Every so often I manage to get an LTE in the local paper. Sometimes the paper includes my email address - they don't always even though I always select that option. A recent letter of mine got picked up briefly as one of the side headlines on a major internet news site which got me replies from around the world. Some of them were were supportive, some of them were what you might expect for a response to "Palin isn't the problem; McCain is."
Well, time goes by, and I just got an email from one of the more thoughtful respondents who had taken issue with my thesis. He cut and pasted an article supportive of McCain, trying to 'put some sense' into my liberal head. It was a recent column by D. Allan Kerr, McCain has the right stuff.
As unfashionable as it seems to be this political season, I write tonight not in celebration nor in condemnation of Barack Obama; I write in praise of John McCain.
I responded.
Kerr's commentary is typical of the people who still believe in straight-talking McCain the maverick. Like the base the GOP has been cultivating, Kerr is writing from fear - and trying to invoke it in his readers.
There was a time in my younger days when I may have been swept up by the historical aspects of Obama’s candidacy, or his sonorous rhetoric. I might have wanted to join the “cool” crowd, along with all the other cool people who are supporting Obama. Certainly the allure of associating oneself to such an epic moment — to actually BE a part of history — is tempting.
But being a dad now, and a new dad all over again, I have other priorities. Simply put, the idea of McCain in the White House at a time when loose screws like Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are running around makes me feel a little safer.
His ending is more of the same, and totally disconnected from the reality of John McCain.
As I said, I’m not voting for McCain just because of his wartime heroism, but it helps knowing this man has the kind of iron will to survive such an ordeal with personal grace intact. He’s a man to whom courage and honor are practically physical attributes, and he’s been tested as few others have ever been. He’s earned the right to be our president and, more importantly, he’s the president we’re going to need.
Here's my reply. Enjoy.
Thanks for the info. It's an interesting commentary.
The McCain D. Allan Kerr writes about does sound like the kind of man who should be president. Unfortunately, that McCain is a myth, if he ever existed at all. The McCain that Kerr is writing about is the McCain he'd like to believe in, not the one who has been running for president this year. The evidence is there on the news.
McCain's defense of vicious robocalls, continued distortion of Obama's proposals, promotion of an unqualified vice presidential candidate from the fringes of the right wing - all this and more in my estimation clearly demonstrates McCain is the last person who should be entrusted with the office of the presidency at this critical time.
Every day sees more people who know him personally, including long time Republicans, endorsing Obama as the better choice. They've been turned off by the divisive, ugly campaign he has descended to, the lack of coherent policy proposals (none of the numbers add up), his tendency to switch messages on a daily basis, his disconnect from the ordinary Americans he claims to champion... and so much more. Even if he were able to start bringing about an agenda of real change, there are real questions about how much he could accomplish in four years given his age and his health - and a successor who isn't quite clear on what he stands for, or how much of it she agrees with.
But beyond all that is one core problem: McCain is the standard bearer for a political party that has lost its bearings.
The Republicans have had eight years to prove that their ideas work, that their policies are superior - and they've failed miserably. The party of law and order has become the party of K Street, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo. The party of small government has created a huge domestic security apparatus that spies on us, lies to us, and keeps secrets from us. The party of free markets has begun a huge program of nationalization, where the government now rewards failure in the market place - corporate socialism.
Our economy is in a shambles after decades of a Republican agenda that argues democracy flows from unchecked capitalism. How democratic is it when major corporations get a free pass for breaking the laws to enable government spying on regular citizens, and bailouts from the consequences of removing government from an oversight role? How democratic is it when billions of dollars are transferred from taxpayers to big defense contractors via a war most of those taxpayers want ended? How democratic is it when something as basic as passenger rail service in this country has to fight for funding equal to a few days of that same war? Why is the self-proclaimed greatest democracy on earth somehow unable to find a way to make it possible for over 40 million of its citizens to get adequate health care? That line about 'growing the pie' as the answer to our economic mess ignores the fact that all of the growth over the last three decades has been sliced off for the people who already have the biggest piece.
A handful of terrorists gave a huge shock to America on 911 - but we came back. Now the political philosophy of a party out of touch with reality has managed to give us - and the whole world - an even bigger shock. Forget Osama bin Laden for the moment (and why not, Bush did) - Milton Friedman, Alan Greenspan, and the neocon think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute have got him beat for the damage done. Maybe the body count isn't as visible as it was from 911, but make no mistake the bodies are out there: people who have lost their livelihoods, their health, their retirements, and their dreams for themselves and their children. (And there are actual bodies out there too; you can't ignore the thousands of Iraqis dead from a war that's part and parcel of the whole mess. Or maybe you can, if you have the moral blindness of a Dick Cheney or a Don Rumsfeld.)
