Can Meghan McCain become a Democrat? From Clinton, Trump to Biden, her swinging political views over the years
Meghan McCain has never held back her political views despite being relentlessly trolled by the left-wing supporters on the Internet and attacked by far-right conservatives in the public for being a Republican who is "liberal on social issues."
Even her political affiliations have been questioned over the years. She originally registered as an independent voter when she was 18 years old and voted for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. On June 12, 2008, McCain wrote on her blog titled 'McCain Blogette' that she had changed her party registration to Republican. She said she did so "as a symbol of my commitment to my Dad and to represent the faith I have in his ability to be an effective leader for our country and to grow and strengthen the Republican party when he is elected president of the United States."
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McCain against Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham
Although her father failed to bag the 2008 election, McCain remained loyal to the Republican party. This was despite her knowing that most old-school conservatives did not agree with everything that came out of her mouth.
Speaking at the 2009 Log Cabin Republican Convention, McCain said there was "a war brewing in the Republican Party" between the past and the future, and that "most of the old school Republicans are scared s**tless of that future."
She openly started a feud with the likes of famous conservative voices like Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham when she started writing for the Daily Beast in 2009. At the time Ingraham clapped back by calling 'The View' host a "plus-size model." McCain responded to Ingraham saying, "Instead of intellectually debating our ideological differences about the future of the Republican Party, Ingraham resorted to making fun of my age and weight, in the fashion of the mean girls in high school."
In her memoir, 'Dirty Sexy Politics,' published in September 2010, McCain states that the Republican Party seemed "to have lost its way in the last ten years," and that the conservative movement seemed "hell-bent on restricting our freedoms rather than expanding them."
She further stated that within the Republican Party, she felt pressured to adopt the ideas of others, like Mitt Romney, especially regarding same-sex marriage, which she added was a danger for the existence of the party.
'Woman who despises labels'
McCain has always described herself as "a woman who despises labels and boxes and stereotypes". She has stated that she is pro-life as well as in favor of sex education and birth control. She has time and again also pointed out the hypocrisy of the Republican Party regarding abortion: "They go on and on about how evil and wrong abortion is, but don't like to talk about how easy it is to not get pregnant."
McCain has campaigned for gay rights, and said that the LGBTQ community's fight for equality is "one of the ones closest to my heart." Speaking at the Log Cabin Republicans convention in April 2009, she described her cultural and political perspectives like this: "I am concerned about the environment. I love to wear black. I think government is best when it stays out of people's lives and business as much as possible. I love punk rock. I believe in a strong national defense. I have a tattoo. I believe government should always be efficient and accountable. I have lots of gay friends. And, yes, I am a Republican.
Can McCain 'become a Democrat'?
It is unlikely that she will switch her allegiance completely and become a Democrat in the near future. But, it is something that the mainstream media has always fantasized about. In February this year, McCain told her colleagues on 'The View' that she did not agree with double standard of “broad-stroke platitudes” that allows all Republicans to be painted as QAnon supporters.
“As much as the left wants to act like Republicans are only QAnon supporters, part of the problem is when I hear that, I automatically get very tribal,” McCain said. “I think the idea that the Republican Party is just one swath... it’s just not nuanced.” Ms. McCain added that Democrats should be known as “the party of socialism and late-term abortion and cancel culture” if media outlets applied the same rules to both parties. “The problem I have is the only way to become a good Republican is to become a Democrat, according to the media,” she continued. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”
However, back in 2019, she said on the same show that she was consciously distancing herself from the term "Republican" because it was excessively being tied to former President Donald Trump.
"I said I consider myself a conservative first and foremost before being a Republican – which, by the way, people like Ted Cruz say all the time – then I also said I'm still in the party and I still vote Republican and I will going forward, but Trump gets nothing from me," she said. "That somehow got interpreted as I have led this mass exodus out of the Republican party. It's not true at all: I am still a Republican. But not voting for Trump doesn't necessarily mean you're not a conservative."
McCain, the forever anti-Trumper
In the 2016 presidential election, she did not vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Instead, she tweeted about having voted for Evan McMullin, a former House GOP staffer who mounted an independent campaign in opposition to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
On September 1, 2018, she delivered a eulogy at her father's funeral at Washington National Cathedral, where she took the opportunity to deliver a sharp rebuke of Trump, remarking: "The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great," alluding to his then-campaign slogan.
When the 2020 election rolled around, she said during 'Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen' that "it shouldn't take a rocket scientist" to know who she is voting for. There's one man who has made my life a living hell and another man who has literally shepherded me through the grief process," McCain said.
Then-presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden was a close friend of McCain's late father and publicly consoled the senator's daughter on her show 'The View' back in 2017 when John was battling cancer.
In contrast, Trump has always had a contentious relationship with the McCains, especially after he refused to call John a "war hero" during a 2015 interview. "He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured," Trump said at the time.
McCain, who was pregnant with her daughter Liberty Sage last year, said she loves Biden "dearly," but, "I'm always like, my heart over my head in so many different ways." "The Trumps, they're always making my mom cry," McCain said. "I just think politics is personal too and character is really important. And [I want] someone who's going to tamp down... fear and anger, instead of making it worse."