Harold Lippes: The Maverick is Gone

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Harold Lippes

After 8 years of frustration, moderate Americans were starving for an intellectually honest presidential debate without the divisive campaign tactics that have polarized us for so long and contributed to our stagnation. In America, we're supposed to respect opposing views and use healthy debates to resolve issues and move us forward. The prospect of an Obama-McCain race was exciting to many because both candidates pledged to debate the issues on the merits and both refused to engage in negative campaign attacks. Sadly, negative attacks are often effective so we will always have to tolerate them to some extent during campaigns but we could ignore them and focus on the honest debates.
 
The candidates have compelling and impressive personal stories. John McCain was a fresh, brash, maverick fighter pilot who, as a POW, rejected an offer of freedom because so many other POWs had been imprisoned long before he had. Maverick McCain heroically gave their freedom priority over his own. Throughout his political career, he has defined himself as a maverick and a person of conviction. Virtually everyone admired him for that and did not care if his views were sometimes different from their own. They respected him. In the recent past, many Americans were willing to support and reward almost any politician if they were people of conviction because it seemed those people had almost vanished from politics. Unfortunately the maverick is gone.
 
When John McCain was running for President in 2000, he stuck to his convictions like he always had and tried to appeal to moderates. He continued to be a maverick after the 2000 election and sometimes spoke out against President Bush when his policies conflicted with McCain's core principles. He wasn't willing to rubber stamp the administration's policies just because he and the President were both Republicans. When he ran for President in 2000, Maverick McCain was against overruling Roe v Wade and chastised George Bush during the primaries for supporting the party's platform position on abortion because it did not even tolerate abortions in cases of rape and incest. He did not mask his concern about the Republican Party's stand on important issues being dictated by an intolerant evangelical ideology. He once called Jerry Falwell and others agents of intolerance. John McCain spoke out against the Bush tax cuts. Since they favored the wealthiest Americans, he called them "irresponsible." He framed himself as a champion of campaign finance reform and reached across party lines to co-author a campaign finance reform bill with Russ Feingold.
 
This is John McCain's last shot at the Presidency. He must have concluded that he could not win the Republican nomination or the general election without support from the furthest right-wing fringe of the party who adhere to the same evangelical ideology he once called "intolerant." Winning the Presidency was apparently so important to him this time that he decided to leave the maverick behind along with his convictions. Now he says Roe v. Wade should be reversed and no longer speaks out for a woman's right to choose even if she has been the victim of incest or rape. He decided to embrace Jerry Falwell even though his intolerant evangelical ideology never changed. The "irresponsible" Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire. Now John McCain says that as President, he would make them permanent. The Republican base didn't like John McCain's proposed campaign finance reform. Now he has abandoned those reforms. During one of the primary debates, he said he would not vote for his own bill. If there was any hope that part of the maverick flame was still burning somewhere inside John McCain, he made it clear when he chose Sarah Palin as his VP that the flame is completely burned out. Even the wick is gone.
 
When asked several months ago about choosing a VP, John McCain said with conviction that the most important factor would be the person's qualifications to serve as President. That should be the most important factor for every Presidential candidate when choosing their VP. In a perfect world, it might be the only factor. In the real world, we know that politics are important when candidates make their VP choice. They have to balance the person's qualifications to serve as President (the most important factor) with the anticipated effect that person will have on Election Day. Most of us don't know anything about Sarah Palin except for what we've read and heard since last Friday when John McCain announced his decision. Like the other candidates, she seems smart and likeable and has a compelling story of her own. Unlike the other candidates, it is obvious that she is not qualified to be our President. Her own mother-in-law questions her qualifications. Politics was the sole factor John McCain considered when he chose Sarah Palin. He only met her once before choosing her as his VP and it sounds like that meeting was brief. Think about that. He completely disregarded her fitness to be our President. Every other person under consideration was far more qualified than Sarah Palin. John McCain chose Sarah Palin because of her gender and because she appeals to the furthest right-wing fringe of the Republican Party who share Jerry Falwell's intolerant evangelical ideology. She strongly opposes a woman's right to choose, opposes proposed rights for same sex couples, supports teaching intelligent design in our public schools and is a member of the NRA. Sarah Palin denies that humans are responsible for global warming and threatened to file suit against the U.S. Government on behalf of Alaska to challenge the designation of polar bears as "threatened" or "endangered" because that designation would protect their habitat and make it difficult to drill there for oil and natural gas.
 
A leader is a person of conviction who stands up for his core principles. The maverick left behind recognized that the intolerant evangelical ideology is antithetical to our most basic constitutional rights. It is unbecoming of any American to stand on the sidelines while those basic rights are compromised. Men and women of our military have sacrificed their lives to preserve those rights for us. Like any true leader, the maverick left behind would never have considered compromising his core principles just to win. He would have stood behind those principles and won or lost with dignity. Despite some of her extreme views, Sarah Palin's refreshing, brash, and youthful exuberance appealed to voters in Alaska. She spoke out against old Alaska politics (and the corruption that came with it) even if that meant breaking rank with members of her own party. John McCain wants us to believe that there is still a maverick flame burning somewhere inside him and points to his VP choice as proof. No matter what John McCain says or does now, the maverick can't re-unite with him at the top of the Republican presidential ticket. John McCain left him way too far behind. Even if he was close by, the maverick wouldn't share the stage with someone who accepted the ideology of the agents of intolerance. Senator McCain, many Americans are just as sad as you are that the maverick is gone. Even though you left him behind, your heroic service to this great country will always be appreciated.

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

Harold Lippes
Jacksonville, Florida

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