My First Clue... Really!

I am a relatively new convert to thinking for oneself. My first clue that something wasn't right on the Right was the way John McCain was treated by Republicans in the 2000 primaries. I was already aware that McCain and his wife had adopted a little girl, Bridget, from Bangladesh... but then I heard it rumored that this child was his own biological child, mothered by a black prostitute. I wondered why people were saying that, when it was so easy to verify the truth.

Then it occurred to me to wonder, "what else are they (my fellow conservative fundamentalist Republicans) lying about?"

I was to find out, far more than I ever wanted to know.

How painful, now, to know that McCain has skulked to Liberty University with his tail between his legs, and to know that he is considering a visit to Bob Jones University at a later date. He is like a bull who has been given a nose ring that is now getting painfully jerked at every opportunity. Ouch.

While McCain may yet get to be President, it can't feel good to him to know that he had to sell his soul to the so-called "Christian Right" to do it. If he has a shred of integrity (and though he has disappointed me, I really believe he does), I hope this haunts him for the rest of his life. Perhaps I am naive, but I think McCain could have won in 2000 if he'd run as an independent. At the very least, he'd probably have pulled enough votes away from Bush to make Al Gore president.

I wouldn't have done it--kowtowed to the Rabid Right, I mean--and people like me would have more respect for McCain if he'd continued to tell them exactly where to get off.

There would be surely be baggage associated with an Al Gore presidency. But I doubt we'd be throwing our honorable servicemen-and -women's lives down the toilet like mere piss and s**t, as the Bush cabal is doing in Iraq.

I wrote a letter to Mr. McCain a couple years ago, asking him what good is it to gain the whole world if you have to sell your soul to get there? Yeah, I know, that's in the Bible somewhere. Just too lazy to look it up.