Opinion > February 14, 2008

By Bryan Davis Keith | Old Gold & Black columnist

"We’ve been instructed to tell participants not to boo McCain.” This is what registrants to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) were told upon their arrival.

Here’s my question. Why shouldn’t they?

With the departure of Mitt Romney from the race for the GOP presidential nomination, John McCain has all but cemented the party nod for 2008.

John McCain, the same man who supported amnesty for illegal aliens, the same man who voted against numerous Bush tax cuts, the same man who has left the borders of Arizona wide open for 20 plus years, the same man responsible for the disastrous McCain/Feingold legislation and its erosion of free political speech, is now the leader of the Republican Party, the supposed face of the American right.

Why shouldn’t conservatives at CPAC boo that?

The fact that McCain, whose own mother stated, “conservatives would have to hold their nose to follow,” is now the most viable alternative to Obama or Hillary should have conservatives across the country up in arms.

Conservatives should be booing, and probably should be doing even more than that.There are loads of Republicans out there that are quick to call off the dogs.

They are quick to say, “he’s not as bad as Hillary.”

They are quick to point out that he promises tax cuts, that he promises to secure the borders. More than anything though, they are quick to preach that conservatives are obligated to rally behind McCain, to unify the GOP and defeat the dreaded DNC.

Why should we conservatives do that? Conservatives are not one-issue voters who actively tip-toe a party line. Conservatives are loyal to the principles of conservatism, not to the Republican Party.

Why should we compromise our principles for the sake of unifying the GOP and defeating Hillary when the man we’d be pushing to elect is just as unrepresentative of our principles as she is?

Why is electing one non-conservative better than electing another non-conservative?

For those of us out there that are true conservatives, the answer to that question is that one is not better than the other.

Both hold positions on crucial issues such as immigration, economics, free speech, and even national security that conservative persons cannot stand for, period. The true conservatives may not be the biggest constituency, or the richest, or even the most vocal.

But there’s a reason that the Republican Party is trying to veer perception of McCain to the right.

That is because the conservative base is still essential to the GOP and its candidates. We do matter.

To my fellow conservatives out there, remember that you do matter. Your support matters. Don’t waste it on John McCain.

There are alternatives out there in this presidential race. You can support Ron Paul, who is still campaigning and whose conservative credentials are as strong as anyone’s.

You can contact other conservative leaders still out there, and attempt to draft them into candidacy. More than anything, on Election Day 2008, you can write in another candidate.

Perhaps the best suggestion I’ve heard from any conservative about how to handle this current debacle was from a fellow reader on

Politico.com, who commented that “all conservatives should write in Ronald Reagan.”

It is true that a concentrated effort on behalf of conservatives to avoid voting for McCain will likely result in a Democratic presidency.

But maybe that’s what it will take for the GOP to wake up and realize that its loss of conservative principle is responsible for its electoral and political downfall.

Apparently getting their bell rung in 2006 wasn’t enough.

I do not want to see Hillary or Obama in the White House. No conservative does.

But I for one am not going to sell out my principles for the good of a party to avoid that.

I am going to boo John McCain and his GOP supporters for all I’m worth, and I encourage my fellow conservatives at CPAC and beyond to join me.

Boo because the GOP has betrayed the principles of conservatism. Boo because John McCain is not fit to be president of this nation. Boo as conservatives, because you are mad as hell and are not going to take this anymore.

Bryan Davis Keith is a senior political science major from Southern Shores, N.C.