McCain Defends Iraq

Listening to McCain speak is like torture. He used to be one of the only Republicans I respected. Now it's like listening to a senile old man rant about kids on his lawn. Though that is probably because he is a senile old man that rants about kids on his lawn.

When you pay attention to politics, you're often asked if you could be friends with someone of the opposite party. "Could you date a Republican?" or "Would you be friends with me if I were a Republican?" are questions I've heard quite often from various people I know.

Rarely is there a good answer to these questions. If I said "yes" I could probably think of several people I've disliked for their political beliefs, and it most likely hampered any likelihood I could ever be friends with them in the future. But if I said "no" I would be saying that a person's political beliefs are so important that they, as a person, are worse for them. And that's simply not true.

But it turns out that McCain is the answer to that question, because he has represented both sides of the spectrum at some point in his political career. When the answer was "Yes" it was because he held onto his Republican beliefs, but he didn't force them down anyone's throat, and if his party did something stupid, he knew it. He could form coherent arguments that, while I disagreed with them, were not something that offended me or made me think less of him as a person. And finally, his Republicanism was limited to Republicanism. He did not spew hate speech against blacks or gays or support people that did. No matter anyone's political beliefs, if they are racist or homophobic, I'm not going to be friends with them, and since many Republicans are social conservatives that are - at the very least - homophobic, that is a large chunk of the Republican party that I automatically can't be friends. But to be fair - it is not because they are Republican, it just happens that social conservatives that hate gays are usually Republicans.

But now McCain is almost definitely a "no." What has changed? Everything that I could have ignored. He spews propaganda rather than forming coherent arguments (he sees nothing wrong with saying Al Qaeda wants Barack Obama to win but that they see him as their worst nightmare). He supports more and more tax breaks for the rich without justifying them, just because Bush did. He supports Bush. He has no problems getting the endorsement from Christian Conservatives that he himself once referred to as "messengers of hate." He is a talking doll now, pandering to the same Republican principles that he used to say were bad for the party. That is the kind of Republican I could not be friends with. One that both purposely associates himself with homophobia, sells out to his own party and spews propaganda.

So that is the answer. If you believe in Republican principles, okay. I really don't talk about being a Democrat that often, so there is likely to be no clashing. If you are going to tell me Barack Obama is a secret Muslim, I'm going to call you an idiot and we're not going to be friends.