Community | April 19, 2009 | 17 comments

Meghan McCain: "Old School" Republicans Are "Scared Shitless"

source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/18/meghan-mccain-old-school_n_188636.html

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Speaking to an affectionate crowd of Log Cabin Republicans on Saturday evening, Meghan McCain ridiculed the party her father headed this past election, declaring that "old school Republicans" were "scared shitless" of the changing landscape.

The Senator's daughter, who has quickly become something of an iconic figure in the gay conservative community since the end of the election, took repeated shots at the GOP for its antiquated mores.

"I feel too many Republicans want to cling to past successes," said McCain. "There are those who think we can win the White House and Congress back by being 'more' conservative. Worse, there are those who think we can win by changing nothing at all about what our party has become. They just want to wait for the other side to be perceived as worse than us. I think we're seeing a war brewing in the Republican Party. But it is not between us and Democrats. It is not between us and liberals. It is between the future and the past."

Later, she called out those officials in the Republican tent who insist that tactical improvements, technology and brass-knuckle politicking are the path back to relevance.

"Simply embracing technology isn't going to fix our problem," she said. "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."
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17 comments // Meghan McCain: "Old School" Republicans Are "Scared Shitless"

  • Marilynn_Murray
  • hjonnsters
  • unimatrix0
    • 0
      unimatrix0  

    • The problem with Meghan's argument, one also made by McCain's campaign manager Schmidt, is that conservatives are by definition supposed to conserve the past and reject change.

    • 3 years ago
  • hjonnsters
    • 0
      hjonnsters  
    • unimatrix0:

      Yeah and I think the voters pretty much sent them a message this last election and still are. So how long will they hold out? Until there are 3-4 die hards left? Get with the 20th and maybe they have a chance in 2012.

    • 3 years ago
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  
    • unimatrix0:

      I agree with the essence of your description, Uni, although I would suggest that being conservative does not mean rejecting change ALTOGETHER but rather that change should be relatively slow and cautious if it is warranted at all. Unfortunately, as we saw on some of the signs being carried around during those tea parties, many of today's conservatives apparently feel that change stopped being warranted right around the height of Jim Crow.

      IMHO, the single biggest problem in the Republican Party today is that the so-called Reagan Republicans continue to constitute a majority or near-majority of the party. Their insistence on the Reagan "model" is doomed to failure. That is because there is no cohesive intellectual or philosophical platform on which Reagan stood. On his VERY best days, he was a slow, plodding, unimaginative, unambitious and anti-intellectual President (his Vice-President's son likely learned a great deal from Reagan). The reason for Reagan's popularity was the context of the times in which he served. The country had simply not yet recovered from the deep malaise created by Watergate and the humiliating end to the Vietnam War. Ford and Carter were plain vanilla administrators -- not charismatic leaders. Reagan was not a charismatic leader either but he WAS a trained actor and could ACT like a charismatic leader. While he left Democrats cold, acting was more than enough for most Republicans.

      But the country is in a much different place right now. I don't suppose it is ever a BAD thing to have a President capable of making us feel better about the country. But we NEED someone with the intellectual heft and judgement to choose good people and good plans and the gravitas to pull the plug on programs that don't work.and replace them with programs that will. Not only do the Republicans lack someone like that who is "shovel ready," most of the party isn't even LOOKING for such a candidate because they are looking (in vain) for the next Ronald Reagan...

    • 3 years ago
  • fauxsherrrr
  • hjonnsters
  • Fanofsinatra
    • 0
      Fanofsinatra  

    • I think Meghan is brave to stand up to Dad and the other out of touch Republicans. I wish they be more in tuned with todays issues. Last election clearly showed that most voters in the US agreed with that statement.

    • 3 years ago
  • Eleganza
  • Freaked2Much
  • Eleganza
    • 0
      Eleganza  
    • Eleganza:

      The analogy is that when one has been prospering with an old way of doing things it is difficult to accept that new ideas and ways of doing things have left you behind....vis a vis when the use of the automobile reduced buggy whips to irrelevancy and put the buggy whip manufacturer out of business.

    • 3 years ago
  • Fanofsinatra
  • judiestar
  • Freaked2Much
    • 0
      Freaked2Much  

    • Good for you Meghan. Unfortunately you being gay sure didn't help you old Dad to do the right thing. I don't think there is any hope for the party. To many stuffy old farts. They need new blood that understands today's society and the needs of the constituency.

    • 3 years ago
  • ClipsFC
    • 0
      ClipsFC  

    • As for the GOP establishment, McCain described it as a "party that was thriving at one point on a few singular issues" but could no longer "see long-term success."

    • 3 years ago
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