BCT Editorial – 4/23/08

This page was last updated on April 26, 2008.

Trolling for votes; Editorial; Beaver County Times; April 23, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “McCain’s proposal to suspend gasoline and diesel taxes is political pandering at its worst.”

The editorial is absolutely right on this point, though don’t be fooled into believing it’s for the right reason. If the Times were really concerned about pandering for votes, we would have read editorials criticizing the Democrat candidates for their pandering regarding free trade and healthcare.

Back in “Political poison,” the Times scolded us conservatives who were less than thrilled with Mr. McCain’s gradual shift over the years from a conservative to something approaching a Rockefeller Republican. The editorial told us, “Have no doubt. McCain is a conservative.” and “But at his core, McCain is a conservative.” “Silly” (January 30, 2008) told us how “silly” it was for candidates to make an issue of their conservative credentials. (As a side note, I find it interesting the Times considers discussing core principles “silly,” but so far has been silent about the lack of substantive discourse by the Democrat candidates.)

As far as calling Mr. McCain a conservative, it would be more accurate to refer to him as a Republican who supports some conservative positions on the issues and some leftist. Examples of conservative positions include strong national defense and opposition to pork barrel spending. Examples of leftist positions include support for illegal alien amnesty and curtailment of political free speech (McCain-Feingold). This mix of conservative and leftist positions makes him like most Republican politicians.

Mr. McCain’s proposal is not only populist pandering, it’s not a conservative position because it unnecessarily interferes with the fuel market. This is the very thing conservative ideologues like myself were/are concerned about. Don’t get me wrong; Mr. McCain is a much better alternative than either of the Democrat candidates. This incident is an excellent example why a discussion of core principles is important when choosing a candidate, not “silly.”