Century22

Thoughts on the Final Presidential Debate

mmcgown — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:52:54 +0000

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.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain

http://www.phxnewtimes.com/1999-03-25/news/is-john-mccain-a-war-hero/

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

Bush Record Unmatched!

mmcgown — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:28:37 +0000

As we thought……

clipped from www.pbs.org

ANDREW BACEVICH:
That’s exactly right. And again, this is, I think, this is another issue where one needs to be unsparing in fixing responsibility as much on liberal Democratic presidents as conservative Republican ones. I think that the Bush Administration’s response to 9/11 in constructing this paradigm of a global war on terror, in promulgating the so called, Bush Doctrine of Preventive War, in plunging into Iraq – utterly unnecessary war – will go down in our history as a record of recklessness that will be probably unmatched by any other administration.

Olympic babble

mmcgown — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:41:29 +0000

It’s so exciting to watch the Olympics and so disappointing to listen to NBC’s “color” experts:

Oh and Lulu, look at the way she’s doing this jump–it never gets any better than this–ohhhhhhhhh! and too bad for her she’s now messed up so badly that she’s going to lose two-tenths of a point and so she will not get a medal — SO SHE’S A HUGE LOSER!!

but we just like to watch all these people try really hard while we sit on our asses and talk into a microphone and get paid a lot of money because we were pretty good one day a long time ago–

and of course, Lulu, I know and you know that we never think that we were so great but look at that performance right now and—–oh——-too bad, he just doesn’t have what it takes, and so let’s talk about how important it is to be better than anyone could ever be

It seems so simple–fix the government! Stop the money!

mmcgown — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:00:48 +0000

I’ve been watching several recent episodes of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.

If you have any love of country, you need to watch these shows and learn how the money interests have corrupted our government. (All the shows are available online at www.pbs.org)

If Americans are unwilling to watch the truth–and instead prefer to watch American Idol–then we will get the government we deserve.

Democrats in Power?

mmcgown — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:04:44 +0000

Journalists are already thinking about four years of Democratic Party control……are the Democrats also thinking?

The following quote is from Ross Douthat of The Atlantic Magazine, excerpted from the transcript of Bill Moyers Journal.

clipped from www.pbs.org

ROSS DOUTHAT:
A deeper problem for the Democrats is they’re going to probably sweep into power this November. They already swept into power in Congress. They’re going to have a large majority. But, yeah, the question is what do they do with it? And when political movements take power, it usually helps to have a defined agenda.

Ross Douthat

Debt

mmcgown — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:13:39 +0000

clipped from www.statesman.com

‘Mr. President, we will be forever in your debt.’

U.S. REP. RAHM EMANUEL

Illinois Democrat, responding to White House projections that President Bush would leave a record $482 billion deficit to his successor.

Do-nothing Congress

mmcgown — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:55:41 +0000

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com

After two months of fever-pitch debate over how to deal with the soaring price of oil, Congress left town yesterday without doing anything on energy.

Titles don’t make sense anymore

mmcgown — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:23:19 +0000

I thought I was broadminded.

A recent email post from a newsgroup to which I subscribe made me realize that I’m not.

The post involved accessing a video, and the video involved “tits and ass.” I guess I don’t have anything against people wanting to watch T&A videos, but I guess I also wonder this–

Now that all such videos (and you can name your favorite sport) are all so readily available, why would you waste your time on any of them, after the first five minutes?

Yes, when it’s your ‘first time’ it must be titillating–but really, after the first day, is there any good reason for you to still be searching for this?

If there is, then I’m missing something. And that’s okay with me.

But I can’t really understand why one might consider continuing to receive email newsletters that lead to marginally titillating pictures or movies–particularly when there is so much true smut freely available.

Am I missing something?

Where have all the proofreaders gone?

mmcgown — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:07:03 +0000

Another gem from the New York Times

clipped from www.nytimes.com

The problem, though, is the price. A standard 60-watt incandescent usually costs less than $1. An equivalent compact fluorescent is about $2. But in Europe this September, Philips, the Dutch company dealing in consumer electronics, health care machines and lighting, is to introduce the Ledino, its first L.E.D. replacement for a standard incandescent. Priced at $107 a bulb, it are unlikely to have more than a few takers.

From Bill Moyers Journal (July 18, 2008)

mmcgown — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:30:21 +0000

William Greider has spent forty years examining how powerful institutions affect ordinary people. Once a top editor of THE WASHINGTON POST, a columnist for ROLLING STONE, and now National Affairs Correspondent for THE NATION, he has produced a series of best-selling books: SECRETS OF THE TEMPLE: HOW THE FEDERAL RESERVE RUNS THE COUNTRY, ONE WORLD, READY OR NOT: THE MANIC LOGIC OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM, WHO WILL TELL THE PEOPLE: THE BETRAYAL OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY, and this one, THE SOUL OF CAPITALISM. He’s working on a new book with the title: COME HOME, AMERICA.

clipped from www.pbs.org

WILLIAM GREIDER:
We have an opening in this crisis for, this is really going to sound grandiose. We have an opening in this crisis for a deep transformation in American politics. I don’t say it happens this year, next year, or it’s going to take a number of years. But we are in the shock of reality. And people get it everywhere and see the blood in the streets. And you tell them how this worked and who did what to whom, and that’s a basis for a new politics.

But it requires people – this is the hard part – to get out of their sort of passive resignation to, “Well, we follow the Democrats” or “we follow the Republicans” or “we let this group or that group tell us how to think” and engage among themselves in a much more serious role as citizens. And when, as they do that, they have to be willing to punish the political powers, in smart ways or crude ways, however they can, first, to get a place in the debate. But, secondly, to force the changing values of the system.