For the good of the party?!

So if you're in the GOP, you're being inundated just now with what the media and many party players say is a fait accompli: John McCain is the inevitable GOP nominee. As a result, we are told that it is somehow our duty to get behind the McCandidate.

I can't possibly say strongly enough how much I disagree with this "for the good of the party" nonsense. We've all been making our decisions on the GOP nominee for 20 years, and it has served only to damage the party immeasurably, possibly beyond repair.

We've been doing this for 20 years now, coming together to support the lesser of the evils because we assume he couldn't be as bad as the opposition. I believe in doing so we've only damaged the principles the Grand Ole Party once stood for and proven ourselves unworthy of that mantle. This party is supposed to be, at core, one that supports a general principle of limited government; that's of course nothing more than a joke at this stage to all three of the main contenders for nomination.


John McCain is a supremely arrogant, untrustworthy, and bitterly angry man. He is incredibly well known on Capitol Hill to have a temper beyond reason--I'm told by insiders his staff has to be prepared on a moment's notice to issue written apologies to his Congressional colleagues because no one knows what will set him off into an expletive-laden tirade.

Beyond the obvious questionable judgment that would put such a person in charge of "the button" is his lack of principles. John McCain is not a conservative, he is not a libertarian...I'm not even sure he's a liberal, if you really want to know. John McCain is basically just King of the John McCain fan club, and that's about all he has to offer this country. We're less than 10 years out from a time when he considered changing parties--not because his ideals or principles changed but because he couldn't get enough adoration and attention in the GOP. Remember our good friend Jim Jeffords? Around the time he jumped ship, having been courted by Democrats to do so, McCain staffers were sniffing around to see what kind of play McCain could get for jumping ship...so he wasn't even being courted, he was out attempting to sell himself to the highest bidder.

This is apparently the best we can muster as a party.

I am told that regardless of his flaws, he must be better than the alternatives on the Democrat side. To which I have two responses: first, how are we ever going to find the best standard-bearer when we are all too ready to accept this kind of ... person? Maybe if we all really started demanding more from politicians, expecting more from them, and holding them accountable at the ballot when they don't offer it, maybe then we'd see something really special happen.

Second, how can anyone possibly know whether McCain is any better than the alternative when no one really knows what he believes or stands for?

My hope for tomorrow, Super Tuesday is this: at the end of the day no one may be declared "presumptive nominee." Let's all take a little more time before once more submitting to that most pathetic and lowly urge to hold our noses and vote for someone just because we are told he is the most "electable" or some such nonsense. We've got SIX MONTHS until the nominating convention, maybe we could use just a bit more of that time to think things over and consider whether, once again, we really want to all band together and accept someone of such questionable worth and qualification.