Living with McCain

JOHN MCCAIN has never voted to raise income taxes, and he told me last year that he could see no circumstances under which he would ever assent to a tax increase. Instead he wants to cut taxes. He calls himself the strongest free trader in the Senate since Phil Gramm, his campaign co-chairman, left that body. He has a longer track record of consistent opposition to abortion than any of his primary opponents. He promises to veto bills with pork-barrel spending, he voted against expanding Medicare, and he wants personal accounts for Social Security. He has consistently voted to keep those guns that critics call “assault weapons” legal. He has voted to confirm all the conservative justices on the Supreme Court and promises to nominate like-minded colleagues for them.

Should conservatives consider McCain to be one of their number, or be upset about his nomination? The answers to these two questions, heavily debated in recent weeks, depend on how high conservatives set the bar for politicians. If our criterion is that they must reason from conservative first principles to policy conclusions, then McCain is not a conservative. If our criterion is that they must agree with most self-described conservatives on nearly every important issue, then McCain is, again, not a conservative. Using those definitions, Reagan is the only conservative president we have had in modern times. That judgment is defensible. But it should put into perspective the notion that, in McCain, a calamity has just befallen conservatives.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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JOHN MCCAIN has never voted to raise income taxes, and he told me last year that he could see no circumstances under which he would ever assent to a tax increase. Instead he wants to cut taxes. He calls himself the strongest free trader in the Senate since Phil Gramm, his campaign co-chairman, left that body. He has a longer track record of consistent opposition to abortion than any of his primary opponents. He promises to veto bills with pork-barrel spending, he voted against expanding Medicare, and he wants personal accounts for Social Security. He has consistently voted to keep those guns that critics call “assault weapons” legal. He has voted to confirm all the conservative justices on the Supreme Court and promises to nominate like-minded colleagues for them.

Should conservatives consider McCain to be one of their number, or be upset about his nomination? The answers to these two questions, heavily debated in recent weeks, depend on how high conservatives set the bar for politicians. If our criterion is that they must reason from conservative first principles to policy conclusions, then McCain is not a conservative. If our criterion is that they must agree with most self-described conservatives on nearly every important issue, then McCain is, again, not a conservative. Using those definitions, Reagan is the only conservative president we have had in modern times. That judgment is defensible. But it should put into perspective the notion that, in McCain, a calamity has just befallen conservatives.