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Why Republicans should reject McCain

An editorial  —  10/15/2008 12:18 pm

The Capital Times was founded in 1917 as a maverick Republican newspaper. Our purpose was to support the dissenting political tradition of Robert M. La Follette and the Wisconsin progressive movement, which in those days existed entirely within the confines of the Republican Party.

Across the years, The Capital Times has fought to keep alive the tradition of maverick Republicanism. We have even supported candidates with whom we did not entirely agree in hopes of renewing the party of Lincoln's historic commitment to civil rights and civil liberties, to the rule of law and constitutional governance, to the conservation ethic of Teddy Roosevelt, to the responsible domestic and foreign policies of Dwight Eisenhower.

As 2000's Wisconsin Republican primary between Arizona Sen. John McCain and Texas Gov. George W. Bush approached, we urged voters to cast ballots for McCain. We did not agree with McCain, especially on questions of military adventurism abroad. But in his commitment to bipartisan reform initiatives -- often advanced with Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold -- as well as his relative moderation on some social issues, we recognized evidences of a return to the rational Republicanism of old.

In 2000, McCain campaigned as a refreshing alternative to the broken politics of both major parties. Had he won the nomination and the presidency, America might have taken a different course.

But McCain lost. And, in defeat, he surrendered to the forces he once battled. During the first years of George W. Bush's dangerous presidency, McCain retained something of himself. He broke with the president on spending issues, stem cell research and climate change. And we celebrated his dissents. But slowly, the senator began to compromise not merely with Bush and the most extreme elements of the Republican Party but with his own best instincts.

By 2004, McCain was a tragic figure. He campaigned on behalf of Bush and Cheney, men for whom he had expressed appropriate disdain. He became a willing tool of White House political czar Karl Rove, who just four years earlier had orchestrated crude smear campaigns against McCain. The senator, who had once seemed so vibrant and alive with possibility, made himself over as the hollow man of American politics.

McCain mortgaged his soul to his own ambition in 2004. He had fought for the future of his party and his country in 2000, and he got beat. A stronger, better man would have rallied for another battle. But McCain gave up, not just on himself but on the struggle to renew the Republican Party. This year, as he bids again for the presidency, McCain does so with Rove acolytes managing his campaign. He has aligned his candidacy with the extremists he once battled, selecting a uniquely unfit anti-abortion firebrand, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as his running mate.

If the McCain/Palin ticket were to prevail on Nov. 4, it would not be a win for the maverick Republicanism that McCain championed in 2000. It would be the final victory of the elements of the party that McCain once fought, and that serious conservatives have come to recognize as a threat to the country's financial stability and global prestige.

Candidates never govern better than they run. And John McCain has campaigned for president this year as a crude caricature of the man he once was. His willingness to do so confirms a desperation to attain the presidency at any cost to his own reputation and to the civility of our politics that should be recognized as disqualifying both by the Democrats who might be expected to oppose his candidacy and by Republicans who cherish their party's history and potential.

It is for that reason that responsible Republicans are giving up on McCain.

Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, R-Md., once one of McCain's most consistent allies in the House, worries aloud about the senator's "recklessness" and says he will vote for Democrat Barack Obama.

Former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee argues that Obama -- not McCain -- is the genuine fiscal conservative in this year's presidential race. Speaking of the working relationship he has developed with the Democratic senator from Illinois, the former Republican senator says "we're fiscally conservative, we care about revenues, matching expenditures."

Former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach explains that partisanship must sometimes take a back seat to patriotism. "For me," Leach says, "the national interest comes before party concerns, particularly internationally. We do need a new direction in American policy, and Obama has a sense of that. He recognizes that a long-term occupation of Iraq is not only expensive, it's extremely dangerous to the American interests."

"I (have) no doubt that a lot of Republicans and independents are going to be attracted to his call for a new era of non-ideological, bipartisan decision-making," adds the Republican stalwart.

Leach is on to something. In February, when Wisconsin held its presidential primaries, Obama swept Ripon, the solidly Republican community where the Grand Old Party was founded in 1854. Indeed, Obama collected more votes than McCain and all his Republican rivals combined. This fall, polls tell us that more than 10 percent of Wisconsin Republicans have already decided to back Obama, and that many more are considering doing so. They are making the right choice.

For Republicans who care about their party and their country, it is right to consider voting for Barack Obama. Rejecting the cynical political machinations of John McCain and Sarah Palin will not destroy the Republican Party. It will free the party in particular and American politics in general to seek a better balance and the higher ground.

Leaping partisan boundaries can be difficult. We know. This newspaper took some heat when it backed McCain in 2000, just as we have been criticized for endorsing Republicans such as Fond du Lac Congressman Tom Petri.

But sometimes the political stars align in a manner that makes the leap not just appropriate but necessary. As Wisconsin Republicans ponder that necessity, we recommend to them an assessment offered by Douglas Kmiec, who headed the Office of Legal Counsel during the Republican administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush:

"President Reagan often said his proudest achievement was making America feel good about itself again. Sen. Obama is trying to give us genuine reason to have that feeling again," says Kmiec. "Indeed, he may have already partially succeeded. Having taught several generations of students over 35 years, I have never seen young people more alive and interested in the political process. His witness is encouraging them to look to civic and public involvement as a way of finding their own purpose -- a purpose that they intuitively want to be in service to others."

That purpose is not confined merely to the young, nor to the partisans of one party. It is an American purpose, a purpose wise Republicans have embraced for a century and a half. Wisconsin Republicans -- who by virtue of their party's founding in this state are charged with guarding its best traditions and highest values -- should express that purpose by joining independents and Democrats in voting Nov. 4 to elect Barack Obama as America's next president.

An editorial  —  10/15/2008 12:18 pm