No matter what John McCain promises from now until the Republican National Convention in September, he will never fully convince the firm, hard-line conservatives of his party that he is one of them. Nevertheless in order to win in November, McCain needs to convince the talk-radio legions of the GOP to at least vote and mobilize in similar fashion to when they helped elect George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. In order to accomplish this arduous task, McCain needs to swallow his considerable pride and make some compromises with the conservatives. While some may see this as unethical appeasement, political observers must recognize that the party nomination process is very much about give and take. The GOP is giving a lifetime maverick the chance to have the full weight of a powerful political machine behind him as he seeks the highest office in the land, while McCain is giving the party a legitimate chance to win an election in which all the odds are stacked against them. In order for McCain to undergo this issue haggling and maintain his political soul, he needs to decide which issues he can modify and which ones he cannot.
One way to touch the heart of any true conservative is judges. Some of the main concerns of conservatives- guns, abortion, marriage, and affirmative action- are decided in the courts, and McCain can promise conservatives he will nominate similar judges to those of President Bush without compromising his own values (He has been a consistent pro-life and 2nd Amendment voter in the Senate). Perhaps McCain could also tone down his global warming rhetoric, particularly his advocacy of a cap and trade program on carbon emissions, which makes even moderate Republicans want to pull their hair out. However there are some positions, particularly campaign finance reform and amnesty, where McCain would look silly and dishonest if he backed off. On immigration, McCain can focus on fixing the Mexican border first, but to drop amnesty (a very unpopular idea amongst the GOP faithful) would seem absurd given his co-authoring of McCain-Kennedy. Backtracking on McCain-Feingold, the comprehensive campaign finance reform bill that is the bane of existence of conservative fundraisers and first amendment supporters, would also be unethical.
Despite their history, conservatives will realize that John McCain has a lot of positions-see Iraq, the war on terror, spending- that match their core values. As long as he makes an attempt to reach out to them, they should come out in droves to support him in order to prevent a Clinton or Obama presidency. However, it should be up to McCain’s own core of ethics-not his desire for electoral victory-to determine how far he’ll go to appease them.
-Gregg
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