Meghan McCain Calls for a Progressive Republican Movement

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:44 pm

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Last night Sen. John McCain’s daughter Meghan addressed the Log Cabin Republicans. In her speech, which barely made mention of gay issues, she spoke about how old school Republicans are scared shitless about the future. She called for Republicans to stop embracing divisive issues and become more progressive.

She described what she has seen since she ventured into politics after the 2008 elections, “I did not expect my frustration with what I perceive to be overly partisan and divisive Republicans to cause a national incident. And no, I’m not that engaged with myself to think it was even that much of an incident. People in our country have much more important issues to deal with on a daily basis. But the experience did reinforce what I learned on the campaign trail in some major ways. I’ll summarize them in three points: Most of our nation wants our nation to succeed, most people are ready to move on to the future, not live in the past, and most of the old school Republicans are scared shitless of that future.”

McCain described the GOP as unwilling to move towards the future, ” I believe most of our nation wants our nation to succeed. I feel too many Republicans want to cling to past successes. There are those who think we can win the White House and Congress back by being “more” conservative. Worse, there are those who think we can win by changing nothing at all about what our party has become. They just want to wait for the other side to be perceived as worse than us. I think we’re seeing a war brewing in the Republican Party. But it is not between us and Democrats. It is not between us and liberals. It is between the future and the past. I believe most people are ready to move on to that future. ”

She stressed that Twitter is not the answer, “Simply embracing technology isn’t going to fix our problem either. Republicans using Twitter and Facebook isn’t going to miraculously make people think we’re cool again. Breaking free from obsolete positions and providing real solutions that don’t divide our nation further WILL. That’s why some in our party are scared. They sense the world around them is changing and they are unable to take the risk to jump free of what’s keeping our party down. ”

McCain laid out her definition of a progressive Republican, “What I am talking about tonight is what it means to be a new, progressive Republican. Now some will say I can’t do that. If you aren’t this and that, then you’re clearly a “Republican in Name Only,” also affectionately known as a RINO, suggesting the notion that one can be faithful to the original core values of the GOP while open to the realities of our changing world has really hit a chord with people. And it seems to be the next, natural stage of the journey I’ve been traveling. ”

She described a shift in the GOP, “It would be easy to say my generation views politics very differently from others. Maybe we’re more progressive, socially liberal or just hate arguing in lieu of actually solving the problems at hand. But what I’ve learned though my experience is that these feelings are not contained to one age group. They’re the growing beliefs and desires of people of all ages, races, genders, faiths, persuasions and political parties. ”

It is obvious that the Republican leadership is scared out of their minds. This is why they have been getting more paranoid since the election of Barack Obama. McCain is also correct in pointing out that moving more to the right is not going to work for the GOP. If her attitude is a reflection of her generation, you can see why Obama appeals to young people. He talks about politics as problem solving.

It is not surprising that one of the few Republicans who understand their current predicament best is a 24 year old who has watched her father’s career from the sidelines. Of course, the GOP will reject Meghan McCain’s ideas, and they will continue to lose elections, because they aren’t ready to move forward yet.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association