Based on the recent developments in the Republican primary season, it would seem the GOP electorate has warmed up to Sen. John McCain. South Carolina, having flatly rejected McCain in favor of George W. Bush eight years ago, gave the architect of campaign finance reform and comprehensive immigration reform the go-ahead last weekend.
For conservatives of the God-fearing, middle-class, talk-radio listening variety (perhaps the core of the Republican Party), McCain presents many contradictions. On the one hand, his service and sacrifice in the Vietnam War, paired with unabashed and genuine patriotism, gives conservatives exactly the type of character needed in the White House.
Nevertheless, the downsides to McCain are greater in number and in importance for conservative voters. Illegal immigration, an issue that the New England blueblood Republicans wish would just go away, is perhaps one of the topmost priorities for conservatives in the South and West. McCain, with his underhanded attempt to push McCain-Edwards amnesty last summer, differs greatly with voters on the solution for the problem.
Even so, the sum of these transgressions against conservative doctrine does not fully explain the aversion conservatives have to John McCain. Behind all the straight talk, the stories of heroism and the “let’s get it done” mentality, there lies an identifiable strain of contempt. McCain does not reserve it exclusively for the conservative movement; anyone opposed to his warped pragmatism is fair game. The contempt is, nonetheless, a sign that McCain shares with his liberal counterparts a sense of do-goodism, that if only we just all did it his way, our problems would melt away.
What the vehement rejection of his immigration reform from the electorate said to McCain was not that he was out of step with the people, but that the people were out of step with him. Active conservatives, by calling their legislators to demand no amnesty, destroyed what could have been another legislative landmark in his senatorial record, the holy grail of solving the immigration problem that would have propelled McCain to sure victory in November 2008. McCain would be able to serve the people if the people just got out of his damn way.
This leads me back to my initial question. Why, if Americans are so concerned about illegal immigration, did South Carolina, a Southern state with a conservative Republican electorate, give John McCain this victory? McCain won 33 percent of the vote, the lowest percentage victory of any Republican candidate in the primary, indicating the win might not mean what it used to. South Carolina, like many states, also runs an open primary, giving the ability for registered independents and even Democrats the ability to vote in the Republican primary. Perhaps South Carolina Republicans have simply forgotten about the comprehensive immigration reform mess and allowed the media-driven momentum McCain received following his New Hampshire victory to easily sway them.
The most disheartening possibility is that Republicans saw campaign finance reform, comprehensive immigration reform, Social Security for illegal immigrants, global warming legislation and sharp criticism for the running of Guantanamo Bay on McCain’s record and shrugged it off. Maybe Republicans suffer from a political battered wife syndrome, where the party keeps coming back to McCain even when he beats up some of its principles, like national sovereignty and freedom of speech. It’s time for Republicans to stop blaming their conservative ideology and voting for someone who snubs those core beliefs.
