Anybody who would mistake John McCain for Ronald Reagan would probably also confuse William Hung for Hulk Hogan. Lets start with something we all know, Mr. McCain is not a Reagan. No matter how much he tries to tell us that he was a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution, chances are the Gipper would have court-martialed him and sent him off to what ever sort of political Gitmo is reserved for liberal interlopers who masquerade as conservatives. This is not a surprise for anybody who has followed the career of Arizona’s crabbiest senator.

 

He has voted to raise taxes over fifty times, took a chainsaw to the first amendment with the McCain/Feingold bill, wants to deploy a brigade of Wal-Mart greeters at the border instead of the military and is so close to Ted Kennedy that when John F’s baby brother needs to scratch himself in a socially unacceptable way he needs to move McCain aside. What is a surprise is that we found out that Romney leaves much to be desired when it comes to being a principled conservative.

 

Mr. Romney is not a disappointment because of policy opinions or because he has rubbed sulfur in the eyes of the conservative movement like John McCain does whenever he needs some kind words from the New York Times to give his self-esteem a boost. There are questions about his commitment to the Reagan ideals because he simply sat down and shut up when the Republican Party told him to. This act turned him from a potential standard bearer for conservatives, to someone who is just a run of the mill politician with all the backbone of a French pastry chef.

 

There was an interesting synchronicity in certain phrases that came tumbling out of the mouths of both John McCain and Mitt Romney. Romney said that he was ending his bid for the Presidency for the good of the party and the country. On Wednesday, February 6th McCain said that his many critics should "calm down” for the good of the party. The fact that in many statements the good of the party is being put ahead of the good of the country is disturbing to say the least.

 

First of all, having a choice between Hillary and McCain is not for the good of the country. This is one of those "six of one, a half dozen of the other” situations that means no matter what happens the nation is pretty much screwed. Mitt Romney, though having little chance of victory, could have piled up enough delegates by staying in to wield some powerful influence when the party platform is written later this year. Of course for the good of the party, he ceded that process to John McCain as well.

 

So what do the conservatives who have no candidate in the race do when November rolls around? I don’t know many people who say they got their best advice from a singing cricket, but this is one of those times for your conscience to be your guide.

 

Let’s be clear about something, the Republican Party does not tell conservatives what to do. We have no inherent responsibility to fall into line with them when they go over the cliff. Romney justified his "shut up and sit down” moment by saying that the fact that we are at war is what prompted his decision to leave the race. The truth is that there will always be some crisis going on that is big enough to justify a rallying cry from the McCain contingent of the party. There will always be a war, or a recession, or a health care crisis that will be used to sell conservatives on the idea that this is the wrong time to pull our support from the Republicans. Of course when their only purpose in life is to win elections, when would be a good time for them to endure a clash of conservative visions? If they have their way, the answer to that question is never.

 

Republicans are never going to address the hard left turn they are intent on taking and will continue to treat the heart and soul of their support with the same bipolar needy disdain that the Democrats show to the their African American voters unless conservatives punish them at the ballot box.

 

Nobody will hold it against the conservatives who hold their nose and vote for McCain out of a debilitating fear of Hillary Clinton. Considering McCain’s record of bending over backwards for liberals and the fact that he got the coathanger of freedom award along with an endorsement from the anti-life group "Republican’s for Choice, one has to wonder how much difference there really is between them.

 

Those conservatives who can’t pull the lever for McCain are not absolved from taking Election Day off in favor a Ray Harryhausen marathon. Our only chance to hold on for the next two to four years is to aggressively campaign for, and elect conservative congressional representatives who will act as a firewall regardless of who the President is.

 

Hopefully next time we will have one true conservative candidate to rally around instead of several shards of pseudo-Reagans for who party unity trumps the good of the country.