Nothing’s Changed — There Remain No Reasons To Vote Republican

I continue to stand in slack jawed amazement at how putatively Reformed Christians are acting like two year olds who have just discovered chocolate in their rediscovered passion for the McCain – Palin ticket. The reasons that have been put forth in order to put aside what had been their principles against voting for John McCain and the Republican party have evaporated faster than the buzz picked up by attending a Rock concert of your choice.

In this article I just want to review some things that haven’t changed since the choice of Palin and then perhaps spend some time examining the arguments that are being put forth to now vote for McCain.

First, we should remember that the Republican party, like the Democratic party, is dedicated to the pursuit of Statism. At the top of the ticket remains the guy who in the McCain – Feingold legislation eviscerated first amendment rights thus strengthening State freedom over against individual freedoms. The Republican party is still the party that, completely in the face of vigorous protestations of an energized majority that was its natural constituency, recently sought to ram down the throat of Americans an immigration bill that would have effectively erased borders while refusing to offer any kind of solution to the presence of 12 million illegal immigrants in this county. John McCain was one of the Republican Senators that was vigorously pushing for that legislation which would have strengthened the State by making it the only agency that could bring peace to the strife of the balkanization it was trying to create by the immigration bill. The Republican party, along with their allies in the major media, is that institution that did everything in its power to marginalize the Ron Paul campaign. It did so because the Party realized what a threat to its Statist designs Ron Paul was. The Republican Party under the leadership of George W. Bush has grown the Federal Government in ways that Lyndon Baines Johnson could have only dreamed. The Republican party during the Bush administration grew the State in a massive fashion with its legislation on prescription drugs for senior citizens. In the Patriot Act the Republican party grew the power of the State in its ability to spy on its citizenry. At every turn the Republican party has shown itself, by its actions, to be a Statist party. In this regard there is little difference between it and the party they are supposed to be opposing. If there is any difference between the two parties on their advocacy of Statist government it is that Republicans, for some odd reason, feel compelled to brazenly lie about their intentions with claptrap speeches about limited government. As I’ve said countless times the difference between the two parties does not lie in their mutual agreement on the aggrandizement of the State but rather their difference lies in the differences that divided the national socialists vs. the international socialists in 1930’s Europe.

None of this has changed in the Republican party. What was true of the party before it nominated Sarah Palin remains true on the eve of Sarah Palin’s Republican National convention speech. The Republican party is an old wineskin and the idea that by voting for it we can get new wine into that old wineskin is preposterous beyond imagination.

Now, let us turn to just a few arguments that are being offered by those who at one time were not going to vote for McCain because of principle but now who are reconsidering. Doug Wilson, a influential figure in certain quarters of Evangelicalism is getting all wobbly in the knees over this Palin pick. Here is voice,

Before I would consider voting for him (McCain), I want to see some money down. Sarah Palin could well be that money down.

What Doug doesn’t realize is that with Palin McCain hasn’t put money down. With the Palin pick McCain has put the bait out for the sucker evangelicals who swallow it along with the hook every time. Why Doug thinks that Palin is money down is incomprehensible. Does Doug really think that a President McCain is going to consult with Vice President Palin on social domestic policy? Does Doug believe that Palin is going to give advice to President McCain on Supreme Court justices? Where exactly is the money that McCain is putting down with Palin?

Maybe Doug thinks that it is money down because Palin will be set up to become President when McCain is finished? The problem with that scenario is that before George H. W. Bush, who had the good fortune to run on the coattails of the most popular president in the 20th century, the last time that a VP immediately followed their President into office upon an election from their office as VP was Martin Van Buren in 1837. Gore didn’t do it. Mondale didn’t do it. Nixon didn’t do it. In point of fact nobody did it in the 20th century except for George H. W. Bush. To presume that Palin will follow McCain into the White House simply because she is his VP is a a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge stretch of what looks to be a fervid imagination. Then to go beyond that and to advocate voting for McCain because of the possible likely hood that a Vice President Palin will follow a President McCain is the same kind of twisted reasoning that sees the rapture coming because Russia invades Georgia. So again I ask, how is Palin the “money down” that requires evangelicals to give up their principles and vote Republican?

Who knows … maybe Doug thinks Palin is money down because he plans on praying an imprecatory Psalm against President McCain thus making room for a President Palin?

Another argument for compromising and voting McCain is the idea that Palin could serve as a positive role model for American women oppressed by mean wicked patriarchal fathers who treat them like something on the bottom of their shoes. Doug Wilson also floated this idea but I will quote from someone who reinforced his thinking with thoughts of her own,

What intelligent, articulate, influential women do girls typically see? The women they hear & read about in the news are Pelosi, Boxer, Clinton, etc.. Leftists are the women most girls grow up learning about in our time. They are the role model of strong womanhood American girls are exposed to.

I would love to see generations of American girls grow up inspired to be intelligent, articulate, influential conservative women.

According to this reasoning we should change our minds on McCain because Palin could rescue America’s daughters from being inspired in the direction of feminism by liberal women. The solution, naturally, according to this view, is for America’s daughters to be influenced in the direction of feminism by conservative women. Now we want to be sensitive to the idea that there are daughters out there who are treated like fodder for men but I am highly doubtful that giving them conservative feminist role models is going to help what ails them since feminism, regardless of whether it is of the liberal or conservative stripe, would only deliver them from their oppressive upbringing to a differently oppressive adulthood. Giving women a conservative feminist role model is no reason to vote for McCain – Palin.

Others offer reason to vote Republican due to the evil nature of Barack Obama. Now, this is the most weighty of all the arguments to vote for McCain. I personally believe Obama to be a wicked wicked man. But this argument for voting McCain must be balanced by the awareness that if Obama were elected the Republicans would fight his agenda, whereas if McCain were elected he would, given his past history cross the aisle and govern with the acquiescence of both Democrats and Republicans. There is every bit of a chance that a McCain administration in co-operation with the legislative bodies inflict more damage on America than a Obama administration will.

Some argue that we must vote Republican due to the Supreme Court and judicial nominations. This is always a scare tactic effectively used every four years. Before these fears cause a stampede to pull Republican levers we must keep in mind that we have had Republican Presidents for 28 out of the last 40 years and in that time those Republican Presidents have nominated more judges who voted to create and uphold abortion then judges who voted to end abortion. That is hardly a track record that makes me convinced that Republicans are going to serve as bulwarks against abortion in their Supreme Court nominations. Now combine this with the fact that McCain voted for Clinton’s pro abortion Supreme Court nominees along with McCain’s work as a part of the “gang of 14” to thwart Bush’s conservative nominee justices while in the Senate convinces me that this “fear” argument has little substance behind it.

Nothing has changed in the Republican party with the Palin nomination. The Republican party remains a Statist party. John McCain is a neo-con who remains pro illegal immigration, pro-stem cell research, anti-first amendment rights, member of the Keating five, member of the gang of 14, member of the Council of Foreign Relations, anti-second amendment rights, pro global warming, pro globalism and a believer in the American Empire. Christians who advocate voting for John McCain do a disservice to what Christian governance is all about.

The only difference Sarah Palin could make beyond being bait for the conservative base is if John McCain died in office on day one. I am sure that voting for McCain on the basis of that unlikely possibility is not wise in the least.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane