Rhode Island Independent Governor Lincoln Chafee is a former moderate Republican Senator, whose father, John Chafee, was Governor as a Republican from 1963-1969; Secretary of the Navy under President Richard Nixon from 1969-1972; and Senator from 1976 to 1999 when he passed away.
Both Chafees were mainstream Republicans, and the younger Chafee became an independent after losing his Senate seat in 2006.
Chafee is dismayed that even Northeastern and New England Republicans have moved to the right, and he mentions Mitt Romney, who has been trying to change his image from what it was before 2006; former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani; former New York Governor George Pataki; and even, outside the Atlantic coast, Senator John McCain of Arizona–all of whom he says have lost their principles due to ambitions and desires for higher office.
National ambitions have caused these men to become chameleons, who cannot be believed, as they change their beliefs and principles, and therefore are “completely different” from what they once were.
Realize how troubling this statement by Chafee is, that it indicates no one can trust that any politician believes what he advocates, if he can advance by compromising his principles and appealing to those who are really the enemies of everything he once believed in!
When, oh when, will we have candidates for public office and the Presidency who stick to their convictions, “come hell or high water”?
When will candidates stop appealing to the extremes and go toward where most voters are, in the center, as Lincoln Chafee has done, and should be commended for?