The Obsolete Senator from Arizona
John McCain (R-AZ) continues to denigrate all the senators who participated in Wednesday’s filibuster of CIA Director John O. Brennan. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Sen. McCain referred to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Sen. Justin Amash (R-MI.) as “Wacko birds.”
When Jon Ward of the Huffington Post asked Sen. McCain if Cruz, Paul, and Amash are a positive force in the GOP, Sen. McCain replied:
“They were elected, nobody believes that there was a corrupt election, anything else,” McCain said. “But I also think that when, you know, it’s always the wacko birds on right and left that get the media megaphone.”
“I think it can be harmful if there is a belief among the American people that those people are reflective of the views of the majority of Republicans. They’re not.”
For some reason McCain wasn’t satisfied with taking to the senate floor on Thursday and dressing down anyone who participated in the filibuster. No, he had to grant an interview to a liberal media outlet and persist in violating Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment. There was a logical reason why President Reagan believed in the 11th Commandment and tried to follow it throughout his political career. He knew that constant attacks from liberal Republicans on their fellow conservative republicans do nothing tear down the GOP and weaken the party. Now the old establishment GOP, many of whom have served or worked with President Reagan have forgotten what made this commandment so imperative.
Instead of trying to understand what the people truly want in their elected official, they choose to attack those new faces the people elected to congress. All this does is give fodder to the liberal media and reinforces the notion to the public that the GOP is in trouble. Any time the old establishments GOP lose an election, their solution is not to embrace their conservative roots but to become more and more moderate. That is why in 2008 John McCain lost the presidential election and why in 2012 Mitt Romney lost. It doesn’t motivate a republican to vote for a candidate that tries to mimic the Democrats.
The constituents the old establishment GOP represent must decide if these public servants are worthy of another term in 2014 and 2016. Some of them, like Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham, are so established in their senate seats that they’ve grown arrogant in their view of the people they serve. The sad thing is that mentality is not without merit. These establishment GOP senators are constantly challenged by weak contenders in the primaries. Once they win, they are “moderate” enough to beat the Democrat challenger in their elections. It’s easy to see how they can assume their moderate view is the only one their constituents wish to see.
Sen. Paul, Sen. Cruz, and Sen. Amash represent a threat to the likes of Sen. McCain. He sees how popular the Tea Party philosophy is on the local and state level. Yes, they lost some conservative House and Senate seats, but majority of the gubernatorial elections were won by strong conservative candidates. It’s only a matter of time when the old establishment GOP will become obsolete. McCain will not change to embrace this wave of conservatism. One thing you can say about him is he’s always been a consistent moderate Republican, and that will never change. So in order to save his position in the senate he must try to halt the inevitable by destroying his fellow Republicans. He may slow down the progress of the conservative movement, but he and others like him won’t be able to stop it. In the meantime he’ll continue to show the world why the old establishment GOP needs to be put out to pasture and why the young bright conservatives are the rising stars of the Republican Party.
