Over at Electoral Vote.Com, the votemaster has put up a list of all senators and where they rank-from liberal to conservative. I was surprised to find Hillary Clinton ranked slightly more liberal than Obama. Obama himself is only slightly more liberal than Joe Lieberman.
And McCain is more conservative than everyone, save four senators. This is based on their voting record and the median of 7 liberal interest groups. This seems to jibe with many of the other rankings out there.
So, why do conservatives hate McCain so much? His voting record is clearly more conservative than people like Saxby Chambliss or Sam Brownback.
3 comments:
Conservatives appear to hate McCain because he has betrayed them on several fronts:
* Campaign finance reform. It's often said that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. The main reason McCain supported reform was because Karl Rove mugged him in the 2000 presidential primary.
McCain was livid at the treatment he received, and worked with the Democrats to get some payback. According to many reports, McCain has a vengeful side (his nickname was "McNasty").
* Agents of Intolerance. In the 2000 primary McCain criticized Bush for accepting the backing of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, calling them "agents of intolerance." This really riled the conservative base because it gave solace to the enemy (liberals).
Of course, McCain papered over his differences with Robertson when he was running for president this time.
* Immigration. McCain is more of a country-club Republican, and sides with business on a whole lot of issues. Businesses need cheap (read "slave") labor, and McCain is more than happy to oblige his corporate masters.
Rank and file conservatives often oppose immigration, primarily on racist grounds, though they refuse to admit it.
* Torture. McCain, having been the victim of torture himself, opposes its use because it will eventually result in our own soldiers being tortured. Many conservatives live in the fantasy world of "24" and either think that innocent people are never caught up in these broad sweeps for terrorists, or don't care about torturing those damned foreigners even if they are innocent.
They forget all those episodes where Jack Bauer tortured innocent people, wasting a lot of time when he could have been going after the real bad guys.
* Iraq. Even though many conservatives keep hollering hoorah about Iraq, they know this war is a turkey. They don't believe in "nation building." It betrays everything they stand for (i.e., don't spend a nickel on anyone I don't give a damn about).
Many conservatives don't believe Americans should die waiting for a bunch of towelheads to make nice; at best we should just nuke them all and be done with it.
McCain sees no problem with us hanging around in Iraq for the next century, comparing it to South Korea, Germany, and Japan. The problem is that Iraq is nothing like those countries. North Korea, Germany and Japan were the bad guys then. Now we're the aggressors and the occupiers. They don't want us there and we won't have any rest until we leave.
McCain thinks of himself as a military man, and as such expects war to be inevitable and acceptable. For grunts on the ground, this must be so -- otherwise they could not fight.
But a president can't be just a grunt. He has to see the bigger picture. Eisenhower was a soldier who made the transition to a civilian leader. McCain is not -- he seems bogged down with petty ideas of victory and loss from Viet Nam which cloud his judgment.
Leaving Iraq after taking down Saddam, ensuring no WMDs exist, establishing the basis for democracy and crippling Al Qaeda to the point that the Sunnis now hate them more than we do sounds like Mission Accomplished to me. Why won't McCain talk about leaving?
Oh, Iran. Well, before the war started we knew that Iran was Shiite and all the Shiites in Iraq got their marching orders from Iran. Why, isn't that why we left Saddam in power in the first place?
In short, many conservatives see McCain as a spiteful man who has taken up cause with the liberals against his own far too many times. When he lost in the primaries he should have just sucked it up, but he whined and stuck it to fellow conservatives.
My take on McCain is similar. When he's on the right side of an issue, it's usually because he's been mugged. His underlying motivations seem petty and vengeful, though he exudes a jovial charm. In short, he shares many of the same personality characteristics with George Bush, right down to the hard-drinking and under-achieving.
We've been down that road already, it's time for a change.
It must be sad to have been so cheated by the public education system.
Dave, you know I love you but until you decide to start addressing the issues that blk mentions, you will continue to live in woeful ignorance. I don't know if you are just stubborn or have trouble admitting when you are wrong but pretty much all of what he says above is true.
You can start dealing with it or...well...I don't think you are going to the other option.
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