Why I don't want to vote for John McCain - Part I

After a few days of obsessively reading blogs, editorials, and columns about conservatives and John McCain's nomination, I think I'm now ready to write about it.

There are three camps. First, there are the McCain lovers. Among conservatives, this group is mainly the open immigration folks (this is important, as I'll describe later). This consists of those who are otherwise down-the-line conservatives. The main players here are The Weekly Standard and The Wall Street Journal editorial page (not all of their writers, but most of them for both publications). I generally like these guys, which is why I read them. I have been studying them very closely this week, looking to be persuaded to vote for McCain. It hasn't happened (yet).

Here is a good example of what's coming from these guys. I'm not trying to pick on Dan Henninger, who I usually like, but it's representative of their view. Basically, they say that McCain is conservative on the big issues (defense, spending, taxes, judges) and that the Democratic alternative will be so far left of him on them that we need to vote for him. There is also usually some variant of "Grow up!", but I'm not sure that insulting us is helpful.

The second group consists of those who are saying that they either will never vote for him or are currently staying mum about what they will do in November. I jam these two together because I have a foot in both camps, and despite their bluster some of those who refuse to vote for him will in the end (not most, but some). This group consists of most the big talk radio guys (Rush, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin), bloggers (too many to mention, but Michelle Malkin is the biggest), and various other conservative writers (many of them are at National Review Online).

I don't think I need to provide an example of why they don't want to vote for him, since anyone who reads this space has seen plenty of examples. I'll note that it comes down to a few reasons:

He led the effort for open borders and amnesty.
He wants government power to stop global warming.
He's against waterboarding and other interrogation techniques.
He wants to close Gitmo.
He led the effort to "reform" campaign financing with McCain-Feingold.
He led the "Gang of 14" that ended Republican efforts to stop Democratic filibusters on judges.
He voted against the Bush tax cuts.

It goes on and on, but that's what comes off the top of my head. Given all that, the reason they don't want to vote for him also comes down to a few different reasons:

He holds some conservative ideas, but he's not a conservative.
Might as well let a Democrat get blame for ruining the country rather than a Republican.
If he wins, a Republican Congress will follow him off the cliff due to party loyalty, killing the Republican brand.
Don't want to reward him for screwing over the party and conservatives so often in the past.

The third group consists of those who don't like him but will vote for him out of one of the following: party loyalty, his stance on the war against Islamic terrorism, or because he's still more conservative than either Democrat. This group consists of a wide spectrum of conservatives who have resigned themselves to pulling the lever for him. The most prominent so far is talk radio guy and blogger Hugh Hewitt. Here is his post detailing his decision (I'll note that he's a big Republican party guy in addition to being a true conservative).

By far (to me, at least) the best reason this group gives for backing McCain is on judicial appointments. The majority of the Supreme Court is getting really old, and I suspect that a few of the liberal activists on the court have been waiting to retire when a Democrat is in the White House (that leads to a minor obsession of mine, that court appointments should be for fixed terms of 10 years or so rather than for a lifetime, but that's for another day). Four more years of a Republican president may be too long for them to wait to call it quits, and a majority of judges who believe in the original intent of the Constitution could be cemented for a generation. This is almost as big an issue for me as immigration, but not quite.

These are the battle lines of conservatives today. This is long enough, and I need to collect my thoughts further, so Part II will come in the next day or two.