Democrats have been rubbing their hands in glee at the tribulations of the Republican party.They're politically bankrupt, ideologically challenged and searching desperately for leadership in the most inopportune places - Rush Limbaugh, anybody?
Yet quietly, methodically and efficiently, an unlikely GOP hero has been creeping into the spotlight - John McCain's daughter Meghan McCain.
Blond, beautiful and brainy, Meghan McCain makes an unlikely Republican, even by her own standards. Before her father stood for the presidency, she was a registered Independent with notably moderate views.
Clambering onto the campaign bus with her father, however, changed everything - starting with her signing up as a registered Republican.
During the 2008 presidential election, I argued that Meghan McCain was the Republican's secret weapon: She did something nobody else in the GOP had dreamed of - gave McCain's campaign a voice accessible to young, hip people (not easy, given that her Dad, no matter how cool he was, would still have been the oldest president to enter the White House if he'd won.)
She achieved this by hitting the information superhighway while she hit the campaign trail; giving us McCain Blogette - a regularly updated photo-blog showcasing her adventures on the trail.
Her blogs were fun, enthusiastic and real. She even kept readers up to date with hit tunes from her campaign play list (proving that those 'hip' credentials were genuine) and revealed the enthusiasm and support regular Americans had for her father's presidential bid (my favorite was when they visited a Harley Davidson convention.)
Meghan's grasp of social media gave her an audience that nobody else in the Republican party had access to - and the people who'd tuned in during the campaign continued to follow her even after the election ended.
That popularity stems from the way she continues to express her heartfelt, earnest beliefs. They resonate deeply with her audience, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the fact that they defy traditional Republican dogma - like, for example, her most recent article for The Daily Beast - Memo to the GOP: Go Gay.
She confronted an ugly truth - that the Republican party needs to shed its homophobic reputation. While that belief sparked outrage amongst entrenched conservatives, it turned her into something of a Republican Rockstar amongst younger, more moderate voters - arguably the only political demographic that really matters.
"If the Republican Party has any hope of gaining substantial support from a wider, younger base, we need to get past our anti-gay rhetoric," Meghan writes. She goes on to highlight the support the gay community once had from an unlikely Republican hero - their revered leader, Ronald Reagan. "The ultimate Republican rockstar helped fight anti-gay proposition because he knew it was wrong."
Most Republicans argue that Reagan could do no wrong, so maybe it's time they started following their mentor's example.
If anybody needed proof that Meghan's article was powerful and convincing, they need look no further than the wags at Comedy Central. She stirred up admiration from the acerbic wits behind The Daily Show, who gently poked fun in this article:
"Meghan McCain may claim to be a Republican… But — as is easily evidenced in her newest piece from The Daily Beast — she has clearly shown herself to be neither borderline mentally-disabled nor small-minded and bigoted…"
The fact that she's softened the most hardened of the 'elite, liberal media' means that Meghan's actually onto something. She's a Republican young people listen to - proudly standing for the best of everything the Republican party represents - small government, low taxation, personal responsibility and individual freedoms - while soundly rejecting every negative albatross hung around the GOP's neck.
If the entrenched die-hards in the GOP can summon up the courage to listen to her, Meghan McCain might prove herself to be voice that leads the Republican party out from political obscurity and into the 21st century.
Keep an eye out - I hope we'll be hearing a lot more from her.
5 comments:
Meghan McCain is great! I became a Republican because of her father, who showed me that a Republican can be caring, open-minded, and down-to-earth. Meghan goes even farther in expanding the public image of what a Republican can be, and she distinctly appeals to young people. Both McCains strengthen the moderate, centrist part of the Republican party and will broaden its appeal in the long run. I'm someone who also happens to like Rush Limbaugh, so I don't think it has to be all one thing or all another. It's good for the Republican party to be open to diverse populations and opinions.
You do not grow a party by being the other party.
You grow a party by being yourself. For every democrat they pick up, they'd lose a family like mine....
Secede Texas!! I need a new country.
The sad truth, CK, is that you don't have anybody else to vote for... I'm sure in the last election, despite how moderate McCain was, you'd have still voted for him just to try and stop Obama getting in.
Victory means compromise - unless somebody like Meghan reaches out to the undecided voters, the Republican party never stands a real chance of reelection in the future.
And realistically, that means they'll have to turn their back on some of the fundamentals voters like you hold dear.
But, before you decide, I should let you know that Meghan McCain is strictly pro-life - more so than her father, definitely.
But that is not true, there are others coming out. As long as the Republican party gets back to their roots they will start winning elections just as they did in 1994. America is not a liberal country and that is what the current government is giving us.
At worst this is a left center country, though I am more inclined to believe it is a right center country, that borders on being far right (thus 70% votes against gay marriage).
The problem is that Bush spent way to much money and allowed for the 'moderate' Republicans to come into play.
Wondered when someone would figure out that one. Reality always wins. Untruths can manage to self-propagate and self-defend in the darker recesses of the mind, but sooner or later the plain truth that homosexuals are just people was going to bean someone to the right of the aisle in the noggin. Huzzah!
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