Posted by
Justin Haskins on Saturday, February 02, 2008 3:38:17 AM
"Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican."-Ronald Reagan
Perhaps the most disturbing and ironic event to take place in the last few weeks of the GOP campaigning season is the relentless attacks on Senator John McCain by the conservative media. Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Ann Coulter, to name just a few, have all come out in vicious attacks against McCain's record on numerous issues. In particular, the two main pieces of legislation that had drawn the most criticism from many conservatives are the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform and the McCain-Kennedy attempt at what many feel is amnesty for illegal Mexican aliens.
It is becoming increasingly more evident that the candidate of choice amongst these McCain haters is Mitt Romney, who has policies regarding illegal immigrants and campaign finance that follow traditional party lines. Many within the conservative media claim McCain is merely masquerading as a conservative and that true "Ronald Reagan values" are nowhere to be found when speaking of the senator from Arizona.
However, it is important to note that the perception that many of the biggest and most power names in the conservative media have on John McCain and his policies are inaccurate, at least in part. All of the John McCain critics are, as they should be, incredible supporters of Ronald Reagan. Few occasions pass where you will not hear Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity speaking about the importance of the works of Ronald Reagan. Reagan to the conservative media is as revered as Abe Lincoln was to freedmen following the Civil War or JFK is to Irish-American Catholics. Yet, the conservatives criticizing McCain and praising Reagan are missing one fundamental piece of information: Reagan would probably have voted for McCain.
On the issues of abortion, taxes, and terrorism, there really is not much of a difference in policy between McCain, Romney, and what you would expect Ronald Reagan to support. Therefore, you can automatically remove those from the spectrum. What are the main differences between McCain and Romney then? Immigration, issues on "torture", drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, negotiating across party lines with liberals, and age are the main differences. These differences are the reasons cited by the conservative anti-McCain media for why the senator is no conservative at all.
Yet, on most of these issues, Ronald Reagan would side with McCain, not Romney. Reagan granted amnesty to 3 million Mexican immigrants in 1986, supported measures against the use of torture, crossed party lines on numerous occasions to pass legislation (Without ever sacrificing his conservative principles), and Ronald Reagan was nearly 70 years old when he took office, so I am certain he would have little problem with McCain being 73 at the time of the national election in November of this year.
"Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying."-Ronald Reagan
In fact, I imagine Reagan would even give the edge on foreign policy to McCain when you consider the fact that McCain is a war hero and has had an outstanding amount of foreign policy and military experience. The only disagreement Reagan may have had on a major policy issue is ANWR drilling for oil. Reagan would have supported it.Perhaps the greatest irony of all in this story is that the very conservatives who oppose McCain are breaking the greatest Reagan rule of all: "The 11th Commandment".
"Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican."-Ronald Reagan
How can conservatives who follow Reagan's principles avidly oppose John McCain so vehemently? Even if Reagan, for whatever reason, supported Romney instead, he certainly would disapprove of GOP members attacking other GOP members during a critical election period in a time of great international danger.
Justin Trask Haskins
Author, SAVING AMERICA