I'm a 35 year old conservative Republican.  I grew up during the 1980s and was fortunate enough to remember the Reagan years.  President Ronald Reagan was perhaps America's greatest President of the 20th century.  He certainly is in my top five of all-time greatest American Presidents.  I remember when I was a teenager that I first heard about the 11th Commandment as described by Ronald Reagan as "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican." Sadly, there appears to be many conservative Republicans who either have forgotten about this Commandment or choose to ignore it. 

These conservative Republicans are angry, frustrated and frightened at the prospects of John McCain winning the presidency in November.  Some of them have even threatened to vote for the Democratic nominee instead of McCain so as to "teach Republicans a lesson." Meanwhile, they personally attack Senator McCain by accusing him of being liberal and befriending Democrats.  Do they fail to see the irony?  Are they as blinded by their ignorance as they are their hatred of McCain?  They would be so quick to vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama rather than support Republican John McCain yet they call John McCain a "traitor"? 

I haven't always seen eye-to-eye with Senator McCain.  I believe he was wrong for supporting McCain-Feingold, the amnesty bill of 2007, opposing Bush's tax cuts a few years ago, and ruling out "waterboarding" as a last-resort means to interrogate enemy combatants and terrorist suspects.  However, I support John McCain for being one of the few Republicans who supported the surge in Iraq, is now supporting tax cuts, border security, strong national defense, and never waivering from his pro-life view. 

John McCain isn't a perfect candidate nor is he a popular one.  I believe he is the right one.  Because the United States of America needs a commander-in-chief who is going to stand up to fight the threat of terrorism.  The economy is the #1 issue at the moment and it is very important, but if we are attacked by terrorists on our soil with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons the economy will be the last thing on our minds.  I am disheartened and disappointed to listen to some conservatives in the Republican Party threaten to not vote at all or vote Democratic in November rather than vote for and support John McCain.  I've listened to some of them theorize "it would be better to have a liberal Democrat screw the country up for 4 years than a liberal Republican." These people have also speculated that in 2012 a new Ronald Reagan will emerge and catapult a conservative Republican back into the White House.  Who do these people think they are?  The Psychic Friends Network? 

I'm voting for John McCain because out of all of the presidential candidates I believe he is the best qualified.  Above all else, I want leadership and character in The White House.  I want a president who is going to continue to fight the War on Terror, not raise the white flag and surrender to terrorists.  I want a president who is going to take action on our border situation, not pay lip service to it.  I want a president who is going to cut our taxes, not raise them.  I want a president who will select Supreme Court judges who will interpret the law and not be activists.  I want a president who is committed to reforming health care and not by supporting socialized medicine. 

Before President Bush's father gave the order to send our military to Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher warned him, "George, this is no time to be wobbly." I feel the same way about this time in American history.  This is no time to be wobbly and we cannot have Republicans playing Russian roulette in November by picking a Democrat over a Republican.  Voting for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will mean tax increases, weakening of national defense, an increased threat from al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations who will be enabled rather than disabled, socialized medicine, bigger government, far-left activist judges, and a secular-progressive agenda which will seek to eliminate God from all walks of society and reinstate the so-called "Fairness Doctrine."

I know Senator McCain isn't perfect or the ideal Republican candidate, but unlike Mitt Romney he can defeat Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.  Senator McCain's lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union is 82.3% That's better than what I did in school.  It's time for conservative Republicans across the nation to put their country's interests above their own.  Ronald Reagan was a selfless man and if he were alive and well, I believe that Reagan would support John McCain if he was the presidential nominee.  It all goes back to the 11th Commandment.  Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.  I have no way of knowing what Ronald Reagan would think about the way some conservative Republicans are acting towards McCain.  But I can't imagine that he would be happy to listen to some of them mock and ridicule McCain on the radio.  Nor would he be none-too-pleased to hear some conservatives threatening to jump ship or not even exercise their right to vote in November.  To all of the Republicans out there, I say that we are all Republicans and it's about time we started acting like it.