McCain and Political Courage

Introduction: I have generally been totally turned off by the election campaign and thus for the most part it bores me. That said, I have written several pieces lately all in defense in some way of the candidate I now support, John McCain. Even when I supported Rudy, I admired a lot about McCain. Still for the most part this isn't about McCain, but rather about the manner in which the establishment and those that follow them respond to him and to politicians in general. Now...

I have long believed that political courage is one of the most thankless traits. It is rarely remembered by supporters and almost never forgotten by those you turn off. A great example is Joe Lieberman. He stood up for the war in Iraq and his whole party turned on him. While he was able to survive, the demographic make up of his state (lots of independents) made his situation unique. That said, all his new found allies on the Rep side will turn enemies if he ever votes against one of the judges, and the Dems will never forgive him.

McCain is much the same type of a politician. It is the trait that draws me most to him. Even when I didn't support him, I always admired his political courage. I always felt that his time in a POW camp continued to be relevant because he politics in much the same way. On April 11, 2007, John McCain went to the Virginia Military Institute and delivered a defense of the Iraq War. At the time, such a defense was considered political suicide, and even his own Republican colleagues wouldn't dare be so bold in defense of a strategy still in its infancy. McCain had no such problems, and felt that losing this war was much worse than his losing any political standing.

During the exact same time, victory in Iraq was the most important issue to any true blue Conservative. For a time, Conservatives warmed up to McCain. It is of course ironic that now that the war is going so much better and other issues are of importance, these very same conservatives that felt so strongly about Iraq have long forgotten about this speech and everything else he did in defense of the war. I have even had some conservative colleagues minimize his role in its success. No one, but General Petraeus and the group he leads, was more vital to the success of the surge. I, for one, have never forgotten the political backbone and courage he showed and it is the main reason I now support him. Most conservatives, on the other hand, disregard this courage in favor of their problems on other issues. The very same conservative establishment that now considers McCain their enemy also considered victory in Iraq the most important issue once. Then and now, they will begrudgingly credit McCain for his role in its success. Still, its success and McCain's role in it is of little importance compared to the betrayal they felt on immigration et al.

Democrats, and the media on the other hand, have never forgiven his strong support for the war. While McCain was considered the media darling in 2000, the MSM turned on him as soon as he defended the war so boldly. Nothing illustrates the MSM's turn against McCain than this column by E.J. Dionne. The very allies that his so called maverick nature brought before his defense of the Iraq war turned on him just as quickly as the conservative establishment once he stood up for the war. His strong defense of the war when no one else would won he little favor with his natural constituency and cost him forever with his tenuous allies.

On immigration, say what you will however it took unimaginable political courage for McCain to get into bed with Ted Kennedy during a primary where the natural electorate considered Ted Kennedy the enemy. Most of the conservative establishment has forever made McCain their enemy as a result. His defense of the Iraq war is either minimized or forgotten. Those that support Kennedy of course would never support McCain because if his Iraq war support.

Frankly, most of McCain's most controversial, and I would say courageous, moves fall into that category. From McCain/Feingold to the Gang of 14, to his refusal to support the Bush tax cuts without spending cuts, he has won little new allies and only cost himself natural allies.

Even in this campaign McCain chose the courageous route at the expense of his own political position. When he campaigned in Michigan, this is what he said about jobs in Michigan (Michigan's economy is among the worst and the auto industry has suffered more than most)

I've got to give you some straight talk.Some of the jobs that have left the state of Michigan are not coming back. They are not. And I am sorry to tell you that

Mitt Romney took no such route. Here is what he said.

Don’t listen to anybody who says those jobs aren’t coming back, I’m not willing to accept that.

It is unclear how Romney would bring jobs specifically back to Michigan and even less clear why a President would focus on bringing jobs back to one specific state. Furthermore, focusing on the jobs of one state by a President is not very conservative. To me this is pandering. This isn't the first time I have seen Romney pander. I believe he pandered to Republicans on his new found Conservative principles. Those conservative principles lasted right to the point that he saw an opportunity to gain votes in a state depressed by an economic downturn. None of those things mattered, the faithful in Michigan rejected McCain's pessimism and embraced Romney's newfound nanny state principles and awarded to state to him.

The McCain paradigm doesn't end there though. That's because despite all of this political sacrifice for principle and courage he is still likely to be the nominee and in good position to be President. Thus, while on the one hand I have presented plenty of evidence of his political courage costing him, the facts speak for themselves, Res Ipsa Loquitur. He is still standing and in fact thriving. It's because ideologues don't care about courage. They only care about ideology. It is the independent minded individual that recognizes courage and responds to it because they aren't beholden to an ideology. McCain isn't the first politician to gain a plethora of enemies in their career. McCain won't be the first to thrive despite them or in some manner because of them. Ultimately, like any successful politician he found his niche and used his enemies as an advantage. McCain will never appeal to the conservative ideologues, however appealing to such a group will likely be a death knell in the general election anyway.

McCain made his stand in NH, a state that has nearly as many independents as those that belong to either party. In that state, his political courage was an asset not a liability. He used that to spring board his campaign that is now on the verge of the nomination. He can then use his natural niche to appeal to independents in the general election. Thus, McCain's courage is both his biggest political enemy and his biggest political ally, a paradigm that makes me totally fascinated in politics.