The Day Conservatism Died

by Patrick Gibson

Throughout time, great nations have seen their history turn on definable points in time. Moments that historians can later look upon and point to, saying to the few who give a damn about history anymore, "HERE is where a nation saw its path diverge from greatness." The battle of Waterloo and the siege of Moscow. The election of Churchill. The capture of Lee's battle plan at Antietam. These are all moments in the not-so-distant past where nations' fates seemingly wheeled on a dime. Did one of those moments pass without us recognizing it for what it was?

No I am not talking about the election of Barack Hussein Obama, although that was a major event. I am talking about the event that facilitated his election. I am talking about the moment that John McCain gutted conservatism, reminding us all that we were without a candidate this year and leaving many of us pulling the lever for Sarah Palin.

Many of us realized we had to suffer through him to get Palin there. hardly the stuff of winning campaigns. This happened, I believe, on September 24, 2008. On that day McCain, who had been adamantly and constantly campaigning for president since 2000, had been begrudgingly accepted by an unenthusiastic right. Then he made the brilliant choice of Palin as VP. We were excited. He was leading in some polls, if I recall, by about 3 or 4 points.

Two days before the Oxford debates, when it was announced that McCain was leaving the campaign trail to address the deadlocked bailout talks, a chill ran through the spine of the collective conservative consciousness. Up until that point McCain, wobbly on conservative issues on his best days, had been doing ok. The focus had been on Palin and how she was evil "not qualified," McCain had been forced by his choice of her as VP to play conservative.

Unfortunately for McCain, and conservatism, and the nation, and the world, he went chasing after the first pretty-in-pork package that came running by. The humungous pork-fed fascist-socialist bailout bill became his damsel-in-distress. A far more willing one than the eminently capable Ms. Palin as well, I might add.

Once his loyalties were displayed, and the bill was shown to be a messy mixture of giveaways to the really rich and socialist hodge-podge, he continued to support it and he can now be pointed to as one of the primary causes behind not only that abortion of a bill, but the sweeping republican losses at the polls locally as well. This was a horserace. And John McCain shot his horse.

I have given up on McCain ever getting it. The question is will WE ever get it? Will we take back our party and demand that we run conservatives in the future?

I feel that without conservatism our nation is doomed. In this election conservatives did not run a candidate. the brilliant Sarah Palin couldn't overcome McCain's abject disloyalty to our principles.

All that being said, I know who to blame for the next four years. I hope and pray that historians don't look back on September 24, 2008 as the day McCain lost the republic.