A smart person once said we all get the government we deserve. This applies not only to western, democratic nations who hold elections, but even to tyrannies. If a tyrant is truly hated by his subjects, they will eventually rise up behind a populist leader and either depose him or force the government to bend to their will. If they fail to do so, then it is in their nature to be so ruled. The case is more clear in democracies. If you are led by dishonest people of poor quality, those are the sort of people you chose for yourself. This, of course, brings us back to the American elections.
As I previously predicted, the long anticipated Pennsylvania primary has come and gone, and nothing much has changed. Senator Clinton keeps her campaign on life support long enough to limp into North Carolina and Indiana, while the total numbers in the race shift very little. One other thing which is not changing is the persistent attitude of many among each of their supporters about the opposing candidate. 23% of Hillary Clinton’s supporters and 18% of Obama’s continue to claim that if their chosen candidate is not selected, they will either stay home in November or vote for John McCain. Let’s take a moment to examine what the rationale for such a choice could be.
Presumably, if you are a supporter of one of these two Democrats, you feel that their stance on the issues and their plans for the future are in keeping with your own priorities and hopes for the country. If your chosen Senator is not selected, who would the person be who is closest to those goals? The two parties could not be further apart on most of the issues of the day. The way forward in Iraq, how we deal with national security and terrorism, how to deal with the sagging economy, how we approach global trade issues… John McCain is on the opposite side of the fence from both Clinton and Obama for each question right down the line.
So how are we to explain why a Hillary or Barack supporter would go cast a vote for John McCain? The answer is clear and very disappointing. It is nothing more than a fit of childish pique. “If my candidate doesn’t get nominated, I’ll show you! I’ll make sure your candidate gets the shaft too!” The reality, of course, is that you will be showing nobody but yourself, cutting off the nose of your party to spite its face.
I have been, and remain, hopeful that this is mostly the hyperbole and bluster of the silly season, but these numbers seem unshakable thus far. Comments pouring into the networks, newspapers, and even the pages of TMV seem to echo these sentiments. The Republicans have long had a habit, whenever they score a victory over the Democrats, to say that “the adults are back in charge now.” Many, many Republicans were less than pleased with John McCain taking the nomination (to put it kindly) but they have now largely swallowed their discontent and lined up behind their nominee. If one in five Democratic and Democrat leaning voters can not muster the sense to do the same, they will have single handedly done more to elect John McCain than Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt and Ben Stein combined could ever manage.
And then, dear readers, you will get precisely the government you deserve. Let me know how that works out for you.