On not voting for pro-abortion candidates

Some unhelpful comments were received vis-a-vis my posting of Douglas Johnson's 2000 article about John McCain's threat to the pro-life cause. (I should say first that I have no objection to people disagreeing with me. First, I'm subject to error, and often wrong, and appreciate that being pointed out to me. However, a comment that does nothing to advance the conversation is not useful).

I wanted to discuss this a bit further. I admire James Dobson's stand this year on the presidential race. He's not going to vote. At least for a candidate of the 2 largest parties. He's gone public with this, and I think he's right, given his perspective. But a lot of conservatives -- and pro-lifers -- will not follow him. And I think it's because we're so easily bought.

One writer suggested that while there might be only a 25% chance that McCain would appoint strict-constructionist judges, that was better than the odds in an Obama administration. Perhaps. But is this where the Republicans have conservatives? People who vote for a candidate on the slimmest of possibilities that he would appoint judges we agree with?

As long as the mainstream Republican party knows that we will vote for anyone up to Adolf Hitler as long as that candidate is Republican, they will continue to offer up candidates such as Bush, McCain, Dole, and many others. I think this is a year in which conservatives should just admit that we've lost -- as far as the White House goes -- this year, and make a public stand that we will not vote for a pro-abortion candidate like McCain.

McCain will come forth between now and the election and make vaguely pro-life noises. He will offer up vague suggestions that he might appoint strict-constructionist judges. But there will be nothing firm, nothing that we could late hold him accountable for. And in the tiny chance that McCain will be elected this Fall -- Rush Limbaugh has said that he wouldn't be surprised if Obama carried all 50 states -- conservatives will be shocked by how openly pro-abortion a McCain administration would be. This nasty septuagenarian has loathed the conservative, pro-life cause for years. Give him the White House, and he will have no reason to hide his true colors.