Faithful Democrats
In the spirit of "It's My Turn" Bob Dole, Republicans once again choose fear over progress; tradition over hope; stay-the-course over humility.
In what has to be one of the more boring presidential nomination campaigns in US history, Sen. John McCain appears to be headed for victory unless, of course, divine intervention prevails in the Mike Huckabee ascension.
In the spirit of "It's My Turn" Bob Dole, Republicans once again choose fear over progress; tradition over hope; stay-the-course over humility. As though the past eight years of lies, distortions and corruption have failed to shame even the least erudite of the lumbering GOP, Republicans cannot bear to make a mid-course correction. Quietly into the night go Rudy Guiliani, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney, never, I suspect, to be heard from again.
Last week, Dr. James Dobson endorsed Huckabee, giving strength to the perception that evangelical Christians, the current power behind the presidential throne, will support anyone for whom familiar church phrases triumph over substance. Huckabee has thrown out such dog-whistle Christian gems as "the widow's mite," "five loaves and two fish" and "smooth stone versus a whole lot of armor,"[1] veiled references familiar to the faithful.
McCain, who cleverly skated on the Keating savings and loan scandal of the early ‘90's and has earned a reputation as a GOP maverick, is poised to stick his finger in the eye of the Christian Right while appealing to another more virulent faction – the "them or us" crowd of malcontents who live in a strange world of macho aversion to minority rights and power. The great cover for these folks is often a cabinet full of guns, cases of self-loaded ammunition and a fierce belief in individualism. They refer to this phenomenon as "conservatism," as though fear of losing your position in the pecking order could be spun as an ideology worth defending.
Needless to say, politically naïve Evangelicals and macho traditionalists have a lot in common. They are severely threatened by the daily barrage of encroaching foreigners and people boasting alternative lifestyles or political ideals. Both, however, are blustering paranoids whose security lies neither within the Kingdom of God nor in upscale suburban ghettos with their alarm systems, double-locked doors and community watch patrols.
Both currently oppose the McCain nomination for his lack of "conservative" principles. Both, however, will find a home with McCain as he begins to promote locking down America against the incursion of foreigners and ideas threatening tradition.
McCain has gone on the record as promoting a 100-yr. war in the Middle East – first in Iraq and moving on to Iran.[2] Once opposed to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, he now supports them. Look for him to align himself more closely to the walled-nation paranoia that has infected Israel and now the American job market.
All of this suggests a firm commitment to the military industrial complex that exports democracy as the inevitable gateway to capitalism, albeit that the two are often historically separate and distinct. Recall that communist China is becoming a major economic player on the world stage. Nevertheless, power brokers will find a friend in John McCain.
Nothing characterizes McCain's politics more, however, than his Zionist position with respect to Israel. In a 2002 speech to an AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) conference, McCain had this to say:
"The terrorist onslaught against her (Israel's) people represents not progress towards a re-foundation of historic Palestine but a plunge into an abyss of moral decay perpetrated in the name of the Palestinian people by their own leaders. There will always be an Israel, because the Israeli people will defend their homeland against murderers who pose as martyrs, and will never accept justice imposed on them by leaders who send children to kill their children."[3]
To illustrate how little the economic wellbeing of the average American means to those who have what they need and want, take a look at this jumble of words from the GOP candidate designee:
"Like Mike Huckabee, who joked recently that he may not be the expert that some people are on foreign policy, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night,' McCain suggested to reporters Monday that American consumer culture offered a short cut to expertise. 'The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should,' McCain said. 'I've got Greenspan's book.'" (Sasha Issenberg, "McCain: It's About The Economy," The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/, Posted 12/18/07)
This should bode well for those who long to keep America strong. Indeed!
[1] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18821021
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFknKVjuyNk
[3] http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=16124&CategoryID=3
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