Stepping On Toes

I’ve watched the blogs and listened to Hannity and Rush jabber incessantly about how John McCain isn’t a “true conservative.” They recite chapter and verse of John’s deviation from the true path of righteousness, meditating endlessly on the shortcomings and never seeing any justification for his apostasy. They’ve been stuck in a difficult situation. They know that one party or the other will win the election. They know that one option is absolutely abhorrent to their beliefs, yet they express reservations about whether the lesser evil is a viable choice. Compromise of their core belief is unthinkable, but abstinence from voting accomplishes nothing.

The key to understanding McCain, and one which it is difficult to comprehend, is that he is principled almost beyond political understanding. What that means is that he will do whatever he believes it takes to get progress on an issue. That inevitably means conflict with his own party. When he sees a problem, he works toward his best estimate of a solution even if it takes dealing with Ted Kennedy to get it done. That scares folks.

The reality of politics is that the “perfect” solution is too extreme for any problem. The only policy options that are available are the incremental, evolutionary, compromises that can gather a majority consensus. The result is the classical horse designed by a committee. Everyone gets something they want and it is always damaging to the resultant whole.

He recognized that "something" had to be done on immigration and no single thing could adequately address the problem. He bundled swipes at all of the things that needed to be done into a comprehensive plan which then was doomed because it supplied something for everyone to hate rather than something for everyone to approve. It would fail, but he pursued it in an attempt to get the dialog moving and develop understanding of how complex the problem is. He was vilified for the attempt and ostracized by the party faithful. It was much easier to scream “amnesty” than to debate the details of complex policy issues in the public forum.

Everyone seems to believe that money is the root of all political evil. If wealthy interests can contribute vast amounts of money to candidates or issues, the perception is that the process is going to be corrupted. That arguably isn’t so for a lot of reasons, but perception always becomes reality. Free speech on political questions is tightly linked to the ability to financial support candidates to whatever degree one wishes.

Regardless, McCain sought to address the problem. The result was a disastrous piece of legislation, McCain-Feingold. It was the wrong thing, but it was John pushing to do something to solve a problem perceived by a huge majority of the electorate. A desired solution to a non-existent problem. He followed his principles, but defied his base.

In the end, we look at John McCain as a “maverick,” a political iconoclast who isn’t ideologically sound and pays little heed to what the party base thinks. Is that good or bad?

Would we be better off with someone who seeks the perfect solution at the expense of the good? Do we want a government torn between competing partisan interests to the point where no action on anything is ever taken and the animosity festers through the body politic daily? Or, could we tolerate an administration that looks at the complexity of political problems, assesses the possibilities of progress toward solutions that can be agreed to across the partisan aisle for the good of the country and then puts the options before the people?

There is a cliché in leadership that you don’t have to like your leader but you do have to respect him. I’m thinking that while many people have expressed the fact that they don’t like McCain because of his maverick nature, they inevitably must respect him even when he appears to be tilting at some Andalusian windmills. And the contrast with his opponent is quite clear in that regard.

The opponent is someone that everyone seems to like, but increasingly few seem to respect. He has too often chosen to see the windmill but sheath his sword and pass quietly by rather than run the risk of offending any of those people whom he wishes to like him. Voting “present” doesn’t make progress, but at least nothing changes.