Retrospect, coupled with the nation’s ever-rambling elderly, tells us no matter how terrible things may seem right now, we will all someday look back at these times as the “good old days.” Sure, the military is mired in the Middle East and banks are folding fast in 2008, but the 1950s are still known as the “Golden Era” despite Beaver’s lack of black friends. But when John McCain tells us, as one of those bothersome old folks, life was better back in 1982 when he ran for the United States House of Representatives, we should believe him. In those 26 years of public service, the world watched the Soviet Union fall, the price of gas rise, andMcCain make a Mr. Hyde-like transformation.
If the executive branch was a high school, and Condi was editor of the yearbook, George W. Bush would not be voted “Most Popular.” He’d probably get “Nicest Car,” although “Biggest Flirt” would still be in play if they hadn’t retired it after the Clinton administration. Because of the nation’s contempt for Bush, some say the Democrats could have a supermajority in Congress by the time the next president takes office. While it might take an act of God or voter fraud to elect a Republican at any level in 2008, the same was not true in 1982.
Ronald Reagan entered the White House with approval by default, soundly defeating our country’s greatest monster, Jimmy Carter. His win ushered in over a decade of Republican presidents and a much greater respect for the Republican Party than exists today. McCain ran for the House as a Republican war hero in Arizona, the same state willing to vote in Barry Goldwater. Filled with senior citizens and fallback school college students, Arizona is not a tough state for a Republican to win. In fact, since 1952’s election of Dwight Eisenhower, the only campaign to color the Grand Canyon state blue was Bill Clinton’s 1996 operation.
Because of his noble war record and conservative-minded constituency, McCain was able to worry less about his own re-election and more about the American people. Not content to toe the party line, McCain used his position to champion causes he believed in as a human being, not a Republican. Working with Democrats like Russ Feingold and Ted Kennedy on issues of finance reform and immigration policy, McCain looked to serve his country, not his personal interests.
But ideals can only get someone so far. Even Dr. Frankenstein’s monster was designed with good intentions. For McCain, this brutal reality thrust itself upon him when he became the GOP’s presidential nominee. While the Arizona geriatrics were more than willing to keep McCain in office, selling the Republican masses on McCain would not come easy. This is no longer about Democrats vs. Republicans. This is an us vs. them society. And to many Republican voters, McCain kept too many dangerous associations with them.
This led to changes in McCain’s political philosophy. A man who once fought to preserve American wilderness and coastlines is now for drilling. A man who said he’d work to keep his campaign clean now sponsors attack ads. Early in the McCain campaign, he poked fun at Obama’s “Change” rhetoric. Now he’s invoking it more than his opponent.
Maybe he is simply willing to do anything to be president, or maybe the man who once kept a strong belief system is unwilling to fight his own party. In any case, the John McCain who once stood for a strong, bipartisan democracy is now being propped up like a Muppet by partisan politics. Once again, McCain is being held captive, but this time his captors are not a foreign army, but the bitterly party-conscious American people.
Sean Kittridge ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism.
