Regarding my vote for McCain

A comment to my original post, highlighted the argument put forth by Michael Medved regarding an Obama win being good for conservatives. 

My opinion is that we need a true Conservative Revolution, like we had under Ronald Reagan. We need to stop pretending to care about certain issues, and stop bemoaning the status quo, and actually do something about it. 

Too many Republicans get to congress and are sucked into the life of the powerful, and wish to be popular there. They forget that they're conservatives, and they become Democrat lite. This is what happened to McCain, if he ever really was a Conservative. 

Many Conservatives believe we need to overhaul the tax system in general. It's become so large and contradictory that no one, not even the IRS can possibly know everything about it. 

According to the US Government Printing Office, it's 13,458 pages in total. The full text of Title 26 of the United States Code (the part written by Congress--available for an additional $179) is a mere 3,387 printed pages, bringing the adjusted gross page count to 16,845. 

No one can possibly know what is in those twenty volumes of books. Think about this, the Tax Code is larger than an Encyclopedia, for those of us old enough to remember when that was in books, instead of online. It's huge. It's specifically set up and designed to screw the middle class and the poor. I know, you doubt my assertion.

OK, then let's consider this for a moment. When some rich guy gets audited, what happens? The rich guy if he shows up in person, has a squad of lawyers, and another squad of accountants, probably former IRS employees, who argue each point of law with the auditors. They know the system well enough to know how to defend the rich guy. 

When a middle class, or poor person gets audited what happens? They show up with shoe box full of receipts praying they don't get screwed too hard. 

The IRS is even willing to show up at the Rich Guy's house, or law office, and happily discuss the issue, knowing that he's facing the wall of legal talent, he won't be able to fudge something. The middle class guy shows up at the IRS office, and again, just prays that he's not getting screwed too badly. 

So the Tax Code argument is valid from Mr. Medved, but it's not really all that valid. The Conservatives refused to Govern as Conservatives when they had the power. They refused to act like winners, and we didn't get real change to the tax code. We could have had a flat tax, which is you deduct the poverty line amount, and pay a flat rate on everything else, say, 17%. But we don't do that, because then the special people would be paying about what they are now, and the poor folks would be paying little, if any, like they are now. However, accountants around the nation would be unemployed wouldn't they? I guess that would be bad, sort of.

So the tax argument is lame, since even if McCain is elected, and if we had a Massive Majority of Republicans, they wouldn't change the system. 

Mr. Medved then claims that Ronald Reagan would have been elected in 1980, even if we'd never had a Jimmy Carter. I beg to differ. In 1976, Reagan's message was pretty much the same, and the party selected President Ford for re-election, despite essentially splitting the votes with Reagan. The Republican Party wasn't ready to embrace Conservative ideals yet. 

Let's say instead of Carter, we had a Truman type of Democrat elected in 1976. Then Reagan would not have been elected in 1980, because Truman, JFK, and other Democrats were very smart, and Conservative towards fiscal policy. It was the economy that got President Carter's administration destroyed. I admire him for his actions regarding the Three Mile Island incident. Instead of staying away, for safety, he showed up to tour it first hand and understand it personally. That took courage, and I admire that. I can even to a certain extent give him credit for his foreign peace proposals being born of a sincere desire for peaceful relations. I don't admire his handling of the Shaw of Iran, but that's another story.

The point is that had it been a more Conservative Democrat, the result in 1980 probably would have been very different. Instead, we had a Liberal/Socialist Democrat who badly mismanaged the economy, refusing to consider tax cuts as a way to stimulate growth. Refusing to consider the world economy in his mishandling of Iran. 

In the end, his legacy as President, is a Disaster. It set up the Reagan Revolution, because Ronald Reagan understood how lower taxes would stimulate the economy. He understood how the desire of normal Americans to work, earn a good living, and provide a better life for their children, would drive the country forward. It's a shame his Vice President didn't understand that as clearly as he did, but that's another discussion as well.

The assertion that Reagan would have been elected no matter who was President, is obviously false on it's face. If President's are perceived as failures, then they are one term Presidents. Carter and GHW Bush are both examples from my lifetime. One was a Democrat, one was a Republican. Bush lost on his broken promise, no new taxes. Carter lost on the economy and the Hostage Crisis in Iran. Truman or Kennedy would not have had those two events dragging on as long as they were. Kennedy would have lowered taxes, to stimulate growth. Kennedy would have seen the Hostages Rescued, or would have seen to the release of the hostages through strong diplomacy, as in Cuban Missile Crisis? 

No, Reagan wasn't guaranteed the Presidency in 1980. He was the right man, at the right time. He demonstrated a clear and easily definable difference between himself and President Carter. 

Mr. Medved then claims that if Palin loses as John McCain's running mate, she has no future in Politics at the national level. He uses as his example, John Edwards, and Joe Lieberman. 

Neither of these two people had the following before they were defeated Vice Presidential Nominees. They were safe choices for the ticket head. Gore and Kerry. Mostly chosen for thei hope that they could cover up or shore up the nominee's problem areas, Edwards for a solidified chance at North Carolina and the southern states. Gore already having been denounced and rejected by his own state. Liberman to give moral authority as the "Conscience of the Senate." to Kerry's pandering politics. Lieberman's moral authority put him at odds with the Democratic Party Base regarding the War in Iraq, and the wider War on Terror. So much so that the Democratic Party base, the Nutroots, ran a strong campaign to get him off the ticket as a Democrat in his run for the Senate. That's why by the way, Lieberman is an Independent now. The KosKids destroyed him in the Democratic Primary.

Nixon was a Vice President, and lost his first election. He's one of the rare examples of someone coming back after a national loss, and winning the White House. 

Palin's career doesn't hinge on this one election. She could and I believe will come back stronger in 2012 if Obama wins next week. I've already started a savings account, specifically intended to give Sarah Palin the maximum donation the day she announces her run for the White House. After all, she lost her first race for the Governor's job in Alaska. After the election, the people realized they made a mistake, and regretted not choosing her. She won the next election, which goes to show you that she's tough, and determined. 

Mr. Medved claims that after a defeat, the party moves to the Center, so the Country Club Blue Blood Republicans would be stronger than before. No sir, they wouldn't. After Gore's defeat in 2000, the Democrats went harder left. After John Kerry's defeat in 2004, they went extreme left. After Ford's defeat in 1976, the Republicans went to the Right. After GHWB's defeat in 1992, the Republicans took control of the House and the Senate by going Right, not by becoming Centrist. That's an asinine argument Mr. Medved, and I reject it out of hand. 

McCain is a Centrist, a Moderate. That's why the base of the party, people like myself, don't like him. This is why Conservatives like myself were planning on sitting the election out. After the Nomination was secured, McCain was polling so badly, that we wondered if it would be a thirty state landslide for Obama. Then he brought out Palin, and secured the Conservative support. Donations flowed, grass roots organizing got started almost overnight. The Conservatives such as myself, still don't like, or trust McCain, we like, and trust Palin. If it was McCain and Huckabee on the ticket, I wouldn't vote for them. If it was McCain and Lieberman, same result. It's Palin that has energized the base.

Before he picked her, his rallies looked like a wake. After he picked her, the crowds are energized, and huge.

You can't claim that the Democrats are more centrist now, than they were under Clinton. You can't possibly believe that. You can't pretend that the Republicans moved the the center after the defeat of Bush and Dole. It was Conservative ideals passionately described and passionately acted upon that energized the base this year Mr. Medved. 

If this election has demonstrated anything to be true, it's that the era of the Country Club Blue Blood Republican, is a fact that should remain in history, not in our futures.