The Lincoln Coalition

Lately, I have been absolutely GLUED to Meghan McCain’s blog at The Daily Beast. I haven’t been this excited about a blogger in a long while.

On the surface, she seems a bit catty. She’s very girly, she writes like girls from the San Fernando Valley talk, and at times she comes off as rather naive. However, if you follow what she is doing, and look deep through her ditzy exterior, you will see a beautiful, intelligent, shining new face of the Republican Party, probably one of the last hopes the party has. And you know she’s doing something right when she’s got jealous Fox News anchors taking cheap shots at her.

While Meghan tends to be a bit scatter-brained in her posts, she still writes better than 90% of the blogosphere, and she’s only 24 years old. Give her 5 more years behind that keyboard, and she’ll make Arianna Huffington look like Lindsay Lohan.

On the issues, I tend to agree with her a lot. She supports gay rights and believes that women should have better access to birth control. She thinks Karl Rove is “creepy” and has “beef” with Ann Coulter. There are a few things we disagree on, but I wouldn’t say that she is unprincipled. There is a line of logic and reasoning that goes into her viewpoints that I understand, even though I don’t always agree.

The reason why I understand is because I’ve been going through the same thing in my twenties. I had grown up in a very conservative household, I was programed to think a certain way. It took me a long time to deprogram, but it really boiled down to letting go of the beliefs that I never understood in the first place. Once I started down that path, my beliefs started to transition over time, and began to align with my personal insight and thought process.

In a lot of ways, she really reminds me of the man that I came to admire in John McCain back in 2000. She’s an independent-thinking maverick who isn’t afraid to stand up to her own party when she knows they are wrong. She offers up a non-partisan open-minded discussion about topics, and like the old John McCain, she isn’t afraid to go after Republicans who hold dangerous viewpoints.

In many ways, I still admire John McCain. If anything, for his sacrifice and service to his country. I could not in good conscience support him in the 2008 election, because he had become everything that I despised about the Republican Party, and flip-flopped on every issue that set him apart from the far-right when I supported him in 2000. I think he would have made a 10x better president than George W Bush, and I think this country and the world would be a whole lot different now had he been in charge. It’s difficult to speculate on these things, but when you look at the differences between the two, you realize that John McCain would have been the right man for the job, just as Obama was in last year’s election.

I only hope that, unlike her father, Meghan McCain will continue to follow her dreams and stick to her principles no matter what happens, and no matter who comes down against her. When the dust settles, and the ashes of what was the Republican Party are swept up, there will be but a few voices left holding on to the party’s name, honor and integrity. One day, Meghan McCain will be heralded by the new age of Republicans, not because she thinks outside the box, but because she understands that the box does not exist.

From today’s Politico:

GOP Leaders Launch Listening Tour

With the party at its lowest standing in several decades, Republicans on Saturday launched a listening tour in the heart of the Democratic suburbs, where several of the party’s leading voices steered clear of hot-button issues and instead emphasized the need to advance new policy ideas to revive the party’s prospects.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and former Republican governors Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney – both frequently mentioned as potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates – spoke to about 100 attendees at a pizzeria in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Va.. The event was the first held by the newly launched National Council for a New America.

They “emphasized the need to advance new policy ideas,” without really advancing any new policy ideas.  Mostly they just listened.

We don’t need these guys to listen.  Everyone knows what the employment rate is, that manufacturing jobs continue to be sent overseas, that healthcare costs are still skyrocketing, that working class families still worry about not being able to pay for Junior’s college, etc., etc.   We all know this stuff!  How many suburbanites do Mitt, Jeb and Eric need to hear from?

Apparently, Mitt touted his efforts in creating universal healthcare as Governor of Massachusetts.  Quite frankly, I didn’t hear Mitt bragging about his universal healthcare plan during the campaign.  Why?  Because he was afraid of being labeled a moderate (or worse!)

Jeb apparently threw out some education proposals during the sit-down.  This is a good start, but everyone knows that Republicans are (correctly) for vouchers and some other tweaks.  How about you go after something a little less safe than education next time, Bush.

What we need from these guys is brand spanking new stuff.  Surprise us one of these days.  Stop listening and give us something to get excited about for once.

I’ve never been a fan of Arlen Specter. He is a time-honored member of the Republican good-ole-boy network who has been involved with some very shady eminent domain land deals in his home state, not to mention his attempt to get the federal government involved with the New England Partiots spygate controversy.

But I have a new respect for Senator Specter, as he has crafted the most brilliant plan to destroy the GOP by leaving and joining with the Democrats where he will be free from inner-party discrimination and his career will remain safe for good. With the inevitable confirmation of Al Franken looming in the near distance, the addition of Arlen Specter to the Democrats’ arsenal will give them the 60 votes they need to block a Republican filibuster.

The Republicans have only themselves to blame for the mess they’ve put themselves in here. Specter is an unapologetic moderate, and has recently criticized the GOP for being too right-wing. Because of this, Specter was formally challenged in next years’ mid-term primary by anti-tax advocate Pat Toomey. Given that more people show up to see William Hung at your local mall than vote in mid-term primaries, it gives Republicans a good chance to oust the Senator from his spot and put up a “real” conservative instead.

Specter was given full seniority as part of the deal he struck with Democrats. The only Democrat that has been a Senator longer than him is Patrick Leahy of Vermont, making him the #2 ranking Democrat in the Senate and putting him only a heartbeat away from becoming the judiciary committee chairman. In the meantime he will head up a very important appropriations subcommittee. He will have more power as a Democrat to appropriate funds to his home state than he did as a Republican, which in turn should buy him enough votes to ride out his Senate seat for the rest of his life.

