That is what I got from Sen. John McCain's speech tonight.
At a time when this great nation needs to desperately shake off the mantle of the most pathetic American president in the history of the republic, what we got from John McCain was nothing.
So many people have lost everything in the past year due to the crippled economy. So many people are deciding every day if they should choose food or medication. So many people are wondering what happens if they lose their job and their marginal insurance coverage goes from a pittance to nothing. And what we got from John McCain was nothing.
We have lost our standing in the world. Even our allies wonder what the hell is wrong with America. Where is the American spirit that gave Europe the Marshall Plan or delivered massive relief to devastated countries.? Where is the America that stood tall with the Geneva Convention instead of in opposition to it? Where is the America that was a beacon of freedom instead of the residence of power-mongering ideologues that believe spying on its own citizens is a positive value? And John McCain gave us nothing.
We still battle racism and homophobia, sexism and ageism. We have seen the first African American becoming a presidential nominee, only to see him get called "uppity" by a government representative. We have seen gays and lesbians finally get the right to marry in California, only to see people wanting to take that right away from them. We continue to see women struggle to get equal pay for equal work. We have seen our beloved senior citizens treated not as a national treasure but as an inconvenience and, as such, aren't deserving of anything more than trimmed Social Security benefits and a laughable prescription drug coverage. And what we got from John McCain was nothing.
We are in the middle of a trumped up war that has cost 4000+ of our soldiers their lives, not to mention the tens of thousands of innocent civilians whose only crime was being at the wrong place at the wrong time. We have thousands upon thousands of veterans who come home only to be given horrible medical treatment and forgotten because they are missing a limb. (And I have never understood why veterans have to pay a dime for medical care or prescription drugs.. ever.) And yet, McCain said nothing.
We are stuck in a land where the corporation is king and the middle class is fading. Every tax break goes to the upper echelon and everyone else who isn't a power broker or fabulously rich is given crumbs, if anything at all. We live in a corrupt land where people like Alberto Gonzales go unpunished for their behavior. Cronyism is alive and well in the this land and people do a "heck of a job" not because they are qualified, but because they gave a lot of money to the current king. And McCain gave us nothing.
We have a problem with education where students are continually left behind due to the ridiculous testing level requirements imposed by the current administration. We have a student loan system where the lenders have supreme power and - God forbid - you miss a payment. We have a system where teachers are paying from their own salaries to make sure their students have at least a modicum of what they need. But John McCain just gave us nothing.
We have an energy crisis where cheap, renewable energy sources are eschewed in favor of nausea-inducing chants of "Drill, baby, drill." We refuse to break our dependence from foreign oil. But John McCain gave us nothing to fuel our cars and heat our homes.
For 45+ minutes we all sat and listened to John McCain and he gave us nothing. All we heard was his mumbling verbage about how he will just change everything, but gave us no specifics. In other words, he gave us nothing.
John McCain, thanks for nothing.