For the last year we have heard about the maverick John McCain. How he has stood up against lobbyists and the right-wing of his own party. We've heard about how his experiences have given him the wisdom to put country ahead of party. But that was prior to the 2000 Republican primaries.
Maverick McCain was ridiculed by the conservative and evangelical Republicans and the heroic POW was soundly defeated in the Republican primaries. The right-wingers, who he had fought against since 1982, ran a dirty campaign against him and they won. And in the process, maverick McCain ceased to exist.When the 2008 Republican primary season began, it was a new McCain. Not maverick McCain but the Bush loyalist McCain. His old enemies laughed again. Conservative talk show hosts questioned his conservative credentials. With that against him, McCain still won the Republican nomination. But conservatives and evangelicals were not impressed.
McCain's campaign was in trouble. Money was drying up and the people he tried to win over in the Conservative wing of the Republican Party were turning their backs on him. He was trailing Barack Obama in all the polls and the convention was in danger of becoming a civil war between McCain and the conservatives. McCain had to act quickly to prevent a disaster. He had to appease his critics to get the evangelical conservative vote and the women's vote that Hillary Clinton had galvanized. So he chose Sarah Palin.
Palin is not the most qualified Republican nor is she the most qualified Republican woman. But yet there she is. He chose her for two reasons. She's a woman and she's a Christian conservative. He was catering to his evangelical conservative critics. This wasn't putting country first. This is called pandering.
The selection of Palin as his running mate didn't show his maverick side. This showed his desperate and reckless side. It showed a McCain that is no longer the straight talker he claims to be. It showed that he has become the political panderer who is willing to do anything to achieve his ultimate goal. Even if it means losing the principles. George W. Bush did this and gave us two unwinnable wars, an energy crisis, a weaker economy and a weaker constitution. So while our energy dependence is growing and our economy is sputtering, McCain promises to stay the course.
The Republicans talk a good game about personal liberty, but their party platform vows to put themselves into the middle of some of the most personal decisions Americans will ever have to make.
They talk about prosperity yet put forward an economic policy that says give tax breaks to the top 1 percent of the country and hope that it will trickle down to the rest of us.
Their energy policy is simple. Drill now. Drill everywhere. But that policy is as smart as giving an alcoholic more alcohol.
They will talk about a foreign policy involving the spreading and protecting of democracy abroad while crushing it at home.
They will take us to a place where scientists will be called heathens, where political dissent will be called treason, and where social security will be replaced with risky investments.
They will talk about patriotism while allowing our country to be sold off to foreigners. They will talk about national security but continue to make unfair trade deals with nations that wish us harm.
This is the America we will have under McCain, Palin and their right-wing sycophants. John McCain and Sarah Palin might be right for Republican conservatives, but they are dead wrong for America.
Robert Betances
Warsaw, via e-mail
Editor's Note: This letter was edited to conform more closely to the 500-word limit as stated in our letters policy.
