McCain and the Battered Wife Syndrome

Bob Krumm accurately reflects the views of McCain supporters who, now that it appears that he is well on his way to winning the Republican nomination, demands that Conservatives now fall into line.

Here’s his take:

Yesterday when Ed Driscoll interviewed me for an upcoming Pajamas Media segment on XM Radio (don’t yet know when it will air) I told him that Democrats are surely recording all the Republican anti-McCain harangues so that they can run ads attacking our nominee with our own words in the fall.

It’s already started. Here’s Harry Reid quoting Mississippi Republican Senator Thad Cochran’s comments about McCain:

The thought of him being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper, and he worries me.”

Thanks a lot. For all the yammering you do about how John McCain is the end of Reaganism you sure as heck didn’t follow Reagan’s eleventh commandment.

Here's my response:

Bob,

Implicit in your comment is the assumption that Conservatives are Republicans and owe some kind of loyalty to the Republican Party no matter what candidate the party nominates as its standard bearer. It’s as if you expect us to be those famous “mind numbed robots” that Rush Limbaugh is always accused of creating with is program.

We can all honor McCain for his courage and bravery during his years in captivity. But this war hero shtick is wearing a little thing (see what it did for John Kerry) and the fact that he has an (R) after his name is not an automatic stamp of approval unless you are an automaton.

To me McCain represents McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Lieberman, the Gang of 14, and the Keating Five. McCain represents a finger in the eye of Conservatives when it was a choice between the approval of the MSM and his party.

So now it looks as if the is well on his way to the nomination and he is demanding that we get over our differences, pipe down and shut up. He’s not asking for our vote, he (and you) are demanding our loyalty. Well, I’m not going to exhibit all the characteristics of the battered wife who comes back to her husband asking for forgiveness after he has beaten her black and blue for the umpteenth time. I’m looking for a change of heart, not the political equivalent of “look what you made me do.”

Do you understand? If not, it’s going to be a long, hot summer.