Get Drunk and Vote for Moderate McCain; or, Politics According to Ann Coulter

The always-delightful Ann Coulter's recent column is a valuable read because it strikes at the heart of one of the major narratives competing for primacy this election season: John McCain is a Moderate.

Harrogate is with those who understand that McCain, like Bush, is perfectly representative of Republican orthodoxy. If in terms of ethos he is somewhat less of a social knuckledragger than the typical GOP politician, the difference is negligible at best when you start getting into policies. As for foreign policy, he's as extreme as it gets, belonging to the class of men who would choose no world at all over a world not run according to the ideological fancies to which he clings. Economically, there may not be any prominent Republicans left outside Huckabee and a few precious others, who in certain moods are not totally invested in facilitating corporate hegemony.

But alas, Harrogate's is not the only opinion that counts. Coulter's warrant matters because a lot of Democratic and Republican voters buy it. Harrogate thus wonders emphatically what you, Gentle Reader, think of her article, entitled McCain: Pump This!, which attacks the GOP nominee relentlessly, though also stating a promise to vote for him.

To that latter end she invites her devotees to get drunk on election day, as it will make pulling the lever for McCain more tolerable by far. Yea, the same day her article appeared, a website also appeared with the name Get Drunk And Vote 4 McCain. Wittily, the site uses martini glasses to indicate ratings for a given subject. Presumably, a particularly horrendous example of McCain's Moderation would render a "Five Martini Rating."


Finally, in honor both of Ann Coulter and John McCain, Harrogate posts the following Jimmy Buffet classic.