I am a Republican.

A Republican, who believes America’s brightest days are still to come.

A Republican, who believes the virtues and values upon which this nation was founded and became great have been ignored for far too long.

A Republican, who believes fighting terror with terror, oppression with oppression, and torture with torture means that the enemy has already won.

A Republican, who understands, in the words of the late Ronald Reagan, “Government is a solution to our problem, government is the problem.”

A Republican, who is in no way represented by a governor from Massachusetts any more than he is by a millionaire mayor. Or, for that matter, a former first lady from Arkansas – or is it New York?

A Republican, who believes Darth Vader has no place in the White House.

A Republican, who believes in dangerous times, brave and battle-tested men of fortitude must be called into the leadership of their nation.

I am a McCain Republican.

Sen. John McCain’s record speaks for itself. Even before his 24 years of service to the people of Arizona, McCain’s service in Vietnam qualifies him as an American hero for the ages.

Graduating from Annapolis in 1958, McCain was assigned in late 1966 to the USS Forrestal, flying A-4s over North Vietnam as part of Operation Rolling Thunder. It was during these operations that McCain’s A-4 was shot down over Hanoi in October 1967.

What ensued is quite possibly one of the greatest stories of patriotic heroism in the latter part of the last century.

Denied desperately needed medical care, malnourished, mistreated and tortured into signing a false “confession,” McCain spent five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese before being released following the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973.

Had he taken an early-release offer from the North Vietnamese, McCain (whose father was an admiral in the U.S. Navy) would have spent a mere six months or so in captivity. McCain had declined to do so, selflessly citing the large numbers of prisoners taken ahead of him.

What does this all boil down to here, nearly four decades later?

McCain has been a vociferous critic of the current administration’s prosecution of the war on terror, especially with regard to Pentagon and CIA tactics within interrogations. We must not stoop to the level of our adversaries, or else we are no better than them ourselves.

The shameful and disgraceful conduct of our government and agents of our government in places such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Abu-Ghraib Prison and probably countless others have caused us to lose our moral high ground in the war on terror. It is, at very least, debatable whether many parts of the world consider us the victims that they once did.

McCain understands this, as few others can, because he has seen this all before, from the other side.

The single greatest threat to America today is one that few, at least in my party, are talking about. The fallout from our prosecution (some would say “mishandling”) of the war on terror thus far has taken America to the brink. With the current fluctuations in the value of the dollar being described as a “collapse,” with the price of crude oil reaching toward historic highs, and with our vilest foes still at large and at times resurgent, it is time for change in Washington. We must also, however, maintain our commitments. This is no time to cut-and-run.

We must not fail, we must not falter. This is a time for proven leaders and brave men. Vote McCain on Jan. 3.

– Ryan Frederick is a senior in management from Orient and a columnist for the Daily.