John McCain
A Third Party is Not the Answer
By Daniel Muniz

Below is an open letter written to Elizabeth Dole by Nachama Soloveichik which was published in the Club For Growth’s web site. Soloveichik was the communications director for Steve Laffey’s political campaign in the 2006 Republican primary against incumbent Lincoln Chafee. The biting sarcasm of this sharply written letter perfectly captures the sentiment of disgruntled conservatives across the country.

Ah yes, the GOP lavished plenty of support for Chafee and shoveled a big honking pile of cash to his reelection campaign. And what kind of gratitude did the defeated senator show to the Party?

Chaffee did what he always did while he served in the Senate, he stuck it to the Republican Party but this time he finally took it one notch higher and deserted the GOP. Not that his abandonment surprised anybody because he frequently clashed with the Party and stymied the conservative agenda. In fact, he admitted that he was surprised to see the huge resentment from the rank and file while he was touring his state during his reelection campaign.

In fact, the plight of Lincoln Chafee reminds me of another RINO named John McCain.

And again, the establishment helped McCain become the Republican nominee for president. And as in Chafee’s case, many high profile conservatives have now coalesced behind McCain, choosing him as the lesser of two evils. In fact, Townhall columnist and publisher of Right Wing News, John Hawkins, wrote an article titled, “Why You're Going To Vote For John McCain In November And Like It!”

Of course he wrote it with tongue in cheek humor but at least he is honest about McCain being an unreliable if not duplicitous Republican. Hawkins is going to support him anyways because he, as well as millions of other conservatives, sees it as not having any alternative. He further states in the same article:

It's also worth noting that these claims that McCain will destroy the conservative movement are unlikely to be true or alternately, if they are, then the conservative movement is probably too fragile to last any way.

However, the response of many conservatives is not only to avoid supporting John McCain but to abandon the GOP altogether and begin to seriously consider joining a third party. Here is the way I see it.

I am kind of in the middle of the whole thing. John McCain does not deserve my support and he is not going to get it but I do not see the value of leaving the Party. As John Hawkins wisely noted in another Townhall article he wrote in which he says that “third parties are nothing more than gnats buzzing around the rear ends of donkeys and elephants.” Hawkins goes on to encourage people to do “more” for the party to help revitalize its conservative roots.

He is absolutely correct. There is more that conservatives can do to promote the conservative movement while they are inside of the Party instead of being on the outside of it.

But furthermore, the alternatives are worthless. The Constitution Party is nothing more than that gnat buzzing around the elephant’s tail and it is certainly not going to pull it.

Right now there are a number of influential organizations that have already made tremendous progress in rooting out the worst RINOs. My personal favorite is the Club For Growth. With them, no liberal GOP incumbent is safe. They were pivotal in helping defeat worthless swine like Congressmen Joe Schwarz and Wayne Gilchrest. They bitterly fought Senators Arlen Spector and Lincoln Chafee and they completely embarrassed Governor Mike Huckabee by advertising his wasteful gubernatorial spending initiatives.

And then there are one man armies. Before the 2008 presidential race began, most of the Republican candidates had public records of inviting illegal aliens to this country and giving them amnesty. Congressman Tom Tancredo completely changed the dynamics of the race for the White House. All of a sudden, Rudy Guiliani, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and even John McCain had to change their tune and adopt tougher enforcement positions.

Regardless of being on a national scale or in the local community, there are conservative movers and shakers who are doing their part to reform the Party. But more importantly, the House and Senate already have outstanding conservatives who are fighting in the trenches and the same goes for state legislatures and in city councils all around the country. The framework is already in place so all that is needed is more critical mass to turn things around. And that can only happen if conservatives stick around to help stick it to liberal Republicans.

Overall, a third party is not a viable answer because there are already more than enough foot soldiers in the GOP to re-ignite another conservative revolution; it just needs a visionary leader. And when that moment does arrive, I want to be there to answer the call.

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