Meghan McCain is Kinda Cool

Okay, so I got sucked into the internet vortex of Jezebel and their fortunately often feminist commentary on the gross celebrity stuff that's a constant subtext to life in American. And I somehow ended up at Meghan McCain's column at Daily Beast.

She's a Republican and very clearly supports fiscal policies that favor individualism and capitalism. She's also pro-life (I would say anti-choice). Those aren't things I agree with. I've decided I'm more or less a socialist, which I'll write about soon, and I'm passionately pro-choice. In case you never guessed. But that's fine. What struck me, despite some important opinion differences, was how much easier it would be to feel safe with Republicans and not kinda hate them if more of them were like her.

She talks honestly about some of the things I think are important. She notices issues with body image for women and writes about her own struggles with double standards in a way that's accessible and makes sense. She admires Hillary Clinton. She wants the Republican party to be more inclusive, and she's clearly at least socially moderate (if not liberal, although the pro-life thing is a wrench in that). She supports gay marriage. She thinks young people are important.

It's a departure from the rampantly privileged older white male syndrome. Yes, her economic policies still favor privilege. But at least she's got some awareness that life is unfair sometimes and actually cares. And she's respectful of people who disagree with her.

I don't know if she'll have any success with her message that Republicans need to join the 21st century. If anything, it seems like they're only getting more conservative and poisonous since they lost the White House. I'd love it, though, if she did. It's so much more fun to have an opponent when it's a respectful, ethical one than when it's a mean, exclusive, scary one. Maybe then we'd actually be able to have a few reasonable compromises and actually get some shit done in politics.