For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are "corrupt" or "betray the public's trust," two categories that seem to be exhaustive -- there are no other people.That's what it is. McCain is consumed with grandiose notions of "honor" and "nobility", fitting any issue -- Wall Street, Iran, Iraq, South Ossetia -- within these concepts. And so, incredibly complex issues get simplified, caricatured and placed into a black and white moral framework. That is what is potentially so dangerous about McCain: By placing everything into this framework he makes reckless, extreme action much more likely. There is no reason to calmly think things through. Why? He has honor and Wall Street has none. We are a free and good democracy and Russia is a repressive, imperialistic dictatorship. Next stop: war with Iran.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
"Honor"-Obsessed
For a while my main concern with McCain has been his impulsiveness. Just look at the Palin pick: For political and personal reasons he picks someone with little or no vetting, who turns out to simply not be ready to be president. But, there is something else that has bugged me about him, something more that I have not been able to put my finger on. Today George Will put my vague feelings into words:
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2 comments:
George Will is dead on. The world of black and whites (e.g. the Axis of Evil, you are either with us or against us, markets should be allowed to be free without government intervention) is what got us into the this mess.
The only difference between Bush and McCain is that Bush phrases his black in whites with those tough Texan phrases whereas McCain uses military jargon of "honor." It is actually disgusting for him to misuse military codes for political purposes.
Nope. What got us into this mess was the Democratic Party's refusal to acknowledge that the world can be seen as in black and white. There is nothing subtle about how terrible the Bush presidency has been, and there was nothing subtle about how the Republican Party seized and held the Presidency in successive elections that the Democrats won. While the Democrats were talking about their feelings and wondering whether it would be too disruptive to fight about Florida and Ohio, Dick Cheney was hiring Halliburton to build a secure wine cellar in the Naval Observatory.
A film buff should recognize that sometimes black & white makes more compelling images than color.
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