Dear Sis,
You asked how I thought McCain performed in the debate last night. The word that came to mind was “demagogue.”
You’ll recall from our high school days that the Greeks created that word to describe a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular passions and prejudices. That’s exactly what McCain’s entire “joe the plumber” performance was all about. McCain would like for you to believe that we can run this country by reducing taxes and that we can make the world a better place by attacking foreign countries who oppose our way of life.
Unfortunately, not only will this fail, but McCain himself knows it is not true. He has spent most of his life in pursuit of a goal that has always eluded him–respect that he feels he was not given by his Navy father and grandfather. Along the way, he has abused his positions of trust, not only within the military, but also within the Senate. Remember when McCain was denounced by the Senate for his participation in the Lincoln Savings scandal? That incident was the mortgage meltdown of the 1980s when McCain and four of his Senate colleagues prevailed upon the regulators to ignore Lincoln Savings’ shaky loan portfolio. So, while McCain and his buddies were getting campaign contributions from Lincoln Savings, it was getting bailed out to the tune of about $3 billion of taxpayer money. And keep in mind that, instead of learning his lesson, McCain did nothing at all to champion the kinds of changes in our financial system that might have prevented the current financial crisis. Why should he want to change it when he was profiting from it? The news media has, for the most part, chosen not to focus on this story. Nor has it paid much attention to the sordid parts of his Navy career recounted in the articles I’ve quoted below.
When I looked at McCain and Obama last night, I was struck by how fidgety and smirky McCain appeared, in contrast to Obama’s fairly cool demeanor, even in the face of McCain’s digs. So, when I think about who I would like handling our foreign relations, I feel fairly confident that Obama can keep his temper; I don’t have that same comfort level with McCain.
Ultimately, all of the domestic issues that both are covering will be resolved not by the winner of the election, but by Congress. A President can propose health care plans and tax increases or decreases, but it is up to the Congress to make the decision. So I usually don’t pay attention to what candidates propose with respect to domestic policy–rather, I focus on how the candidate can impact our standing in the now-global community. If we in America are realistic–that is, if we take our heads out of the sand and look around our globe–then we have to admit that we are in a declining position. Our predominantly white race is declining; in North America, we are less than 5% of the world population. To put this in a bit more perspective, two-thirds of the world population is in Asia and is not Caucasian.
Our current President has demonstrated that when we try to wave our flag and make our claims of superiority, we are mocked overseas and, ultimately, we have lost the respect of most of the world in the last eight years. I have little doubt that this status will remain unchanged if McCain is elected, because he has many of the same characteristics as Bush. By the same token, I think Obama’s heritage as the child of American and African parents creates an opportunity for the US to regain at least some of the esteem that we have lost since Bush became President.
By the way, people who still think that Obama is not an American citizen have forgotten that he could not run for the presidency if he were not. Interestingly, Obama was born in Hawaii (one of the 50 states), while McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone (a former US territory but not a state). People rarely bring this up. And while there are tons of emails flying around that claim Obama is a terrorist and/or a Muslim in disguise, I’ve not seen any serious evidence to support the allegations. The big problem for most people is their own fear, and that fear is what leads people to accept the ranting of a demagogue.
And, by the same token, a true demagogue will recognize those fears and play them for all they’re worth. That’s the frightening part of this election. McCain’s campaign is being run–with his blessing–by fear-mongers who prey upon people’s emotions. So instead of really focusing our attention upon the high-stakes future, the McCain machine encourages people to view Obama as a black Muslim terrorist whose entry into the White House will end our cherished American way of life.
This approach leaves the Fox-watchers and the Couric-watchers in a position of terror themselves; unfortunately, what people in this condition fail to see is that regardless of who wins the election, our cherished American way of life is going to radically change during the next decade. So we ought to want a President who recognizes the importance of embracing the future instead of clinging to a past that cannot be recovered.
In fairness, I should say that there are some things about McCain that I admire. I respect his service to this country during the Vietnam War, and I recognize the heroism he displayed as a prisoner of war. Unfortunately, being a prisoner of war does not contribute much to developing leadership skills, and McCain has certainly showed very little leadership during his 26 years in the Senate. Even his demeanor there has been less than honorable (and I haven’t even bothered to delve into his marital infidelity, his ill-treatment of other people he disliked, his well-known violent temper–and worst of all for me, his decision to push away the wheelchair of an elderly woman who sought his help in locating her war-imprisoned brother).
By the way, though he likes to claim he IS a maverick, it seems he may have gotten that name because he used to watch the old James Garner TV show called “Maverick” when he was at the Naval Academy. Alas, TVs were considered contraband at the Academy, but I guess it’s not terribly surprising that he was watching one–after all, mostly his life has been centered upon himself. His partners in crime decided to exclude him from taking the fall because he already had so many demerits. He managed to graduate, fifth from the bottom of his class.
Lastly, I guess I would say that, during the debate, McCain “glossed over” some of this stuff. He implied, for instance, that he grew up as the humble son of a military father but failed to mention that the position his father held was quite high, that he lived in a nice house in DC and went to an exclusive all-white boys prep school before getting an automatic admission to Annapolis. And while he had a lousy experience in North Vietnam, he’s spent all of the time since making up for it. I applaud his success on that score. I’m happy he now has essentially unlimited funds and lives a comfortable life. In fact, that’s exactly what George Bush had–a fairly comfortable life that didn’t prepare him to lead the nation. I don’t think I want another one of those. I don’t want another person in the White House who claims he’s going to look out for the plumbers of the world when he does not appear to have ever even handled a wrench. The last time we had a President looking out for the plumbers, his name was Nixon, and his plumbers were caught breaking into the Watergate offices of the opposition party.
Lastly, I don’t make up what I write. All that I have told you is easily researchable by anyone willing to devote a little time to the vast amount of information about both candidates currently available. The trick here is to look at a lot of websites–not just the ones that favor the candidate you happen to like. If you want links to any of the information, let me know.
Good luck in making your decision!
Michael
