{"id":433,"date":"2008-04-29T13:55:58","date_gmt":"2008-04-29T18:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2parse.com\/?p=433"},"modified":"2008-04-29T14:14:19","modified_gmt":"2008-04-29T19:14:19","slug":"a-moderate-reputation-why-john-mccain-changed-his-positions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2parse.com\/?p=433","title":{"rendered":"A Moderate Reputation: Explaining McCain’s Changes of Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"McCain\"
\nImage by Wigwam Jones<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n

[digg-reddit-me]The purest treasure mortal times afford
\nIs spotless reputation.
\nThat away,
\nMan are but gilded loam or painted clay.
\n <\/span>-William Shakespeare<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John McCain has a reputation as an independent, a moderate and a maverick. <\/span>This reputation is his greatest asset \u2013 far more important than his speaking ability or war record or anything else. <\/span>It is the reason he was the Republican best positioned to keep the White House with the political tide clearly favoring the Democrats. <\/span><\/p>\n

He built this reputation over many years by repeatedly taking stands against his party in the 1990s \u2013 on campaign finance reform, on tobacco legislation, and on pork spending \u2013 and in the early years of the Bush administration \u2013 on torture, on tax cuts, and on immigration reform – and by then staking his presidential campaign on the issue of Iraq against the political zeitgeist<\/em>. <\/span>But since his political near-death experience this past summer, McCain has either softened his opposition to the Republican Party line or embraced it, potentially destroying this reputation. <\/span>The famous aphorism states: \u201cGood will, like a good name, is got by many actions, and lost by one.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

So, there is a great deal at stake when the question is asked: Why did he change his positions?<\/p>\n

For those who do not wish to give McCain the benefit of the doubt, the answer is obvious: he is pandering to win an election. <\/span>For those who do wish to give McCain that benefit, the answer is less clear. <\/span>Generally, the defenses of these changes in position range from denying there has been a change to explaining in various ways how the change shows consistency to a whole hodge-podge of other excuses.<\/p>\n

As someone who was an admirer of Mr. McCain\u2019s in 2000 and through the early years of the Bush administration; as someone who talked to and emailed all of my friends asking them to support McCain in his primary fight in 2000 ((I also was a fan of Bill Bradley.)) ; as someone who believes that politicians are politicians even if their reputations are golden ((This includes Barack Obama \u2013 my favored candidate this go-round.)) \u2013 I see three plausible and non-exclusive explanations for McCain\u2019s change that are consistent with his appeal, his reputation, and his career.<\/p>\n

1. <\/span>McCain\u2019s Last Chance for Glory<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Coming into the 2008 race as the establishment candidate, McCain saw his last chance to become president slipping through his fingers, because of his unorthodoxy.\u00a0 He who had once described himself as the unrepentant champion of lost causes, decided to reconcile himself to the Republican base and reject these initial stands, these bases on which his reputation was built. <\/span>This is the explanation that both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama<\/a> have offered up:<\/p>\n

“There was a time when some Republicans like John McCain agreed with me,” Obama said, of his calls to roll back Bush\u2019s temporary tax cuts for the richest Americans instead of making those tax cuts permanent.<\/p>\n

“There was a time when Senator McCain courageously defied the fiscal madness of massive tax cuts for the wealthy in the midst of a costly war,” Obama said.\u00a0 “That was before he started running for the Republican nomination and fell in line.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

2. Unprincipled Moderation<\/strong><\/p>\n

McCain was never truly a conservative in the Burkean sense or a man of strong principles, but merely a political moderate who has been constantly seeking the center ground, no matter how far the center shifts. <\/span>During the Reagan years, McCain comfortably held the right-center. <\/span>After Bill Clinton\u2019s election, McCain operated in the left center. <\/span>In 2000, with a mainly pragmatic liberal consensus, McCain campaigned as a moderate liberal. <\/span>As Bush pulled the country right, so McCain went \u2013 but this time with a bit of a lag. McCain’s response to Bush’s radicalism is to accommodate it. <\/span>Now, running in a Republican primary, McCain has adapted \u2013 and running for president in the general, he will again. <\/span>His \u201cprincipled stands\u201d were merely accidents of history, or perhaps occasionally orchestrated stands to enhance his reputation.<\/p>\n

3. Manichaeism<\/strong><\/p>\n

McCain has always sought enemies in his career – and has organized all of his political positions by who he saw as the most serious enemy. <\/span>The Soviet Union provided the first threat which ordered all of his political priorities, and so he entered Congress as a self-confessed ideologue, a \u201cfoot soldier\u201d in the Reagan Revolution. <\/span>He was a conservative Republican. <\/span>With the fall of the U.S.S.R., he needed to find a new enemy. <\/span>By the mid-1990s he settled on corruption in Washington. <\/span>He backed campaign finance legislation to limit the influence of the lobbyists and big money contributors; he championed the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 to eliminate pork spending ((A victory which was overturned by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in 1998.)) . <\/span>Identifying another enemy he pushed to increase cigarette taxes to fund anti-smoking campaigns with the backing of the Clinton administration. <\/span>When he launched his 2000 presidential campaign he said his goal was to \u201ctake our government back from the power brokers and special interests and return it to the people and the noble cause of freedom it was created to serve.\u201d <\/span>In a perfect encapsulation of his fervent yet ironic crusade, he compared his campaign to Luke Skywalker attacking the Death Star of special interests (including the Religious Right and the Republican establishment.) <\/span><\/p>\n

After September 11, McCain had found a new enemy that was greater than the corruption of the political process and he was willing to put aside all of his domestic agenda to focus on the new enemy. <\/span>So, McCain\u2019s changes in position reflect his changing ranking of enemies.\u00a0 He is willing to compromise all of his past positions because they are insignificant in the face of islamist extremism.<\/p>\n

Concluding Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n

These are the three explanations that I have come up with consistent with McCain\u2019s career, his character, and his politics. <\/span>In the end, I think each explanation plays a role \u2013 but the dominant explanation seems to be the final one. <\/span>It most fully explains McCain\u2019s appeal, his reputation, and the timing of his changes. And frankly, it is the reason why I would be most wary of a McCain presidency now, at this moment in history.<\/p>\n

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