Why Social Conservatives Won’t Vote McCain
We couldn’t help but notice something in this John McCain mail piece, which our friend Jonathan Martin at The Politico posted today. Martin says McCain’s campaign is dropping over 100,000 copies to Iowa voters this week. But one of McCain’s punch lines struck us as disingenuous, at best.
In his mail piece, McCain claims that he is “Ready on Day One” to “ensure marriage is defined as a union between one man and one woman.” Which is a rather interesting claim coming from McCain, who previously voted NOT to “ensure marriage is defined as a union between one man and one woman.”
In 2004, McCain voted against bringing S.J. Res 40, the Federal Marriage Amendment, to the floor for vote in the Senate. McCain thumbed his nose at social conservatives again in 2006 by voting against bringing S.J. Res 1, the Federal Marriage Amendment, to the floor for a vote.
Essentially McCain’s argument is the federal marriage amendment smacks in the face of federalism, and that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is a sufficient law to protect traditional marriage. McCain says he’ll appoint the “right” judges who won’t be inclined to overturn DOMA. Of course, conservatives have been down this road before: former President George H.W. Bush nominated David Souter to the Supreme Court. And ask any social conservative, they’ll tell you this appointment is, perhaps, the biggest mistake of Bush 41’s administration.
So why drop this piece now? McCain is tanking in Iowa, falling to 5th place according to the composite poll over at RealClearPolitics.com. McCain is trying to appeal to social conservatives with catchy language about marriage and hoping most of them don’t know how to search for votes on the Library of Congress website. It’s also a play on current events in Iowa; a state judge ruled Iowa’s DOMA law unconstitutional this year, which makes you wonder if the federal DOMA will be challenged in the near future.
But the truth is McCain doesn’t support the Federal Marriage Amendment, and a variant of the federal DOMA act he believes is constitutionally sound has been successfully challenged in court. All McCain really asks is that social conservatives trust him to pick the right judges, and than hope those judges don’t stray from the conservative path.
McCain’s hoping social conservatives we’ll hear him out and put their trust in him. For many social conservatives, and pardon the pun, that’s an awfully big leap of faith.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
The Federal DOMA is flawed because Congress does not have constitutional authority to determine what marriage should be defined as. Just like a driver’s license, each state has the power to determine for themselves what requirements are necessary to be granted a marriage license.