When the primary elections began, John McCain was at the bottom of the list of those favored to become president. Then, almost overnight, one of the most disliked members of the Republican establishment jumped to the top of the list based on the votes of a handful of people in liberal and moderate states. Any and all conservative candidates were driven out of the race before the vast majority of Republicans even had a chance to vote for them.

Doesn’t this seem just a little suspicious to you? To me, it doesn’t pass the smell test and it would be most interesting to know what has gone on behind the scenes and out of view of the American people that brought this about. Hopefully, in time we will get some answers and those responsible will be held accountable. One of those responsible for it is John McCain himself with his McCain/Feingold 2002 Campaign Reform Act.

To prevent this from happening again, all primaries, or at least the vast majority of them must be held on the same day, as the candidates campaign to the nation instead of individual states. No more open primaries. Only Registered Republicans should have a say in who is selected to represent their party. Primary voters should be pre-registered before a given deadline, not simply sign up on election day.

You just don’t let the stockholders of Ford vote for the CEO of General Motors, or the stockholder of Sylvania vote for the CEO of G.E. This current policy is simply ludicrous, and now we see the results.

We have been told that McCain will be the likely nominee because of his support for the war on terror. This explanation simply doesn’t hold water. Romney, Thompson, or Hunter would have been equally capable of prosecuting the war on terror, maybe even better than McCain because they don’t have a problem with interrogating terrorists. Now McCain is trying to take credit for “the surge” a credit that rightfully belongs to Gen. David Petraeus who planned and executed it. I’m not buying it, there is something else going on here.

One explanation for this disaster is that the Republican party has been actively expanding it’s membership by appealing to the left. This used to be a party of conservatives but now conservatives have been relegated to fringe right of the party. You hear it all the time on Fox News and other media outlets that those who oppose John McCain are simply the “right wing” traditionalists of the party. When did the Republican party become a chicken with wings? And who now is at the heart of the party? Apparently, it’s not us chicken wings anymore.

Now begins the makeover of John McCain to try to sell him as a conservative. It started with McCain’s speech at CPAC last week where he professed the virtues of conservatism and mentioned the few areas where he has been conservative. But the bulk of his record over the past 10 years was left out of that speech. On every issue that conservatives have been at odds with the Democrats and President Bush on since his reelection, such as amnesty for illegals and “man made” global warming, McCain is in agreement with them.

In California, a recall election of Gov. Grey Davis was held in 2003. The contenders for the office were Cruz Bustamonte (D), who was the lieutenant governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), and Tom McClintock (R). McClintock made a name for himself by getting the Grey Davis vehicle tax 300% increase repealed earlier that year and starting the proceedings for the recall of Davis. He was our champion, and the real Republican we wanted to become governor.

Then Arnold jumped into the fray and stole the limelight from McClintock with his celebrity fame. We knew at that time that Arnold was pretty much a RINO and married to a Kennedy Democrat, but he had split the Republican vote. To assure defeat of Bustamonte, we were forced to hold our noses and vote for Schwarzenegger. Now the Republican party is asking us to do it again with McCain on the national level? That’s the last straw, in my book.

Let’s face it. The way it looks now, the next 4 years are going to be a disaster for the country no matter who is in the White House. Terrorism and the economy are both about ready to blow up in our faces, and unfortunately, the only real leaders who could have dealt with it have been drummed out of the race. We have to begin looking ahead and beyond the next four years to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If we continue to accept the status quo of the Republican party, it will only keep moving us further to the left while the Democrat party does the same. Before you know it, we will be living in a socialist country. We have to draw the line at some point or accept the inevitable consequences of not doing so.

Nikita Khrushchev and the communist party said they will “take us over from the inside.” If you don’t believe this is happening now, then I challenge you to read this. The movement to the left that we are seeing today is all a part of that plan, and they are doing it right under our noses. The evidence could not be clearer with the remaining presidential candidates we see on the stage today. Communism is only a heartbeat away from the socialist policies that are now being forced down our throats by the U.S. government and those proposed by the candidates. Are we going to be a part of the problem, or a part of the solution?

