John McCain the Maverick

McCain is no longer a maverick. I happily admit, I would have voted for him in 2000 had he received the nomination, but he is not the same candidate I rooted for back then. Jonathan Chait wrote this great book about the republicans rise to power and rule in DC and devoted an entire section about McCain's forceful submission to the GOP.

McCain was a maverick, and initially opposed the Bush tax cuts. He wanted to use the money to shore up Medicare and Social Security, and was widely praised by the GOP voters. Then he publicly criticized the Bush tax cuts, going against a core belief of the GOP, the Laffer Curve, which is the model that lower taxes produce higher revenue, a key viewpoint in the GOP way of life. He stated that a Bush tax cut would widen the growing gap between rich and poor.

Once his views caught on with the voters, and he showed overwhelming strength in the New Hampshire primary, the GOP went on the attack and ruined his image in the eyes of the grand old voters, by way of comparing him to Clinton, and exaggerating the differences between McCain and the GOP messiah, Regan. That smear campaign led the way to 8 years of Bush.

Only after he was forced to change his position on the estate tax, which he had long championed as the great cause of his hero, Teddy Roosevelt, and publicly declared himself in favor of the Bush tax cuts, something he previously denounced as a giveaway to the rich, did the GOP welcome him back to the inner circle.

The last step was to bring on an economic adviser. Who else to prove to the GOP that he was in lock step with the rest of the party than Arthur Laffer, author of the Laffer curve he once criticized?

Soon after, John McCain signed the key GOP document, the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, necessary for any GOP candidate to gain inner circle support, and the senior Republican senators introduced him to the Grand Old Party as the establishment’s candidate.

This is not the Maverick we once knew. He is not the maverick he is campaigning as. He has caved to the same GOP powers that control Bush, and will lead to another 4 years of the same government policies.




Feel free to read this for yourself with the link above, or better yet, the whole book after this whole mess is over for a reminiscent laugh. (fingers crossed)

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