Taking Schadenfreude Too Far

Noting the continuing right-wing hatred of John McCain (latest such incident- here), a recent post at LJDemocrats asks: "Would it be worth 4 years of President McCain in order to finally rid the other major party of the cancer that (in my opinion) is the single largest source of the current state of bitter partisan rhetoric and bad feelings?"

My answer? No, no, no, a hundreds times no.

First off, having a President McCain will only embolden the far-right as they would work tirelessly during his presidency to drag him as far to the right as possible. Secondly, to whatever extent his win would piss a few conservatives off, it would not be worth the cost... the continuation of Bush/Cheney foreign policy, more Reaganomics, the addition of two (or even three) new Alito-esque Justices to the Supreme Court, etc.

With that said, I can understand the desire to facilitate the destruction of the Limbaugh/Fox News wing of the Republican Party which, as noted, is the biggest cause of the crippling partisanship destroying our politics. I believe, however, the best way to accomplish that is not with a President McCain, but with a President Obama.

In the end, nothing will hurt the far-right more than a popular Democrat who governs successfully. They hate that. Obama has the potential to do for liberalism what Reagan did for conservatism... make it cool again. And that would render the Limbaughs of this country useless and outdated. After eight years of ineffective government and nearly two decades of over-the-top conservative partisanship, people just want a government that works again. For me, that's a much better cure for our political cancers than shoving John McCain in everyone's face.