McCain may have started his political career as a conservative but he is certainly no conservative now. There is no need to go into all the times he has stabbed conservatives in the back in the Senate with McCain-Feingold election reforms, McCain-Kennedy amnesty for illegals, and now McCain-Lieberman global warming legislation that puts forth the proposition that we can control the weather by regulating and taxing free enterprise, while opposing American energy independence by placing our hopes on future alternative fuels rather than meet our current needs by expanding domestic oil production and nuclear electrical power.

These positions are certainly not conservative thinking and the Republican leadership knows this full well. Their job now is to try to convince conservatives that McCain is a conservative because they know that he cannot win the general election without the conservative vote.

Between now and November, there is going to be a massive propaganda campaign aimed at conservatives to try to convince them of a lie. I, for one, am sick and tired of being lied to by the Republican party and being told I have to vote for a liberal because it‘s better than the socialist alternative. In the short term, it may be. But in the long term, it’s only taking the country closer to communism if we continue to go along with it.  If we don't stop it now, it is only going to be harder to fight against four years from now. After that, the socialists will be running the country and we won't have the freedom to do anything about it.

I know this is going to be very controversial, but we may have to let the Democrats show the country just how destructive they can be by giving them the White House for four years. They are likely going to win the election anyway. After 4 years, the country will be ready to throw them out and welcome a conservative leader into the White House. Sometimes you have to hit the bottom before you start the climb back up.

This election is no longer about electing a president to preserve conservative values in America, it is about electing a president to preserve Republican party power in America, a party that no longer represents conservative values. Their only interest is their own power, not our values. They have tried to gain and preserve that power by inviting moderates and liberals into the party to expand their voter base and in doing so, have turned their back on the conservative core values that created the party in the first place. Why should we care about preserving the power of party politicians who do not represent our values?

Either you care about, and believe in, your value system, or your don’t. If your only interest is in Republican party power, regardless of what it stands for, then go ahead and cast your vote for John McCain, thus validating the party’s move to the left and slide toward socialism in America. At some point, we are going to have to take a stand and hold our ground. I believe that time is now. It’s the “Boston tea party” all over again and it’s about time to throw the tea overboard.

We hear “But we have to vote for McCain to stop Hillary from becoming president.” I know this is a difficult position to be in, but who put us here? It was the Republican party leadership that controlled the process that lead us to this point and left us with a choice between a Marxist and a liberal. It looks now as though there is one other candidate who can beat Hillary, and that is Barack Obama. If he does, how do Republicans defeat an empty suit with no political record other than socialist rhetoric? Disaster for America is waiting no matter who wins this election, so prepare yourself for it.

I’m not sure which one would be worse in the White House, Clinton or Obama, but one of them is likely to be living there for the next four years. With McCain as the only other alternative, we might as well just get used to the idea because there are just too many conservatives who will not vote for McCain under any circumstances and no matter how many lies we are told about McCain in the coming months. He is who he is and we all know that. Most of us will not be persuaded to change our minds. We know there is little difference between McCain and the Democrats.

Mitt Romney could have united the party, but in some back room deal, he was thrown under the bus. The writing is on the wall. The Republican leadership does not want a conservative in the White House in 2009 for whatever reason. Perhaps it was because Romney is a Washington “outsider” and his campaign was based on the premise that “Washington is broken and I am going to fix it.” This likely didn’t set well with the inside-the-beltway establishment as Mitt wanted to fix the problems that they had created, and in doing so, would likely have them all out looking for work.

The only hope of having a manageable next four years is to elect conservatives to the House and Senate. In November there will be 435 House seats and 37 Senate seats up for grabs. When the congressional campaigns start, find your conservative candidates and do all you can to support them and get them elected. Talk to people about them. Talk to Democrats about them. Tell them your guy is just like John McCain. These people will believe anything. Tell them he even believes in Global Warming and raising taxes. That will surely get them on your side. But if he’s really a conservative, be prepared to go up against the Republican establishment which will probably try to defeat him.

