Independents Need to Wake Up...McCain is NOT Moderate.
By Ana Kasparian (of The Young Turks, www.theyoungturks.com)
http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/bloggers/ana-kasparian/While sitting in my Political Behavior class for graduate school, my classmates and I found ourselves in a somewhat heated debate about the presidential elections. My professor pointed at a chart indicating that the independents vote will determine whether John McCain or Barak Obama will make it as president. This clearly illustrated that the best strategy for both candidates is to campaign with political ideologies that are as moderate as possible to get the large number of independents to vote for them.
The debatable question arose:
"Who is more likely to gain support from the independents? John McCain or Barak Obama?"
Some of the students argued that John McCain would be more likely to get the independents vote because he is a "moderate conservative," while Barak Obama is on the far left with liberal ideals. But what the students failed to understand is that McCain is a full-blown left wing conservative, and there's nothing "moderate" about him. Although some media outlets might make him out to be a moderate conservative, the proof is really in the pudding. Don't believe me?
The front page of Huffington Post featured an article today that perfectly summarizes just how conservative John McCain really is
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/14/mccain-more-conservative-_n_96498.html. When it comes to every partisan issue, John McCain takes the right-wing stance indefinitely. Not only does he support the war in Iraq, but he also has served as a key ally in George Bush's efforts to increase U.S soldiers occupying the country. Other topics like abortion, gun control, and gay rights also illustrate that "moderate," is really not a descriptive word pertaining to the Republican candidate.
When it comes to abortion, McCain is a self-proclaimed pro-life advocate. He has vowed to appoint Supreme Court Justices that will limit the impact of the Roe v. Wade ruling, which basically legalized abortion. His views on gay marriage are just as conservative since he completely opposes it. In fact, he worked to ban gay marriage in Arizona and fully supports the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. He even opposed legislation that would protect homosexuals from hate crimes and job discrimination. To top things off, he is an avid supporter of the National Riffle Association and has voted AGAINST a ban for assault-style weapons. But people consider him a moderate conservative?
Where is the logic in that?
Polls have indicated that most people do in fact see McCain as a centrist while Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton are perceived as far left candidates. Studies done by political scientists such as Philip Converse show that independents are typically less politically aware than strong Democrats or Republicans. This presidential election would perfectly illustrate that finding if the independents are naive enough to fall for McCain's "moderate conservative" tactics.
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(PS---Cenk asked why McCain is tied with the Dems in the national polls. Also, there are some great links on McCain here, including one to an interview with the author of The Real McCain:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=118569&mesg_id=118569)
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