McCain poor choice for conservative voters
By Brad Speers
As a republican, I admit that my feelings toward this election are rather progressive. For this reason, I should be ecstatic that Sen. John McCain is my party's nominee for president, not Gov. Mike Huckabee.
McCain is pro-nuclear power, does not wear his religion on his sleeve, opposes partial-birth abortions and will not work to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Furthermore, he has voted for a balanced budget, works with democrats to find the middle ground and rarely brings home pork-barrel spending. Yet despite all this, I am still not satisfied. Why? Because the one issue that is central to the safety of the United States is our foreign policy.
In this regard, McCain is as hawkish as the current Bush administration.
Like Sen. Hillary Clinton, he has used overtly threatening language toward Iran. Iran's military is in no position to threaten the United States. Iran spends $6 billion a year on their military, as opposed to our $500 billion yearly investment.
McCain thinks the Iraq War is necessary to maintain our domestic safety. Yet Osama bin Laden has said repeatedly that it is America's support of Israel and our involvement in the Middle East conflict that led to the September 11 attacks. The 9/11 Commission echoed this point.
McCain has lost his bearings on our generation's most important issue: How do we correctly deal with the problems in the Middle East? This issue takes shape in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He continues to defend the Iraq War, which has done nothing but decrease the stability of Middle Eastern oil, strengthen our enemies and weaken our diplomatic capabilities in the region.
Why would McCain align himself with the policies of President Bush? I have not been able to answer that question, and for that reason, I cannot support the Arizona senator.
I believe that McCain would lead the U.S. into a conflict with Iran, which would only galvanize our enemies. He has criticized the idea of negotiating with people we define as "terrorists." However, if a group like Hamas wins in a free and fair election, as they have done already, we are forced by our own rules to close negotiation with the new government.
McCain's policy in the Middle East is to push for democracy and then discredit its importance when someone we don't like wins. This policy has already led the U.S. into dangerous waters. McCain has attached himself to this legacy in his defense of Bush's indefensible war in Iraq.
I want to see a United States in which our values matter more than political strategy. I want our budget balanced, trade deficits leveled and the dollar strengthened. Educating Americans about foreign policy would do more to win the War on Terror than funding the war in Iraq.
For the last two elections, we conservatives have given up our fundamental values for politicized issues like gay marriage and abortion.
In the next election, the real issue will be our foreign policy. This means that McCain is not the right candidate for conservatives.
Brad Speers is a senior political science major.