Straight Talk Express, Derailed

Straight Talk Express, Derailed
by Michael R. Allen

What a relief it was to make it through Saturday’s South Carolina primary without having to scream. Not that there is much comfort to be taken in the fact that George W. Bush is again headed toward the Republican nomination; that carries its own vile implications. In an election where only evil candidates are in the running, it’s good to know that the most evil Republican was kept from victory.

That man, Arizona’s maverick influence-peddler John McCain, is so dangerous to America that one must, if only momentarily, almost welcome a Bush victory. McCain has declared war not only on his old conservative wing of the Republican Party, but also on decentralization in American politics. He claims to want to give the people their government back, but doesn’t care that some of them really did not want their government in the first place.

South Carolina is not the sort of state that would endorse McCain’s centralist “national greatness conservatism.” This is a state that has said no to the Federal government often, and proudly seceded to protect itself from outside meddling. While Bush offers little sympathy for this anti-federal attitude, McCain’s nomination would signify that even the most rebellious states are coming around to the idea of a an all powerful national government.

Of course, the state gave only four percent if its primary vote to Alan Keyes, who is the most libertarian of the three Republicans. Such are the oddities of the two-party system.

Which begs the question, Why would anyone be glad that Bush the younger won a primary? A few months ago, an anarchist could fire a few verbal shots at the Texas governor and call it a day. But a few months ago, John McCain was an unctuous suitor to the media and corporate money who had no real support in the Republican primaries and caucuses. Last month, he was energized by a groundswell of support in New Hampshire, where he won handily. The reason to go so far as to let Dubya slip by to foil McCain is that the dangerous senator actually had a shot to win the GOP nomination and becoming the president. Now, that chance is weakened.

McCain is a deceitful, power-hungry man who cleverly packages the ideas of totalitarianism as “reform.” He gleefully asks for a system of elections that would be a throwback to the old Eastern bloc days: a free choice of those candidates who have the permission of the State to run. He wants the government to use lawsuits to coerce money out of tobacco companies. He would censor the Internet, and tax it. He would carelessly bomb Serbia twice as boldly (and badly) as Bill Clinton did.

In short, McCain wants to reform, reform, reform, and not stop until every American loves their government just like he does. And then he wants to make sure all the rogues in Iraq and China love America too. Question his agenda and you are against reform and patriotism. To the sane observer, you are likely just against concentrated political coercion.

George W. Bush is also wrong for America, but in a different way. Bush is the scion of old-fashioned Republicans who, like Dwight Eisenhower, grow the State slow but do not ask for socialism directly -- just as Republican leaders have always done in the postwar era. If Bush gets the Republican nomination, American can only expect him to endorse nothing definite. If he wins the White House, life won’t be easy. But at least there won’t be any demented push for reform at gunpoint -- for Americans and foreigners -- as McCain is ready to provide. That is the best case scenario for the next four years.

Lovers of a free United States must wait for anything better to come to electoral politics. Meanwhile, we continue to do exactly as Edward Abbey urged: act “to oppose, resist, and sabotage the contemporary drift toward a global technocratic police state, whatever its ideological coloration...” That often includes infiltrating the electoral process to minimize the new harm it can do to us. (We never expect to use it to reverse what has already happened.)

If we’re lucky -- as we were on Saturday -- others do the job for us. South Carolina’s voters may have not consciously made any statement in Saturday’s election, but their actions will still have a powerful effect. Hopefully, that effect will be the derailing of John McCain and his “Straight Talk Express” -- if only Arizona will dump its own wayward son in its upcoming primary.

When McCain scratches his head and wonders how his media-touted reform agenda failed to resonate with Republican voters, he need only thank South Carolina.

Now, the rest of American can do the same.

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