What is a Maverick Supporter?

It’s time for an upgrade from my originally comedic explanation to provide a real understanding of this concept.  A maverick supporter is to an ordinary supporter of a given politician what a maverick politician is to a legitimate representative.

Now, my standard of “maverick” politician is John McCain.  He basically spent the entire Bush administration being mavericky and “reaching across the aisle” for the benefit of John McCain.  It was pretty much about him getting press time, feeding his presidential ambitions, and indulging his spite against conservatives and Bush because he lost the 2000 Republican presidential primary.

Maverick politicians like McCain deserve maverick supporters.  If they intend to be contrary for no good reason other than themselves, so can you.  I jokingly refer to the concept in some places on this blog as “the maverick paradigm,”  and the simplest way to be one is to just be the opposite of a supporter, and some of the basics are below:

• Maverick donations: Being an ordinary supporter would require you to part with some of your money, but as a maverick supporter, your life gets so much less expensive.  When you get a phone call or email asking for money to support your favorite maverick politician, the maverick answer is ‘no’.  It’s easy to do, it doesn’t cost you a thing, and is part of the brilliant, shining new way of the maverick paradigm.
• Maverick volunteering: An ordinary volunteer has to spend hours and footwork placing signs, spreading fliers, and manning phone banks.  A maverick volunteer doesn’t have to do any of this.  You can tell the people asking you to volunteer for your favorite maverick politician ‘no’, stay home to watch your favorite shows, and still call yourself a maverick volunteer.  Simple, easy, and effort-free.
• Maverick voting: How do you maverick vote?  It doesn’t require any risk or lawbreaking on your part.  You just vote for anyone but your favorite maverick politician, and you’ll be a maverick supporter worthy of John McCain.

If you want to take a more active role in being a maverick supporter, think of “maverick” as an adjective meaning “the opposite of” or “the irritating, insufferable, aggravating version of” as I do.  The second one in particular is much like McCain, especially if you’re being a maverick supporter of a maverick politician for no better reason than your own amusement.  It’s a game millions can play, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t give some of the annoyance back.

Once you understand that, you can shower maverick politicians with things such as maverick adulation (mockery) and maverick support (supporting their opponents or getting on the nerves of their campaign staffs).  When enough of us do this, maverick politicians and others who want to be like them will realize that they don’t want to inspire maverick support.  Ever.

Random Acts of Maverick

Random Acts of Maverick are already occurring due to the efforts of others.  Two examples:

1. Disintermediation:  The fancy internet fad term for “cutting out the middle man.”  This grassroots technique bypasses the risk of RINOs getting preferential funding and support by donating straight to worthy conservative candidates.  This happened organically over time, as we all just simply realized we should stop donating to the fools running the Republican party.
2. The Precinct Project:  One of the greatest things you can say to a maverick politician is “Hi.  I have you by the tender parts.”  This is the concept behind The Precinct Project, mentioned often at RedState by the writer “ColdWarrior”.  Basically, it’s the “We own your party, so if you maverick us, we’ll maverick you back” technique.

My contribution to the conservative dialog of taking back the country?  The theory that you can’t use rage to deal with maverick politicians.  We were all furious at McCain for eight years, and it did no good.  He used our rage to build his “maverick” credentials and become a media darling at our expense.  Deliberately.

The solution, then, is not to get mad.  Mock them instead (maverick adulation).  Randomly throw monkey wrenches into their aspirations and moments of press glory.  You may not be able to get rid of them in the middle of their terms, but you can tweak their tempers and egos.  They may ignore criticism, but treat them like laughingstocks and see how long they want to keep their jobs.

Plus, if this works, we can use it on other maverick wannabes to keep them in line while they’re in the middle of their tenures.  It’s hard to be fashionable at the poshest Washington cocktail parties when the conservatives you were supposedly poking in the eye are laughing at you instead.  Not to mention those Sunday show interviews just aren’t going to be the same.

So, in all ways during John McCain’s quest to retain his Senate seat and during his tenure as Republican Party Leader, remember the maverick supporter motto:  The maverick had it coming.  All of them do.