Sunday, April 19, 2009

Meghan McCain to the barricades

SHOULDN'T WE SAY something really nice about a McCain?  Not John or anyone like that.  I'm talking about his daughter, Meghan McCain.  The woman went up to the podium at the Log Cabin Republicans convention the other night and laid out a course for the GOP to have some color return to their anemic complexion (not a pun, but I guess it could be.)  To a highly responsive gay audience, Meghan, who is nowhere near her own closet, put it in words that cannot be sanitized  for polite society.  She said "old-school Republicans" were "scared shitless"  by modern social trends.  That would certainly include broader societal acceptance of gayness.  I'm sure that comment drew shudders from homophobic Republicans from Maine to California.

But she said other sensible things:
"Simply embracing technology isn't going to fix our problem.  Republicans using Twitter and Facebook  isn't going to miraculously make people think we're cool again.  Breaking free from obsolete positions and providing real solutions that don't divide our nation further will.  That's why some in our party are scared.  They sense the world  around them is changing and they are unable to take the risk to jump free of what's keeping our party down."  
Bravo, Meghan.  No - bravissimo!  (You can take that as a supreme compliment, Meghan. I don't usually resort to superlatives about  other Republicans.) 

Ms. McCain has been on the cutting edge of rebukes of the GOP  that has put her at odds with the old-timers with their cave-like mentality.  Contrast her comments with those of  House Minority leader John Boehner, who refuses to accept carbon dioxide fixes as a remedy for global warming and suggests that the flatulence of cows is among the culprits. Anti environmental Republicans  -speaking of flatulence - having been saying these things for years as an excuse for doing nothing.)   

Keep going, Meghan.  The party has given up any claim to having its initials capitalized.  It should be gop.  But if the current  McParty  is to somehow revive, Meghan can say she had a significant role in it.  

2 comments:

PJJinOregon said...

Last week the homophobic GOP dog didn't bark. Iowa by judicial decree and then Vermont by a veto override legalized same sex marriage. The silence from Faux News demanded attention. Even Rick Warren claimed immunity from gay bashing. Maybe mortgage defaults have trumped marriage restraints within the GOP.

Whatever the cause, the silence was beautiful.

Mencken said...

i'd be more impressed with her pronouncements if she had mentioned them to her father uh....before the election.