As my friend Skippy Stalin from Postcards of the Hanging points out, it seems as if the Republicans didn’t learn their lesson the last time this happened in 2001, when Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party and became an Independent. The Senate was split 50/50, and Dick Cheney had the tie-breaking vote which he actually used a few times. Jeffords spoke out against the Bush tax cuts, so the Republicans decided to “punish” him by denying him earmark funding for some of his pet projects. Jeffords then left the Republican Party, giving the Democrats temporary control of the Senate.

Fortunately for the GOP, Bush was able to gain control of the Senate again in the next mid-term election, if only for the fact that he had the nation’s 9/11 sympathies on his side. The Republicans were somehow able to hold on to their majority in the Senate for another four years, before the 9/11 honeymoon wore off and the people started to realize that Bush had used a national tragedy to dupe us all into an illegitimate war.

Ironically, guess who was rather vocal about the loss of Senator Jeffords, which resulted in him temporarily losing his position as judiciary committee chairman at the time? He even proposed a ban on party-switching.

Arlen Specter has no spine, this is why he is such a brilliant politician. He has manged to rise above the stink of what’s left of the GOP, preserved his own career and ensured that he’ll maintain his position until he’s ready to retire. His move has done more than just leave the GOP in shambles, he has brought upon them their worse nightmare. He has given Barack Obama a bulletproof Senate to push his own agenda, unchecked. Had Specter allowed loyalty and personal feelings to get in the way, he’d either be out of a career, or selling his soul to the GOP like John McCain did last year, and look how that turned out for him.

Specter claims that the President cannot count on him to vote yes on everything the President wants him too, but the Democrats really only need him for cloture purposes. After that, he can safely vote yes or no on anything he wants, without having to worry about what effect it’s going to have on his voting record. The Democrats should be able to muster up enough votes to pass whatever they want.

Obama’s had a rough first 100 days in office, and Arlen Specter just threw him a rather meaty bone. While I don’t agree with many of the Democrats’ policies, I can’t help but smile when I think of how Republican stupidity has caused the party to implode. This move may have put the nail on the coffin for the GOP, whom I see going out the way of the Whig party. In the upcoming mid-term election, I expect the GOP will lose even more seats, and unlike 2002, they (hopefully) won’t have a national tragedy to cash in on.

I can’t say that I blame Arlen. It’s not every day that politicians switch sides to make sure they get re-elected, but it’s also not every day that one’s party supports a challenger in to defeat their own incumbent, which seemed more and more likely of happening in Pennsylvania.

We’ve only heard bits and pieces so far, but I bet the Democratic party made Arlen an offer he couldn’t refuse– so again, I can’t say I blame him. What would have been ideal, however, if he found a way to start a third party, and tried bringing Snowe and Collins along with him. Maybe he could have worked some sort of compromise deal with the Democrats that would have given each mutual support through this November and through Obama’s wishes to get some important legislation past. After that point in time, however, those three (and anyone else they could have brought along with them) could have tried voting as a block.

I understand all the reasons why something like this wouldn’t have happened, but it would have gotten the three a lot of attention and would have given them a huge platform from which to declare old/new Republican principles. It also would have stuck the stake into the current GOP a heck of a lot deeper than it already has.

Nothing short of complete disaster is going to help the party turn itself around. A three-Senator, third-party defection could have been huge.

Speaking of don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Gingrich recently wrote an article suggesting that the Republican Party is about to split in two.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is warning fellow Republicans that conservatives may leave the GOP for a third party in 2012.

“If the Republicans can’t break out of being the right wing party of big government, then I think you would see a third party movement in 2012.”

Gingrich thrashed Republicans for allowing increased spending during the Bush administration and for not doing enough to block President Barack Obama’s early initiatives.

If Gingrich is saying here that the Republican Party has become too right-wing, then I agree with him. The party of big government? Absolutely. The perpetrators of right-wing big government politics have been threatening to leave the party for over ten years now. The reason why they haven’t left is because they are all cowards. Their success has hinged on their ability to hijack the party by threat of withdrawal, but I’ve always held that they haven’t made good on that promise because they know their movement is far from being self-sustainable in the arena of national politics.

I don’t agree with Gingrich on everything, but I have always respected his views on fiscal conservatism. It seems a bit cryptic, but when Gingrich starts talking about “right-wing” and “big government” Republicans, he’s talking about neoconservatives. Whether it’s big government intervention abroad, or big government intervention in our own homes, this group of Republicans have been responsible for one of the largest expansions of government in the history of our country.

What I also believe Gingrich to be saying here, is that the neoconservatives have run the Republican name into the ground so much, true conservatives are better off starting fresh with a new party than they are continuing the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps he is correct, but it’s a sad state of affairs for the GOP for sure.

I’m not sure that I would follow Gingrich to his new party, but I would certainly consider a third party choice if Obama continues down this road, and the Republicans put up someone like Sarah Palin.

The only thing scarier than Glenn Beck’s 2.3 million viewers is the thought that he’s still on his way up.

If the economy were doing better, his super-blatant, gimmicky scare-tactics would stand less of a chance of catching on. If we didn’t have a president with an exotic name and an exotic skin color, his shtick would also have less of a chance of catching on. If the economy continues to tank, there’s little doubt that his audience will grow, as people let themselves be caught up in irrational apocalyptic hysteria. Under such a scenario, Beck would be able to tell everyone that he was right all along– the communist, fascist baby killers have taken over, and the end of the word is here.

The challenge for the rest of us will be to stay firm no matter what gets thrown at us and no matter what tough times may (may) be ahead.  Pressure to conform around some absolutist view could become pretty intense.

Ever notice how the right wing gets suckered in conspiracy theories when the Democrats are in power? It kind of makes you long for the days when Bush and the GOP were in power and the liberals were the ones predicting the end of Western civilization.