Connections for McCain

one of the things i think make a big difference in how a person lives their lives is their ability to make connections. Not just personal connections, those are essential, but also cause and effect and relationship connections. I find that many of the most incisive and though provoking articles and comments are those that facilitate the connection of two ideas that people would otherwise view as unrelated. Most often for me this seems to present itself in glaring inconsistencies. when i see something that appears inconsistent, like sarah palins call for massive governmental oversight preceded by a demand for government to get out of the way, i cant help but point out that those wont go together.

Spotting the interdependency of ideas and actions and then synthesizing that into something for others to read is not an easy task. Often you can end up with the, "well duh", posts. Generally though the post that connect two things people overlooked provoke the most thought and debate. My favorite example right now is the efforts of john mccain to roll back the observable vitriol that marks his campaign rallies. McCain is getting credit from pundits and people in the blogosphere for this effort. Some have latched onto it as proof that mccain really is an honorable and decent man troubled by the tactics he is "forced" to pursue.

I of course see this entirely differently based on several things. The first is that McCain instigated all of this with his 100% negative campaign. He chose to use Ayers etc instead of campaigning on ideas. As David Brooks pointed out the Republican party is no longer the party of ideas or intellectual thought. It cannot be surprising that the candidate of a party without ideas runs on a platform without ideas. McCain is wholly complicit in the campaign strategy he has chosen. The crowning glory of this was actually the convention with the GOP speeches that went after Obama on all of the same topics as we see splashed across the headlines.

Second with how mccain is polling the people that still go to mccain rallies are those diehard of diehards. There has been talk of Obama butting against the ceiling of his support. This means that McCain would be scrapping the bottom of his. This bottom was always going to be the craziest of the right. The people who will look for any excuse to vote against obama, against any dem candidate. so we really see the base, the core of the gop without the veneer of moderate conservatives usually in front of the cameras.

What does it mean that the conservative movement has run out of ideas? it means the movement is dead. that entire branch of conservatism is dead. it has been tested in governance and has failed and yet mccain, instead of running on the glittering maverick brand, ran with the movement. It does not say much for mccain that he was unwilling to take charge and lead in a new direction when it became obvious the old direction was a dead end. Sadly he apparently fell victim to the mantra, conservatism cannot fail, you can only fail conservatism.

this failure and the failure of the mccain campaign will obviously lead to one of two possibilities, the gop continues to double down on the social emotional direction or reforms to something along the lines of mike huckabee. a populism mixed with social conservatism.