Time to Cut the Crap

Everyone has heard the complaints about John McCain.  Sure, Obama is terrible, people say, but I can’t vote for McCain because of campaign finance reform.  Or Iraq.  Or taxes.  Or spending.  Or immigration.  Or because they have never voted for a Republican.  Or whatever.  They say they are going to sit the election out, or vote for Barr or Nader.  I’d like to address those voters here today.

 

Don’t take this the wrong way.  I deeply respect your intelligence, your thoughtfulness, you passion, and your commitment.  I know that you have good reasons to feel the way that you do, and I’m not questioning your intelligence or patriotism.  In fact, I’m counting on exactly those traits to get my point through to you. 

 

You need to step up this year and take one for the team. 

 

Our team. 

 

The United States of America. 

 

The stakes are too high this year, and the threat is too real.  In Barack Obama, we are faced with a candidate who has dedicated himself to transforming American culture, religion, society, economy, and politics.  He wants to transform them in the image of the New Left movement of the 1960s.  He wants to be “our brother’s keeper.”  He wants to snuff out “the poverty of ambition.”  He wants to transform this “mean country,” and convince its “bitter” inhabitants “with broken souls” to abandon their “guns and religion.”  Obama is about more than policy positions and issue alignments.  He is about transformation, of politics, of society, and or the souls of men.  He is exactly the type of politician that our political system was designed to prevent.  Is this what you want?  If you are supporting anyone but John McCain this year, that is exactly what you are voting to get, regardless of what your candidate stands for.  Because if we do not all join forces, Barack Obama is going to win. 

 

No candidate since William McKinley has enjoyed the elite support that Barack Obama has.  Wall Street.  Lawyers.  Utilities.  Oil.  Special interests.  Real estate.  Insurance.  Doctors.  Pharmaceuticals.  The academy.  Defense contractors.  Moveon.  The media.  All of these forces are marching in lock step behind Obama, who has become the best funded candidate in the history of politics.  He has a base of committed and fanatical supporters who are willing to bear any burden, and break any rule to get him elected.  Obama may be an empty suit, but the movement behind him is no joke.  They are rich, angry, and spoiled.  And they know how to get what they want.  Just ask Hillary. 

 

What do have?  Well friends, not a hell of a lot.  Not compared to Obama’s money, his machine, and his followers’ anger.  But we have two things we can rely on.  First, there are more people who love this country than want to tear it down.  They are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.  In the primaries and afterwards, they voted for Rudy Giuliani, for Mitt Romney, for Mike Huckabee, for Fred Thompson, for Ron Paul, for Hillary Clinton, for John Edwards, for Bob Barr, and for John McCain.  John McCain is our second advantage.  Sure, you disagree with him on some issues.  Hell, everyone disagrees with him on some issues.  That is the genius of the man.  While you disagree with him on some things, the odds are pretty good that you agree with him on some others.  However, even if you agree with him on nothing at all, you have to respect him.  John McCain is a lot of things, but he is no revolutionary.  He loves his country, respects his fellow citizens, and wants the best for all of our people.  This year, that is enough to set him apart from his opponent.

 

Now ask yourself two questions:  Are the disagreements that I have with John McCain worth electing Barack Obama over? If the worst case scenario for an Obama presidency comes to pass, will I be able to tell my grandchildren without shame that I made Obama possible by not voting for John McCain?  Regardless of your disagreement with John McCain, they pale before Barack Obama’s ambitions.  

 

That is why I’m asking you for this favor as a fellow citizen and brother in this wonderful family we call America.  At several critical junctures Americans have had to compromise their political principles for the good of this grand republic of ours.  I’m appealing to you to do that now, to take one for the team.  If you have decided that you will not vote for Obama, you need to vote for McCain, regardless of any disagreements that you might have with him.  If you know people who are undecided, you need to convince them to vote for McCain.  Only together can we pull this off.  This is a critical election, and for this reason only do I ask you to make this sacrifice.  Once McCain is safely elected, we can reason together to plot our common, or separate, destinies.  But today that is a luxury we cannot afford. 

 

Throughout the twentieth century, democratic nations succumbed one after another to an identical error.  People of good will who believed in democracy were pushed aside not because they were weaker, but because they refused to join forces against men with bad intentions.  Always, these evil men were able to keep their opponents divided on matters that in retrospect were trivial, until it was too late.  Ask yourself, when you are describing this election to your grandchildren, what will you be able to tell them?  Will you avert your gaze, making up excuses about how you just did not understand?  Or will you hold you head up proudly, and tell them that “I dared to say no!”  Will your legacy to posterity that you did not do enough, or that you did all that you could?