McCain's moderate stances make him better choice

Editor,

For the first time since the big bang, all my immediate family are defecting from the Democratic Party to vote for John McCain and Republicans for Congress and Senate. Why?

The Republicans had a wide variety of candidates to choose from, which included the far right to McCain, who was labeled as "too liberal" by the Republicans. The Democrats, on the other hand, seemed to stack the deck with presidential and congressional candidates such as Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, who started on the left, reached to the far left and then went beyond to the Twilight Zone. Take for instance the top three presidential candidates: Barack Obama voted No. 1 Liberal, Hillary Clinton No. 2 and Biden at No. 3. But what's interesting is who is No. 4. He is Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont who is also an admitted socialist and a frequent speaker at Communist Party USA conventions along with many other Democrats in Congress, including Maxine Waters, of the "Out of Iraq Caucus," who meets with peace groups like United for Peace & Justice, which is run by Leslie Cagan and Judith LeBlanc of the Communist Party USA.

Another issue concerning my Catholic family is Obama's stance on abortion. Two in my family have been pro-choice until now. Our Republican sister brought up a serious point during our last Easter picnic. She told us the story of Jill Stanek, a Chicago nurse who found a baby from a botched abortion in a janitor's room left to die alone. She could not help the choking baby survive due to the extreme policy of the hospital, so she held the baby and had to watch it suffer for 45 minutes until the baby died. How many other babies are left in the closet to die alone after being born? Stanek has been revealing that Obama voted "no" to the Born Alive amendment four times. That's beyond pro-choice when a baby is born, isn't it? You can read more about her story at JillStanek.com and the exact Obama votes and excuses.

Many in my family are veterans, and in 2004, they voted for President Bush and the Iraq War. They will now vote for a fellow veteran, McCain, who was tortured by Communists in Vietnam while Jane Fonda, John Kerry and the Communist-led peace movement were literally spitting on them. They couldn't possibly vote for Obama since he is aligned, supported and funded by the same movement that continues to spit on the troops. When they heard the leaders of the peace movement say, "the terrorists are the real freedom fighters," they took that as a stab in the back, as those "freedom fighters" are killing their fellow Americans.

My informed Republican sister asked, "Name me one moderate Democrat?" After an afternoon of Easter egg hunting, us life-long Democrats couldn't think of one. She mentioned Joe Lieberman, Al Gore's vice presidential candidate in 2000. He was kicked out of his own party for supporting the Iraq War. He is a liberal on 99 percent of issues, but that one issue was enough for him to be kicked out? He now supports McCain. Therefore, since McCain is a liberal Republican, which would be close to a moderate Democrat - which seems is a contradiction of terms - we must vote for the nearest thing to the middle road where most of us are. If you are voting for change for change's sake, you will be voting for a ticket to the left of an admitted socialist. How can you be to the left of a socialist?

S. James Chavez

UNM alumnus