Get Out and Vote!
Don’t forget to vote today, particularly if you live in Maryland’s First District. Your candidate of choice needs your vote and if you haven’t made firm choice, vote for Andy Harris.
My friend and Red Maryland colleague Michael Swartz (of MonoBlogue fame) has gone out on a limb with some pretty detailed predictions. While I will agree that McCain should handily win the Maryland primary and I substantially agree that the First District GOP congressional primary is awful close, I think that Michael is overlooking one thing that will put Andy Harris over the top. I expect Mike Huckabee to garner far more than 26%, both statewide and in the First District.
A Huckabee voter should be a Harris voter. I know of few, if any, Huckabee supporters who are not adamant social conservatives. I cannot understand any social conservative voting for either Gilchrest or Pipken when they have a choice like Harris. I can’t imagine a social conservative pulling the lever for Pipken under any circumstances. His record on abortion and same-sex unions effectively knock him out of contention with these voters.
Given strong support (not an official endorsement, but through issues advocacy) through the Association of Maryland Families, and the endorsement of strong values based conservatives such as James Dobson, Phyllis Schlafly and Maryland Sen. Lowell Stoltzfus, Harris should receive the bump necessary to win today.
cross posted at Salisbury News
Technorati Tags: Maryland, politics, Maryland politics, John McCain, MonoBlogue, Mike Huckabee, Andy Harris, E J Pipken, Wayne Gilchrest, conservatism, values, social conservatives, James Dobson, Phyllis Schlafly, Lowell Stoltzfus
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Comments
Gull,
You are 100% correct IF you simply take Romney’s RECENT rhetoric and compare it to McCain. This is my problem. While I have a great deal of respect for good rhetoric, I demand more from candidates. If you compare Romney’s record and rhetoric in Massachusetts to his rhetoric prior to suspending his campaign the only fair conclusion is that he is a MASSIVE flip-flopper at best, a liar at worst. I simply can’t support someone like that.
While I don’t claim to “stand for conservatism”, it is true that I have been active in the conservative movement since I was a teenager and in GOP politics even earlier [I actually went door-to-door for Nixon in 1968 (as an eight year old)]. I will also admit that I have supported less-than-ideal candidates on a few occasions in the past.
What pisses me off about this year, in particular, is that IF Ronald Reagan were magically re-incarnated and running for office under a different name TODAY a large number (probably a vast majority) of those who claim to be “conservatives in the image of Ronaldus Maximus” would oppose him.
I honestly do not believe that RWR would have entered Iraq. RWR would NEVER have allowed the GOP to become the party of degenerate spenders that it became under the Hastert-DeLay period. RWR never PANDERED to social conservatives. He had far too much character for that.
As for tax cuts, I am not sure that he would have supported ALL of the Bush tax cuts. In 1986 Reagan put forward a tax plan that actually increased some rates (while decreasing others) a bit while simplifying the tax code.
As for immigration, Reagan supported the Simpson-Mazzoli Act in 1986. Many Reaganites did. I did not.
At root, this is why I support McCain. Do I disagree with him on several important issues? Absolutely! However, McCain was a Reaganite long before most of these faux-Reagan supporters knew how to spell his name. McCain is rock-solid on fiscal issues. His record on social issues is OK, but certainly not perfect. He’s never wavered on defense issues. But the bottom line is that he says what he believes and his record of sticking to those statements is far better than any other candidate in the field.
A key case in point is an issue that I actually disagree with him on - immigration. McCain places emphasis on securing the borders first; but when pressed on the amnesty side of the bill he admits that he still believes in all of that “guest worker” and “path to citizenship” nonsense.
I, on the other hand, am admittedly inflexible on this issue. My position is to dig a 10′ - 20′ deep, concrete lined trench from the border south of San Diego all the way to Brownsville, TX. Then put a 10′ high electrified fence on either side of the trench and double the size of the Border Patrol (but only if EVERY ONE of those new USBP officers would be placed on PATROL duty along the southern border. I don’t care about animal migration, cultural ties, or any of that other crap. A nation is only a nation if it shares a common language and can enforce a sovereign border. (Don’t believe me, check out the turmoil in Belgium right now)
I also believe that every illegal in this nation needs to be systematically rounded up and shipped back to their country of origin. If the namby-pamby judiciary wishes to give them a hearing, fine. (Asylum cases are different, but asylum must be declared upon entering the country) In the meantime let ICE cut a deal with Sheriff Joe Arpaio (Maricopa Co., AZ) and give him a contract to keep them all until their hearings. No more of this bail and no-show foolishness. Do you think that illegal immigration will continue to grow if the word spreads that you’ll probably get caught and have to spend a year in a tent, in the desert, wearing pink pajamas BEFORE you get dumped in the jungles of Chiapas?
That said, I still support McCain. I’ll take honesty over PROFESSED purity any day.
There are conflicts all over politics. You, yourself, endorsed McCain when Romney was still in the race. You claim to stand for conservatism, and Romney was the closest thing to it in this race, yet you went for McCain.
Harris loses this race by 5-8 points at a minimum. I did vote for him, but I don’t consider myself a supporter. Instead, it was a coin flip. I’m disgusted by the tone of this campaign. If Harris does win, he’s in trouble in the general. He lacks Gilchrest’s ability to attract independents in an evenly split district.