Conservatives vs. Meghan McCain

meghan-mccain

Meghan McCain has come under tons of criticism from the right wing since she criticized Ann Coulter. Most of the attacks have centered around trivial matters such as her weight. McCain responded yesterday.

Michelle Malkin wrote today about what she sees as The Trouble With Meghan McCain. To her credit Malkin did avoid criticism based upon her weight. That, after all, is a trivial matter. Instead she attacked Malkin for her choice of comedians.

Malkin argues “The trouble with Meghan McCain is that, like her father, she has no fixed ideological principles — conservative, liberal, or otherwise.” I really haven’t paid very much attention to Meghan McCain’s writings until all the controversy in the past week so I’m not sure if this is a fair criticism or not. I am interested in seeing McCain’s response.

It is possible that, if we were trying to view Meghan McCain as a serious political pundit, this might be an issue. It is a different story if we try to see her as a typical young woman with a Republican background who just happens to be the daughter of their last presidential candidate. In this sense McCain might have some lessons for them as to why the Republicans are turning into a regional party of the south and Mormon belt, and why young people are abandoning them in tremendous numbers.

Is the problem that McCain has no principles, or that she will not adopt the extremist principles which are required of anyone staying in the Republican Party? The Republican Party has been driving out their moderates and taking on an extremist philosophy which even Barry Goldwater was highly critical of in his later years. Maybe they don’t mind that John McCain’s daughter doesn’t accept their extremism, considering they also see John McCain as a heretic, but in addition we saw two of Barry Goldwater’s granddaughters back Barack Obama this year, along with many other Republicans.

It is one thing for a political party to think they are adhering to a consistent philosophy. It is a problem for that party when their views become so narrow and out of touch with reality that many of their supporters leave the party. When a generation is becoming lost to them, they must seriously question if they are in danger of going the way of the Whigs.

Meghan McCain is certainly not a flaming liberal. If conservatives desire to have any chance of building a majority party which has the support of the young they would be far better off listening to her objections as opposed to attacking her weight or choice in comedians. The Republicans received Meghan McCain’s vote in 2008 because her father was on the ticket. They can hardly expect to win the youth vote if this is the only way many young people (or rational people of any age) will have anything to do with the GOP.

6 Comments

  1. 1
    b-psycho says:

    With such right-wing icons as Malkin & Ann Coulter, it’s no shock that Meghan would end up attacked for not being anorexic.

    For the record, I think she’s hot.

  2. 2
    Jenn Q. Public says:

    I had similar thoughts last week when this latest episode of red-on-red action surfaced.  I wrote, “Meghan isn’t trying to offer sophisticated political analysis.  She’s a politician’s kid with a unique perspective on Republican politics and a bigger than average soapbox thanks to her father’s recent candidacy.  But that doesn’t make her views on the Republican Party any less instructive.”

    It’s shameful that Laura Ingraham and her parroting fans are focusing on Meghan’s physical appearance rather than the content of her columns.  It’s a childish, divisive, and self-defeating attempt to silence her with belittling invective.

    What Meghan gets wrong is that it isn’t prejudice against her size that’s fueling this ridicule – it’s intolerance of her political stance.  If they weren’t calling her plus-sized, they’d be calling her scrawny or short or [insert ugly insult of choice here.] 

    It’s funny that the same people who rail against Saul Alinsky’s tactics  seem to gravitate toward them when they want to marginalize so-called RINOs.

  3. 3
    Ron Chusid says:

    Jenn,

    I’m sure you realize that if  you get on their radar they will have a similar response towards you.

  4. 4
    Jenn Q. Public says:

    Ron,

    Oddly enough, a few fairly well known conservative bloggers linked to that post without any nasty commentary. 

    But I take your point since I’ve made it myself – some members of the Republican Party are addicted to this circular firing squad they’ve got going.  Let’s see how far that gets them.

  5. 5
    Johnnyb says:

    Trouble is she does not understand conservatism, but presumes that she is speaking for an entire generation.  She wants the Republican party to play the same political game that the democrat party plays, but oddly enough the only Republican candidate that had large support of young people was Ron Paul, not Meghan McCain’s dopey dad.  Conservatism is based on principle, not politics.  The McCain’s don’t get it.

  6. 6
    Anthony says:

    The Repblicans are scared of Megan McCain because she represents someone that they haven’t had to hear from in a while – a concerned, intelligent American with no political aspirations whatsoever.

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