This Republican party is a party for free men. Not for blind followers and not for conformists. Back in 1858, Abraham Lincoln said this of the Republican party - and I quote him because he probably could have said it during the last week or so - it was composed of strained, discordant, and even hostile elements.

Back in 1964, Barry Goldwater said this of the Republican party - and I quote him because he probably could have said it during the last week or so - it was composed of strained, discordant, and even hostile elements.

Obviously, neither Goldwater nor Lincoln said this during the last week or so (although they probably could have). They said this about the Republican party almost 44 and 150 years ago, respectively. Republicans are carrying on a time-honored tradition of discord among the ranks but more importantly, a time-honored tradition of being a party not for blind followers and not for conformists.

Barry Goldwater defined the elements of the Republican equation as: balance, diversity and creative difference.  He defined the cause of Republicans thus:

~ to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people….
~ to restore a clear understanding of the tyranny of man over man in the world at large.
~ to dispel the foggy thinking which avoids hard decisions in the delusion that a world of conflict will somehow resolve itself into a world of harmony, if we just don’t rock the boat or irritate the forces of aggression - and this is hogwash.
~ to remind ourselves, and the world, that only the strong can remain free: that only the strong can keep the peace.

Many have suggested that Barry Goldwater secured the foundation necessary for Ronald Reagan’s conservative movement to take hold and flourish. Few have stated it as eloquently as our own Rick Sincere:

“In your heart, you know he’s right.” So said Barry Goldwater’s supporters during the Senator’s ill-fated 1964 presidential campaign. Many people disagreed, resulting in a landslide victory for Lyndon Johnson. But as we now know, Goldwater may have lost the battle, but over time, he won the war.

Barry Goldwater’s 1964 campaign transformed American politics. He galvanized two generations of political activists, and germinated both the modern conservative movement and the libertarian movement. He took a Republican party that was ideologically indistinguishable from its Democratic opponents and gave it a philosophical edge with ramifications that are still unresolved. Some of his supporters went on in 1971 to found America’s third-largest political party, the Libertarian Party, and the rest in 1976 almost denied a sitting president, Gerald Ford, the GOP nomination. By 1980, Goldwater Republicans were in the ascendant and elected Ronald Reagan as president.

John McCain completes the trilogy started by Goldwater and Reagan. This is one of many reasons why I’ve decided to support him in his bid for the presidency. Goldwater said:

Anyone who joins us in all sincerity, we welcome. Those, those who do not care for our cause, we don’t expect to enter our ranks, in any case. And let our Republicanism so focused and so dedicated not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels.

I’ll let others decide if John McCain is a conservative, Republican, Libertarian, moderate, maverick, liberal, Democrat, etc. What matters most to me is that, like Goldwater and Reagan, he’s honorable, steadfast and still adheres to a “code of conduct” that others may not comprehend. He doesn’t “go along to get along” forsaking what he knows to be right for that which is popular or politically expedient.
Thirty-five years ago, John McCain wrote a heart-breaking yet inspirational account of his five and a half years as a POW in North Vietnam. That he survived is nothing short of miraculous and that, as the son of the commander in chief of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, he could have come home… he didn’t. He stayed:

But I knew that the Code of Conduct says, “You will not accept parole or amnesty,” and that “you will not accept special favors.” For somebody to go home earlier is a special favor. There’s no other way you can cut it.

When it must have seemed that all was lost, he relied on his faith:

I was finding that prayer helped. It wasn’t a question of asking for superhuman strength or for God to strike the North Vietnamese dead. It was asking for moral and physical courage, for guidance and wisdom to do the right thing. I asked for comfort when I was in pain, and sometimes I received relief. I was sustained in many times of trial.

He was put into solitary confinement for months at a time:

As far as this business of solitary confinement goes—the most important thing for survival is communication with someone, even if it’s only a wave or a wink, a tap on the wall, or to have a guy put his thumb up. It makes all the difference.

It’s vital to keep your mind occupied, and we all worked on that. Some guys were interested in mathematics, so they worked out complex formulas in their heads—we were never allowed to have writing materials. Others would build a whole house, from basement on up. I have more of a philosophical bent. I had read a lot of history. I spent days on end going back over those history books in my mind, figuring out where this country or that country went wrong, what the U. S. should do in the area of foreign affairs. I thought a lot about the meaning of life.

His advice to members of our military:

If you don’t know what your country is doing, find out. And if you find you don’t like what your country is doing, get out before the chips are down.

Once you become a prisoner of war, then you do not have the right to dissent, because what you do will be harming your country. You are no longer speaking as an individual, you are speaking as a member of the armed forces of the United States, and you owe loyalty to the Commander in Chief, not to your own conscience.

And when he returned home:

I think America is a better country now because we have been through a sort of purging process, a re-evaluation of ourselves. Now I see more of an appreciation of our way of life. There is more patriotism. The flag is all over the place. I hear new values being stressed—the concern for environment is a case in point.

Yes, the environment. Thirty-five years ago he recognized a concern for our environment. How this differs from Al Gore reaching the bottom of a dough nut box and while scratching through the remaining crumbs decides to create a “crisis” for his own personal gain….

It’s gonna be great having a man with a code of conduct and a moral compass back in the White House. One that doesn’t march in lockstep with anyone.

Yes, I support John McCain because in my heart, I know he’s right.