McCain represents a political movement that has given us all of the above and more, a party that argues that government can not solve problems or provide meaningful answers to the questions facing society. McCain stands for a party that has deliberately driven wedges between Americans on the basis of race, religion, and economic class as a means to gaining and keeping political power. McCain claims he'll be the better choice to keep America safe - yet under the stewardship of his party, our military is exhausted, its equipment is wearing out, its forces are overstretched, while fighting conflicts with no end in sight or any clear path to victory. And a party that insists on nothing but more tax cuts is simply not going to be able to afford to keep sending our troops out into a world their policies have made more dangerous and less friendly to the U.S.
Now McCain argues that as a Maverick, he'll be able to turn things around, much like only Nixon could go to China. In other words, he's promising to reverse everything the Republican party has worked for over the last three decades. McCain claims he'll be able to reach across the aisle to work with Democrats to bring about change. He'll have to if he really DOES want change - because his own party is going to be fighting him every step of the way if he tries.
On the whole, it's a lot easier to picture real change happening with a President Obama leading a reborn Democratic Party. Obama after all is NOT the kind of candidate you would expect to have risen to the nomination. He hasn't spent years being part of the problem, he didn't come from an established political dynasty or a family with a huge fortune. He was not the pick of the party establishment. (And the one who was is now working to get him elected. Where are McCain's primary opponents these days? That should tell you something right there.) McCain promises change; Obama has already begun to deliver it.
Make no mistake; I am not blind to the fact that there a lot of things wrong with the Democratic party, not the least of which is that it's all too often difficult to tell them apart from the Republicans on a lot of key issues. Many of the people who have been particularly wrong headed will still be around after the election - but that's also true of the Republicans. The Democratic party at this point though is ready for change, change that could be fundamental if pushed hard enough. For McCain and the Republican party, that moment has not come yet. McCain may say he's not Bush - but all that means is that he might try to do things differently from Bush while still pursuing the same goals based on the same wrong premises.
The Republicans have had their chance and given their record, I really can't see why people think a Democratic administration is such a scary prospect. Are people afraid the Democrats are going to get us bogged down in wars we can't win, spend the federal deficit up to record levels, wreck the economy, and foster the growth of global terrorism? Too late! - Mission already accomplished.
There is this too. You can rest assured the Republican party will be doing everything it can to stop a Democratic agenda in its tracks from day one. If the Democrats had fought the Republican agenda with even a tenth as much fervor, we'd be in a lot better shape today as a country. If they don't win in 12 days, don't expect that to change. Hell, even if they win, you know they'll be in no hurry to change course all that much. 'Radical' lefties get pushed to the fringes of the Democratic party; radical Republicans push everyone else out.
Bottom line for me: McCain has nothing credible to offer, neither on the basis of his record, nor from the party he now leads. It's hard to be a real maverick when you're leading the herd, and everything I've seen suggests he's in the process of leading the herd over a cliff. No thanks!
Let's hope a year from now we'll all be pleasantly surprised.
p.s. For a very different view of who McCain really is, you might want to look at this article.
http://www.rollingstone.com/...
Before you dismiss it out of hand, try to think back nine years ago and remember what people were saying about the current occupant of the White House. Compare what was said about him then with what we know now. Here's a small slice from the article that should make you pause.
"In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.
In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot."
UPDATE: One More Thing Making this a contest just between McCain and Obama isn't enough. It's too easy to fall into the personality-based arguments that go back and forth. Emphasizing the party connection - however big a maverick or war hero you want to make McCain - he can't and shouldn't be allowed to escape the party he represents. That's the main thrust of my argument here.
Among other things, it's a message that will keep playing after the election however it turns out. Making it all about Bush or McCain ignores the real problem - a political party with a toxic philosophy that keeps putting candidates like them forward as the face of their disastrous policies. That's why almost no Republican candidates mention their party affiliation in their ads or on their websites, unless they're in a deep red area. It's a fair payback the Republicans deserve after decades of trashing the Democratic party as a brand. It's long past time for pushback from the Dems on this.