Is McCain playing the base?

One of the objections I’ve run across to the McCain candidacy is that McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin is a cynical ploy to dupe the religious right.

Now, I’m using the McCain candidacy as the immediate point of reference, but I’m using that to illustrate a larger issue.

This objection tends to take several forms. One version goes something like this:

“I used to vote Republican, but I’ve been very disappointed by 8 years of George Bush. I was also let down by Congressional Republicans when they were in power.”

Another variant takes it back a step:

“I used to support Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority, but I became disillusioned with the Reagan Revolution. Reagan failed to deliver on the Reagan Revolution.”

Here’s a different version:

“The religious right is so gullible! How many times do they have to be fooled before they wise up? Politicians are just using them!”

Now, I don’t deny that candidates make political calculations. The problem I have with this objection is the tacit assumption that making political calculations is a one-way street.

But voters can make political calculations too. Is McCain using us? No doubt. Can we use him in return? That’s the question.

I don’t vote for a candidate in the expectation that he could never betray the voter. I’m always aware of that possibility. That figures into my own calculations.

I don’t have to trust a candidate, in some unqualified sense, to vote for him. I don’t become disillusioned with the political process if a candidate breaks a campaign promise since I never labored under the illusion that candidates are always sincere. It’s a strawman argument to assume that credulous idealism is a presupposition for choosing one candidate over another.

Politicians can be cynical, but voters can be cynical, too. And there are different kinds of cynicism. There’s the cynicism of a politician who has no core values. Who will say and do anything to get elected.

And there’s the cynicism of a “values voter” who makes his best guess about the best candidate to vote for. A vote based on probabilities. A game of poker. You calculate the odds, and you try to read your opponent. A psychological game.

Voting involves the same process. It’s far from infallible, but it was never predicated on the assumption that your chosen candidate is a sure thing. A safe bet.