Political musings...
It's been a lil while since I've blogged much on the political scene, but I'll offer a few thoughts this morning..
I came across the following on an "influential" T-woman's blog:
On the other side of the aisle Sen. John McCain is under the HRC microscope for his sad record on GLBT issues. Most recently he applauded the fact that the CA Same-Sex Marriage initiative will be on the ballot there in November and I expect he’ll try to make it a campaign issue. HRC released a 6-page publication today titled “John McCain: A record of opposing the interests of GLBT Americans“. I’ve kinda had the feeling for quite a while that he’s not crazy about GLBT people. Ya think?First, a few caveats. The blogger above is an intelligent, thoughtful woman, one who expends considerable time and energy advocating, as she best sees fit, for the T "community." She deserves credit for that work. And on a personal level, I often enjoy her various bloggings. But from her writings, she is hardly a "fair and balanced" gal; her leanings are decided partisan. As is her right. However, I would suggest that offering an analysis of a Republican candidate from the HRC is hardly unbiased; the HRC being firmly in the camp of the Democratic Party. As to the gist of her comments... many people, no matter their views on same-sex marriage (I endorse it) nevertheless are quite disturbed when an activist judiciary imposes it's views over the expressed will of the electorate. In CA, 61% of voters approved a ballot initiative defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. For a judiciary to simply cast that aside is arrogance. (And never forget- a judiciary that will cast aside a vote one disapproves of today can just as easily cast aside a vote one approves of tomorrow; liberal, conservative, or anywhere in between, one should cast a wary eye upon judicial activism.) And it is not as if same-sex couples in CA are not ensured rights and privileges guaranteed under state law. (I have other thoughts on SSM, the CA- and MA- rulings, that I'll offer later.) As to John McCain (and more on him and his candidacy below) from what I've read, while he personally opposes same-sex marriage, he believes it is an issue best reserved to each state to decide, hence his opposition to the federal marriage amendment, for instance. Hardly the act of someone "not crazy about GLBT people"; in fact, pretty much the same stance that Democratic candidate John Kerry took in '04. Or is Kerry also "not crazy about GLBT people?" McCain's views appear to be in line with a large segment of the American electorate. Another note re. McCain not being "crazy about GLBT people," one that, particularly residents of Arizona (as is the blogger referenced above), should examine: McCain's support of and for former Rep. Jim Kolbe [
McCain and Kolbe are also good friends and McCain literally came to Kolbe’s side when Kolbe faced a conservative Christian challenge over serving Thanksgiving meals at a religious soup kitchen a couple years after he was outed] and then come back and tell us how McCain seems "not crazy about GLBT people." Sadly, there are some/too many within the GOP who express a discomfort of and an antipathy toward GLBT individuals (as there are within the Democratic Party:
John "I'm not comfortable around those people" Edwards comes to mind, for instance.) I find it difficult to place McCain amongst that number. But I understand the motivations of those who seek to always place GLBT issues in their partisan political framework of Dems= always good/GOP=always bad. Reality doesn't always fit those parameters as neatly.
As to John McCain and the Presidential race broadly... First, it appears it will be McCain vs. Barack Obama. Certainly this will be a unique race: age vs. youth, experience vs. potential, plain-spoken vs. soaring rhetoric, and thankfully both candidates seemingly removed from the most tedious aspects of the whole Boomer generation mentality. And they do offer stark contrasts politically; McCain, if not a doctrinaire conservative, conservative nonetheless, while Obama possesses what has been judged the
most liberal voting record in the US Senate.
Anyone who has read my blog for awhile has a good idea of my political leanings; on economic and defense issues I lean decidedly Right, on social/cultural issues I am decidedly libertarian. In the briefest of nutshells, I endorse policies- and candidates- that advocate limited government and a strong defense against foreign foes. Where does this leave me in '08? I will say that McCain was not my first, nor my second, choice (those would have been Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul- a bit more on Paul below.) While McCain obviously has a stirring personal narrative, and some of his policies and votes (especially toward spending) I endorse, there is also an element of Big Government Conservatism that I find troubling (BGC is what, IMO, got the Bush Admin and the Republican Congresses waaayyy off-track this decade, BGC being no more palatable to me than Big Government Liberalism.) Rudy? He was already out of the race before the MA primaries (Rudy- the only candidate to have run a worse campaign than Hillary!) Ron Paul? There is much to him that I like, but a few items stood out harshly; his seeming insistence that the US was somehow to "blame" for 9/11, his too-coziness with the so-called 9/11 "Truthers", and some of his past writings and associations. Combined, these were enuf to give me pause as to his fitness to be President, even as I agree with much of his political philosophy and his voting record. As for the Dems, both Hillary and especially Obama are just too far Left for me to seriously consider. Where does this leave me come November? Being from Massachusetts, my vote won't really count; whoever the Dem nominee is (and it appears it will be Obama) will win the state and it's Electoral College votes, easily. McCain? Or might this be the election I vote Libertarian for President?
Bob Barr has increasingly been sounding sensible to me; he has long-since renounced many of his past cultural-conservative votes and philosophies, he has seemed to have embraced a sensible libertarianism, one in contrast to some of the loons the LP has nominated in the past. Barr might have made the better "libertarian" candidate in the GOP race in that in many ways he is more mainstream than Ron Paul, yet advocates a libertarian POV. We shall see.
I have more; maybe next post.
"Now I'm waiting for Wednesday..."
