Meghan McCain's piece on the Daily Beast, and her subsequentinterview with Rachel Maddow, is a landmark political event. Here's why.
As far as I've noticed, Meghan McCain is the first Republican of national standing to say out loud what an awful lot of Republicans are thinking privately. Her reasonableness, her calm demeanor, her unquestionably Republican bona fides, even her telegenic presence, all add her basic argument a lot of weight.
In essence, she is saying that the Republicans need to repudiate and move away from their current loud, obnoxious, hateful venom-spewing ways (i.e., Ann Coulter). Meghan has no policy brief, but her essay is something that will be looked back on as the first concrete step forward for the next iteration of the Republican Party.
The nation needs, and will have, a strong two (or more!) party system. Currently, we don't. The Republicans of today are not serious or credible, and have no skills or experiences that will ever allow them to provide meaningful opposition now that the nation has decided that government (once again) matters. But there will be a new crop of people who will build an alternative to the Democratic party, and those people will cite Meghan's piece as a kind of clarion call to lose the screeching, vitriolic hyperbole once and for all.
Modern Republicans have substituted loudness and bullying for ideas for so long that it's no surprise there is a kind of "emperor-has-no-clothes" moment. But it will not last. I suspect there are many people who are to the right of the Democratic Party who will be excited to support a movement along the lines Meghan suggests. Those that aren't can go back to the "lunatic fringe" status they seem to occupy for long stretches of our history.
Who could have guessed that this newly-minted Republican, daughter of the defeated leader of the discredited party, could be a voice of reason -- a voice of the future? Like it or not, I believe she has planted a flag that will stand for a very long time.