if it continues.” What derailed John Kerry was the Swift Boaters, John McCain doesn’t have that problem so he has been allowed to wander about as a Democrat wearing the “maverick” label and running on the Republican ticket. Businessmen who engage in socialism like him, the Greenies on the right like him, the emotionally oriented militarist global nation-builders among us are at his side. Folks, whatever is in the water in South Carolina let’s hope the balance of the aquifers around the country are not infected with the same collectivist anti-capitalist parasite.

Hilllary’s negatives make her a pariah, and I don’t think she’ll be elected president (and I do believe she will be the nominee for that unabashedly socialist party called the Democrats). Obama is so inexperienced and intellectually vacant that it makes local school board members look like viable candidates of the left. In fact, if Obama somehow does become the new mold, the nation will have fully, and for all intents and purposes, left reality completely in the wake. The real race, it seems to me, is now between McCain and Romney; the man of government verses the business man – whomever wins this intra muros contest will likely be President. For the Democrats, John McCain may very well be their best hope.

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