I’m probably as liberal as all get out. And yet, there are some conservatives out there that I have respect for.
Barry Goldwater. Anyone who suggests that Falwell get his ass kicked, is okay in my book. He also supported gay rights and the pro-choice movement. He supported legalizing medical marijauna,and he opposed the the policies that eventually led to the Iran-Contra scandal.
(Although his support for McCarthy was seriously fucked up)
Nelson Rockefeller. Liberal Republican. And for the time he responded to protestors flipping him off by doing the same himself.
I’m a liberal, too, and I’ve found things to admire about Arlen Specter and John Warner. I had a great deal of admiration for John McCain several years ago, though since he helped Bush’s campaign and then started pandering to the Evangelical Right my feelings about him are quite a mixed bag.
I’m OK with Arlen Specter,all things considered.He’s largely moderate and never seems to let the GOP push him around,even when it looks like it will be the end of his career.He appeared positively liberal compared to Rick Santorum.
John McCain gets my respect,but not my vote.Always struck me as principled,and unlike Napier,I don't see how any Republican candidate can avoid needing the religious right to win the Presidency.
McCain used to strike me as principled, until this campaign season, when the Bait-talk Express got a flat in religious conservative territory. I liked that he stood up for politically unpopular positions with his base, but he’s used up all his good will with me. And apparently with everyone.
Yeah, I’ve never forgiven Arlen for the Thomas hearings as well. As far as getting pushed around lately, Arlen seems to talk a good game, and then caves every damn time. Weasel.
I’m honestly having a hard time coming up with any politician that I unconditionally admire for his or her principles, left or right.
I kinda wish John Danforth hadn’t gone to the mats for Clarence Thomas. But, all in all, I’ve always felt that he’s a very decent and thoughtful person who really is motivated by a desire to do what’s best for the country. And, if old Democratic war horse Tom Eagleton could say in 2001 that Danforth would have been his first choice for Attorney General (while Ashcroft was his last), well, that’s a pretty good endorsement where I come from.
I don’t admire people for being wrong. The mere fact that they may show some backbone, or may occasionally come down on the right side of an issue, does not negate the fact that, overall, their thinking is wrong.
>unlike Napier,I don’t see how any Republican candidate can avoid needing the religious right to win the Presidency.
To clarify, I don’t see that a Republican can avoid needing the religious right to win. But I imagine that a Republican can agree with them on the issues they care about and also offer a good chance of winning, and so can be the candidate they will vote for, without making appeals to evangelicalism per se and without assembling church audiences for appearances.
By the way, I admire a fair number of politicians in various ways, but not unconditionally. The closest I can get to that would be Jimmy Carter, but even there I still have some reservations.
Actually, I’ll give Walter Jones a nod here. I don’t agree with him on much, but Mister Freedom Fries has actually been pretty straight up on standing up for himself since the Iraq war started.
Since the thread title is “Political opposites you admire”, I have to point out that seemingly you admire/respect him only for those positions on which he is NOT your opposite.
Nixon, not so much for character, but for having really done well for himself through his early life and career. From relatively humble beginnings he was top of his class in college and then at a top rank law school. Then during his tour of duty as a Commander in the USN, he accumulated enough poker winnings from his fellow officers to eventually finance his first political campaign. Yeah, I could see that. He could have bottled his poker face and sold it to other plahyers.
I know an entire state you would love to meet. I swear to Og, Goldwater is the official golden calf of Arizona. Anyway, the McCarthy thing’s a bit much for me to get over, but to each their own.
Wasn’t he the one responsible for the draconian NY drug laws?
Don’t say that around my father. He has stories out the ears about how tough life got in the military was when the Carter Cuts came around. I don’t mean “Oh no, we have no foreign issues to insert ourselves into against the will of our and their people!”, I mean “Shit, I have to fix this machine, my CO won’t take no for an answer, and we don’t have enough parts or the funding to get more”.
I have nothing against Carter myself, not having been a military man during the time, but I just wanted to put that out there.
I think South Carolina’s Senator Lindsey Graham is a really smart and admirable guy. Honestly, a good bit of it has to do with his campaign in 2002: he was asked how much a gallon of milk cost. His response: “I’m a bachelor. I don’t know. But I do know that a number 2 combo with a Dr Pepper at Chik-Fil-A costs $5.39.”
Probably the most opposite-of-my-views politician in recent years with whom I was favorably impressed was Dennis Hastert, late the Republican Speaker of the House. Right towards the end he did some minor things that were kind of scummy all in the name of toeing the line for the Bush Admin, but his career as a whole was pretty clean (as politicians’ careers go); I thought he was 80 parts “let’s get some legislative work done” for every 7 parts “let’s do what we can to keep the Republicans on top and/or frustrate the Democrats”. I thought he was a genuinely nice guy.
I sort of wish the Republican party had favored him more. In general they could use more like him and less like Tom DeLay.
=====
In the “kinda cheating” zone, where someone is nominally a political opposite but their politics are not really so bad at all, the two Maine Senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe come readily to mind. I think I wouid vote for either of them for any office they ever choose to run for. There are very few Democrats I like better. Sadly, there’s a blood-in-the-water vibe in the upcoming election for Collins for no reason at all other than the notion that the Republican party needs to have fewer people in its column, and Maine voters aren’t happy with the Bush administration or the Republican party in general. I may actually send money to her reelection efforts. At the moment I’d like the Democrats to hold sway in Congress, but they already do and will do more so after '08 without picking off Susan Collins, goddammit.
