As John said right after the last election:
Besides picking our candidates and races, I think the most valuable thing most of could do is to help shape the conventional wisdom. We blog, we write letters to the editor, we talk up our relatives, neighbors, and co-workers. We should try to take down the straight talking St. McCain and the weak-on-defense Democrats narratives. It's never too soon to start casting doubt on the Republicans we plan to target; broken promises are the most effective critique. And, of course it's never too soon to start talking up the candidates we support.(bolding mine)
Yes, explaining that McCain is just as nutty wingnut as the rest of them is important because many liberals still believe that he is somehow a "moderate".
Amanda agrees this is an important media construct to demolish and gets started:
So, here's the action item on McCain, because, as Marc points out, spreading the truth about McCain is the big task for the next two years for genuine progressives. Find out who you know that is generally liberal and still has some weird affection for John McCain. And here's the three things to tell them to clarify what a nightmare he is:1. John McCain is to the right of all Democrats in Congress and many of the Republicans.
2. He is an anti-choice extremist with a 0% rating from NARAL.
3. His campaign finance "reform" amounted to banning the money the parties get for raising awareness of issues, getting out the vote, and registering people to vote. In other words, McCain banned the money that made elections about the issues while protecting the right of lobbyists to buy individual politicians.Three simple talking points that make is super-clear that John McCain's reputation as a "maverick" is a media myth that has no basis in reality. We've got two years to spread the word. (Read the whole excellent post for more detailed information)
Start spreading the word!
Comments
McCain has also embraced the teaching of Intelligent Design creationism:
I don't believe McCain ever backed away from that stance, if he did I'd like to see a link.
Posted by: Mustafa Mond, FCD | November 20, 2006 10:29 AM
I therefor take back and regret any supportive word I ever said about McCain. I thought he was in favor of campaign finance reform. not really, eh? It was the only good thing I could say of him and even that was a hollow if fine-sounding stance. Good. makes my life simpler.
Posted by: greensmile | November 20, 2006 12:24 PM
It's been funny to watch the evolution of the perception of McCain by people on both sides. In the clamor to name Kerry's running mate in mid-04, I told all my lib friends something like, "don't be so fast to try to get McCain on board -- he's more conservative than you think." However, now I have to tell the same people, "Don't buy all this 'McCain is conservative evil' garbage because he's more moderate than he's being painted -- and is painting himself -- right now."
The answer to my eyes and experience with some people on his staff is that he is both. He's trying to bolster his hard-right cred right now, but he's more moderate than he's trying to play. That said, he's not the next best thing to a Dem -- he is a R for a reason and he's not going to bend to however the D's would like to shape him.
Posted by: kevin v | November 20, 2006 1:14 PM
Coturnix, your link to Amanda doesn't work.
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | November 20, 2006 3:27 PM
Oooops. Fixed now. Thank you.
Posted by: coturnix | November 20, 2006 3:33 PM
John McCain is incredbly corrupt, along with being far to the right on most issues.
Posted by: libhomo | December 5, 2006 1:24 PM