John McCain? Please, Please Get Rid of Him

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Thursday “strongly” endorsed John McCain — calling him “a national treasure” — as he squares off in a blistering effort to represent Arizona for the sixth time in the Senate.

This is what’s wrong with the Republican Party.

John McCain, whatever his heroism in Vietnam, is the man who recently undermined freedom of speech in America. He gave us the McCain-Feingold “campaign reform” act which (appallingly) President George W. Bush signed into law.

Campaign finance regulation such as this creates a favorable situation for Democrats and an unfavorable one for dissenters of any kind. For example, it requires disclosure of donors to campaigns or issues Democrats do not like, and enables Democrats (particularly with their lock on the White House and executive branch) the opportunity to harass and intimidate people who disagree with them. For details, read Wall Street Journal editorial board member Kim Strassel’s eye-opening book, The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech.

As with the Khizr Khan fiasco, Republicans and others think that just because you served heroically in the military, anything you do is automatically and always right. While we might like to believe this is true, and while it’s sometimes true, it’s not always true. In Khizr Khan’s case, his son fought and gave up his life for the sake of a Constitution his father now undermines by supporting Hillary Clinton for president, a woman who will never stand up and take on Islam and ISIS like we must in order to defeat it.

In John McCain’s case, it’s even worse. This man has used his considerable power and pull in the U.S. Senate, always riding on his past heroism in the military, to justify things that other under conditions most Republicans would never tolerate, since these “campaign reform” laws almost always stifle Republican free speech while expanding Democratic speech.

Granted, the Citizens United Supreme Court case undermined major portions of the McCain-Feingold law. But as Strassel’s book illustrates, the federal government under Obama used this court case as an excuse to act like wronged victims and abuse power at the IRS and Federal Election Comission in unprecedented ways. It will be the same or worse under Hillary Clinton’s administration.

Republicans like John McCain are, if anything, worse than the perpetrators of free speech violations. They are the enablers. They make it easier for the Obamas and Hillarys of the world, and their many agents, to run right over those of us who are engaged in dissenting opinion, Republican or otherwise.

You can’t use John McCain’s past military service as an excuse to justify undermining the very Constitution McCain nearly died protecting. Wake up Republicans, and wake up America. Our freedom is almost gone.