During the 2000 presidential primaries I was evenly divided in my support for John McCain and Al Gore. If it had ended up being McCain vs. Gore in November, I was honestly unsure during that primary season which of them I would be voting for. If John McCain had been the Republican nominee and Al Gore had still selected Joe Leiberman for his running mate, I would have voted for John McCain in November.
(Why? While anti-Leiberman sentiments are easy to come by these days, my leeriness at the time was predicated entirely around Leiberman’s pro-censorship positions. These were positions shared by Al Gore’s wife Tipper. This meant that Al Gore had surrounded himself with voices preaching pro-censorship positions. Civil rights violations are, frankly, a nearly unforgivable political sin for me — and, in a democracy, freedom of speech is almost certainly the most important civil right. Al Gore never actually crossed that line personally, but he was flirting with it dangerously in his selection of VP. That was the tipping point for me.)
As it turned out, of course, George W. Bush ended up being the Republican nominee. Bush wore his ignorance and incompetence on his sleeve and came pre-packaged with a long history of dismal failure. I knew he would be a complete disaster for this country and voting for Al Gore became a no-brainer. The Stakes were far too high.
In any case, eight years ago I was ready to embrace a John McCain presidency. I didn’t agree completely with his politics, but I respected his principles, his intelligence, and his integrity.
But eight years has made a huge difference: Today I am vehemently opposed to a John McCain presidency. Why?
Well, here’s one reason:
At some point during or after losing the Republican primary in 2000, John McCain made the decision that he would do whatever was necessary in order to secure his party’s nomination in 2008. He became a political panderer and utterly sacrificed his personal integrity on the altar of personal ambition.
But more importantly, John McCain lost his moral compass during the past eight years. Frankly, John McCain lost my vote (and my respect) when he condoned torture. Repeatedly. John McCain — a former POW — should know better. And he should be ashamed to compromise his own ethical code in order to achieve his political aspirations.
(For the record, McCain loses a little more of my respect every time he tries to defend his pro-torture vote in February 2008 by pointing to the position he took vis-a-vis torture in 2005… which is when he first flip-flopped on the issue. Saying, “I didn’t flip-flop on torture because I flip-flopped on torture in 2005,” is, frankly, insulting to every intelligent and informed person.)
All of this was more than enough to turn me against the idea of a John McCain presidency. But recently even more disturbing news is beginning to break: John McCain’s campaign has a corruption problem. Lots of corruption problems. He’s also shown a remarkable willingness to break and/or bend the very campaign finance laws he personally championed.
Apparently I shouldn’t have been so quick to give him a second chance after his involvement as one of the Keating Five.
Why is this important? Because the Republican party has a serious problem with corruption and cronyism. At a national level it’s not hard to draw a line from Nixon (a name which has practically become a byword for corruption) to Reagan (the White House featuring the most criminal convictions in history) to Bush. But the congressional Republicans have been plagued by their own scandals (Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, Duke Cunningham); as have Republican governors (Coingate, George Ryan, Ernie Fletcher, John G. Rowland). In short, their corruption is rampant at every level of government: National, state, and local. Heck, the Republicans even steal from themselves.
So when John McCain not only establishes that he’s willing to compromise his own ethical integrity in order to achieve political power but also appears to engage in widespread, systematic corruption… well, that makes it impossible for me to support him for any political office. Nor can I have any faith in his ability to lead this country out of the troubled times that George W. Bush has left us stranded in.
