If Meghan McCain wants to affect the GOP, she should comment at Hot Air
posted at 10:26 pm on April 21, 2009 by Patrick Ishmael
Here’s the rub:
Meghan McCain’s problem with the base is that she doesn’t seem to have any contact with it. As in possibly none. Her blog-loaded shots keep sailing over the Party bow without her really appreciating that as a Republican… she’s actually sitting in the same boat as the rest of us. She’s more than welcome to criticize the GOP. I’m more than happy to criticize the GOP. We should all be critical of what our Party is doing and how it’s representing us.
But if she wants to change the Party, she needs to talk directly to its members rather than try to marginalize or rube-ify them. The latter method is not the way to lead a reform of the Party; it’s a method to undermine it.
Arguing for the reforms on the merits – reforms that need to happen if the GOP is going to be the Party of small, federal, responsible, and efficient government — can’t be substituted for by talking past or around vast swaths of the GOP, and reform interests are best served not only when new people are brought into the conversation, but also when the base is engaged in it. She can’t expect to sow the seeds of a revolution in exile, which means if she really wants to be a part of the changes coming to the Party — and I think she does — she needs to actually participate constructively in the cultivation of a platform built not only around inclusion, but also on shared principles of governance. Together, we can do it. I’d love to see her on the inside rather than on the out.
So there you have it. I want her to express her views because it will result in a more vibrant, flexible, and dynamic party. She just needs to engage the base.
The easiest way I can think of, other than peeking into the Hot Air comments section (or an equivalent blog) every once in a while? Shoot out a Hot Air blog post or two every once in a while. Yes? No? Yes?
Yes?
This is my one post on the topic. It is done.
************
And now: Flight of the Conchords.
Because… it is the daytime, of the night.
Blowback
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Dare she? wonder! O’Reilly says she was invited on his show and hedged, flopped and finally didn’t come. Think she just wants to lob crap at us from safety in back of some liberal talking head.
jeanie on April 21, 2009 at 10:32 PM
If she wants to affect the GOP she might try, you know, accomplishing something for herself instead of riding on Daddy’s coat tails. I’ve seen nothing from her which would indicate any serious study of conservatism; just a lot of sniping from the sidelines (alongside her liberal pals) about how much we all suck and why we should be cool like her. She’s written and said nothing to indicate she even knows what conservatism is much less made any rational argument about why we need less of it.
What baffles me is why we are even talking about this twit. Her opinions are even less valuable to me than, say, Sean Penn’s. He’s an ass, but at least Sean Penn has worked and built a career of his own. In a few years, we’ll remember her oh-so-earthshakingly-valuable opinions with the same reverence we remember Ron Reagan Jr’s.
Laura on April 21, 2009 at 10:52 PM
I think that’s unfair. If I was the son of a former Presidential candidate and wanted to get involved in politics at 23, I’d do it. I just think she can do a lot of good for the GOP from where she is right now, and it doesn’t really matter to me how she got into her position if she makes great use of it. Here’s to hoping she does.
Repurblican on April 21, 2009 at 11:10 PM
She is impossibly full of herself. She thinks like her father, that the party will win if we don’t support values and principle anymore. Well if that is the only way to win, we can’t be more soulless than the Dems. It can’t be done. And what is the point of winning if you don’t have any principles. No thanks. It’s not a sporting contest.
petunia on April 21, 2009 at 11:28 PM
You’re right. It is unfair. But if she said anything substantive, I’d give her a pass on how she got her platform. I really would. Because then I’d be busy engaging her on the merits of her argument and I wouldn’t have time to gripe about how she got up on the platform to begin with. The problem is that so far there’s “there” there.
Making any kind of decent argument for her case would BE an accomplishment – she hasn’t done it yet. But I can’t critique (or even agree with) an argument she hasn’t made. She’s engaging in the same ad homs and straw man nonsense as President Teleprompter right down to the “there are those” catchphrase. For example, how does this help anyone?
What positions are obsolete and why? What are the repercussions of tossing those positions under the bus? Let’s have just one example of a “real solution.” Gay marriage is just keen, so we should have it? How is this going to affect religious people? What are the legal ramifications – can churches be sued for not conducting the marriage ceremonies or renting the building to gay couples? What about their free speech? The next logical step is polygamy – already an issue in Canada. So what is our position on that, before we open the can of worms? She wants to be treated like a policy wonk yet offers no policy other than
1. make people think we’re cool again
2. ?
3. GOP profits!
She’s the GOP Obama. Obama got away with this nonsense because the media espouses the changes they knew he’d make. Meghan is being used for the same exact goal – to further weaken the GOP.
Laura on April 21, 2009 at 11:53 PM
We’re talking about this twit because she’s a made-to-order martyr for the left.
“Our guest tonight is Megan McCain, who made a brave effort to reform the conservative movement in the footsteps of her highly principled father, and was brutally rejected by the movement she cared so much about….”