Remember that no matter who is in the White House, Congress controls the legislation that is made into law and has the power of confirmation over judicial appointments. Neither Clinton, Obama, nor McCain will be able to appoint liberal judges unless Congress approves of them. McCain wants us to believe that he will appoint constructionist judges and hopes that we will forget about his “gang of 14” with the Democrats, designed to block Bush’s appointments. Bush got lucky with Roberts and Alito. McCain’s idea of an ideal judge, by his own admission, is Sandra Day O’Connor.

In all good conscience, I cannot condone the rewarding of John McCain with the presidency after all he's done over the past 10 years to oppose conservatism while stabbing Republicans in the back. Those who have put him in the position he is in now, along with the rest of us, will pay the consequences of their actions for the next four years and beyond.

What about Mike Huckabee? Huckabee’s only real support is in the Evangelical community, and I hold him personally responsible for conspiring with John McCain to destroy the Romney candidacy. Mike will likely be dropping out of the race shortly as he has now served his purpose to McCain and the Republican establishment.

So what are we to do? Vote for McCain as a vote against the Democrat? Vote for someone else, even if it’s a Democrat? Don’t vote at all? Or maybe vote, but just don’t vote for president? Some say the war on terror is the only issue they really care about and McCain is the only remaining candidate who will allow us to win the war. Of course that all depends on the next Congress and whether it is willing to continue funding for the war.

This is what makes this decision so hard because it is very close to the truth. But I’m not convinced that even the Democrats are willing to take the blame for losing the war and it‘s consequences. Obama is the only one who really wants to pull troops out of Iraq. Granting terrorists safe haven in Iraq is unthinkable, but then so are the long term consequences of validating this election process with a vote for McCain. We can win the war, but lose the country, or we can lose both the war and the country. Either way, we, the people lose and the Washington politicians win.

This is the decision each of us will have to make for ourselves. At this point, I don’t even know what I will do in November. To me, none of the remaining candidates for president are acceptable. Maybe someone else will jump into the race on a third party ticket to save the day. I’m not sure that the idea that our guy is better than their guy on one issue is going to inspire a lot of people to go to the polls and vote. We saw a strong indication of that when Democrats outnumbered Republicans 2 to 1 at the polls on super Tuesday, and MItt Romney was still in the race at that point and got half the votes.  Do McCain supporters really think they can win in November without the rest of the party?   

Is McCain’s nomination at the RNC Convention inevitable? The good people at OpenGOPConvention.com don’t seem to think so. They hope to influence enough delegates into supporting an alternate candidate selected by visitor voting at their website, so as to derail the McCain nomination at the convention. This is just one attempt by the people of the Republican party to take back their party from the Washington establishment party bosses who have corrupted and rigged this election to get one of their own elite Washington insiders firmly planted in the White House. We are used to seeing these tactics used in Russia and the Middle East, not in the United States.

As for the future of the disenfranchised conservatives that the Republican party has pushed off to the “right wing” and relegated to a minority faction of the party, there may be hope on the horizon. There is a grass roots effort going on now to establish the American Conservative Party, which could become a home for disenfranchised conservative Republicans.

It’s going to take time for this effort to get off the ground and become a viable party. I suggest you look at the discussions as this effort is being formed to consider if this is something you may be interested in. Right now it is in the discussion stages, just as our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were at one point in history.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” - Thomas Jefferson, from the Declaration of Independence.

God Bless America and help to guide her through these troubled times.

JR Dieckmann is Editor, Publisher, Writer, and Webmaster of GreatAmericanJournal.com.  He also works as an electrician in Los Angeles, Ca. He has been writing and publishing articles on the web since 2000. His articles appear on other publications such as: The Conservative Voice; Real Clear Politics; New Media Journal; Mich News; Daley Times-Post; Renew America, and other conservative websites.