the red pages

conrary to popular opinion, john mccain is not george bush

I don't intend to vote for John McCain in November, and I hope he loses. But here's the thing: even if he did vote with George Bush 90% of the time (and I haven't done to research to find out it that figure is actually accurate), I won't be too broken up if he wins because he's not George Bush.

And I want to be as clear as I can about this, because I think it's an idea that Democrats could stand to wrap their heads around. John McCain can be pushed around by his party and was often pushed around by his President but, Sarah Palin notwithstanding, he's the closest thing to a Goldwater Republican to be found on the current Republican A-List. He voted against a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, and he's been a long-time supporter of campaign finance reform and fiscal discipline in politics. True, he voted against the Bush tax cuts -- which may not seem very Goldwater-ish -- but I think even Goldwater would probably fight tax cuts in the face of our current deficit. All things being equal, I'd rather have Eisenhower on the ticket, but McCain might be the best Republican presidential candidate we've had since Eisenhower.

There are a lot of things that worry me about McCain. His vision of federalism makes me nervous, because it is, like most forms of modern libertarianism, a political half-truth: he wants to withdraw federal support from states (genuinely federalist), while maintaining federal control over many of the significant functions of government within states (not even a little bit federalist) in the name of national security and international trade. I'm also terrified that McCain would die and that Sarah Palin, with her religious freakoid views, would take over the White House. And McCain has clearly been forced to make peace with some of the worst elements in the Republican Party; I wouldn't like to find out how firm those ties would remain after he won the election.

I don't want John McCain to be the next President of the United States because I disagree with his policy goals and his perspective on the role of the federal government. But this is distinct from the way I didn't want George W. Bush to get a second term in office: I think Bush is a liar, a thief, a hypocrite, and a political opportunist whose presidency will go down in history as one of the greatest political, economic and social disasters to befall the United States since James Buchanan. I disagree with John McCain. I fucking hate George W. Bush, and I think I'm basically right to do so.

But as far as that goes, I'm not nearly as worried about this election as I was about the last one.

Honestly, it's kind of a relief.

Posted by Joshua at September 5, 2008 10:12 PM