Like that. I’m quite sure that there are some Axelturfers thinking along exactly those lines. I would be in their place.
I’ve said before that if she wants to play with the adults, and engage on the merits, then she can get taken apart by the adults. On the merits.
She is incredibly full of herself, and obviously suffers a bad case of “Hipster girl’s burden”, but she doesn’t merit the misogynistic frat-house hostility that I’ve seen several other places. That’s exactly the sort of behavior that will turn her into a leftard talking point.
The observation that she needs to engage the group she’s so busy slagging is an accurate one. Mindless hostility in her direction serves no one.
It occurs to me that someone should suggest that Hewitt invite her on. O’Reilly’s a little rough’n tumble for a novice.
Dark Horse on April 22, 2009 at 1:16 AM
From where she is right now? And how did she get there? By non-stop bashing of conservatives; giggling about how icky we all are compared to her really super cool friends on the left. So if she were to grow up & join us, the left would have no use for her. The bashing is the only reason she has their ear in the first place. So if she were ever to grow up & join us, the leftists she thinks are her friends would, I’m sure, have no problem publishing pornographic videos of actresses made to look like her; or calling out some ethnic minority group to gang rape her; or just taking absolute terrible pictures of her – putting food in her mouth or picking her nose, etc.
Cheesestick on April 22, 2009 at 6:46 AM
Dude, she gets viciously dumped on in the comments here. The Meghan McCain threads are an embarrassment to the site. Why on earth would she post here under those circumstances?
Allahpundit on April 22, 2009 at 7:56 AM
I’d back her up a little. She’d probably love me!
JetBoy on April 22, 2009 at 8:27 AM
Hey AP and Repurblican,it’s you who are ‘using’ her to promote cite traffic. Don’t be coming down on us, when you have your own axes to grind and are busy, busy grinding.
jeanie on April 22, 2009 at 8:36 AM
I would too. I mean i don’t like a lot of what she says, but some of the stuff lobbed at her is wrong
blatantblue on April 22, 2009 at 8:40 AM
PS
THANK YOU
For posting Flight of the Conchords
Repurblican, ever see Eagle Vs. Shark? It has Jemaine and its a film from NZ
blatantblue on April 22, 2009 at 8:41 AM
To show us we’re wrong and she can make a cogent argument for her views that doesn’t attack the base. It also might show she has the balls to be the real leader she aspires/pretends to be.
andycanuck on April 22, 2009 at 8:47 AM
Thus far, she seems more interested in promoting herself as a “nice Republican” (which will get her notice from the Leftosphere and MSM) than she is in rebuilding the party.
BD57 on April 22, 2009 at 8:47 AM
Credibility for one. Accessibility for another. Nearness for a third. If she’s willing to engage her intra-Party detractors, I think folks will get that she’s a committed member of the GOP. Her presence would do her and her detractors the favor of an introduction to one another. That would lead to the last part, namely that I think it’d change the tone of the comments going each way if she and the commenters actually had a connection to each other. Obviously a lot of commenters have been dumping on her pretty outrageously, but if she really wants to do what she says in terms of changing the Party, this is small potatoes in the thick-skin department and a good first step for her toward accomplishing what she thinks needs to be done. It’d be good for the commenters, too.
No, I’ve never seen it. I didn’t even know it existed! How long ago did it come out?
Repurblican on April 22, 2009 at 9:13 AM
If Meghan McCain is the face of change in the GOP, I want no part of it. That is all.
fourstringfuror on April 22, 2009 at 10:16 AM
I don’t think anyone’s advocating that, including Meghan McCain.
Repurblican on April 22, 2009 at 10:21 AM
She wouldn’t ever post here. She would get eaten alive, with comments both with and without merit.
Might as well just acquiesce to her “well-meaning” stabs and let her get her book deal and msm love, like her dad, and then let her fade into irrelevancy.
Spirit of 1776 on April 22, 2009 at 11:30 AM
What MMcCain and her crowd don’t seem yet to grasp, is that reform is already taking place in the GOP. The tea party movement is going to end up impacting political positions far more then blogging on the daily beast or twittering or cnn or msnbc appearances. (or the view, but that falls under msnbc category, imo)
Spirit of 1776 on April 22, 2009 at 11:32 AM
She has every right to make herself ridiculous and annoying. I wouldn’t dream of asking her to shut up. But she’s an insufferable embarrassment, and I’m mortified on her behalf everytime she trumpets her adolescent hubristic maunderings as quideposts of the party’s future.
She has a mind as undisciplined as her body, and foolishness is bound up in the blackberry of that child. Grow up, missy.
SarahW on April 22, 2009 at 2:06 PM
Hasn’t stopped you yet AP.
TheUnrepentantGeek on April 22, 2009 at 4:43 PM