Current Affairs John McCain - hero or Republican

[abelard]

McCain owes his reputation to his inept contributions to America's ritual incineration of peasants, and to decades of corporate journalists' servility merely because he'd once deigned to flatter them.

You can tell how credulous and desperate American liberals have become, and how little regard they actually have for their own ostensible values, by the way they suspend disbelief and line up to fawn over even this boilerplate priviliged warmongering conservative oaf.

What does patriotism even mean anymore when a man with McCain's track record can become its emblem?

 

[peteblue]

McCain owes his reputation to his inept contributions to America's ritual incineration of peasants, and to decades of corporate journalists' servility merely because he'd once deigned to flatter them.

You can tell how credulous and desperate American liberals have become, and how little regard they actually have for their own ostensible values, by the way they suspend disbelief and line up to fawn over even this boilerplate priviliged warmongering conservative oaf.

What does patriotism even mean anymore when a man with McCain's track record can become its emblem?

You don’t like him do you......

 

[dholliday]

McCain owes his reputation to his inept contributions to America's ritual incineration of peasants, and to decades of corporate journalists' servility merely because he'd once deigned to flatter them.

You can tell how credulous and desperate American liberals have become, and how little regard they actually have for their own ostensible values, by the way they suspend disbelief and line up to fawn over even this boilerplate priviliged warmongering conservative oaf.

What does patriotism even mean anymore when a man with McCain's track record can become its emblem?

That's really well-written that...kudos!‎

 

[dholliday]

It amazes me how opinionated he can be about American politics and America when he's never lived here.

My country is significantly affected from your country's foreign policy yet you appear to wish to deny me the right to have a voice on it.

Don't you accept that one doesn't have to live in USA to be able to criticise the huge problems it causes in the world? McCain was part of that damaging ethos.‎

Your view is the kind of famously-arrogant americanism we normally don't read here as almost all other US blues have fair liberal values.

 

[abelard]

You don’t like him do you......

i don't even specifically dislike him. like i said, he's an unremarkable figure in American politics.

it's more what he reflects that's so troubling.

there's a mawkish sentimentality endemic to the American liberal soul, and a laziness and lack of scruple about where it gets projected.

American liberals see the Trump era as merely the midway-point in a middlebrow Sorkinesque drama. They're just waiting for the strings to soar and the gallant lonely hero to swoop in for the rescue. And they're credulous and degraded enough to cast even a cynical, cantankerous petty-tyrant like McCain into the role of protagonist. In this sense, their reality is as subordinate to fantasy as any Trumpling's.

this, as much as Republican malice and corruption (likewise a given), is why we continue waging indefinite global warfare, boiling the seas and burning the forests, lurching toward neo-feudalism, and galloping into the next great global financial meltdown.

That's really well-written that...kudos!‎

always an alarming sign when i have @dholliday's approval

 

[dholliday]

i don't even specifically dislike him. like i said, he's an unremarkable figure in American politics.

it's more what he reflects that's so troubling.

there's a mawkish sentimentality endemic to the American liberal soul, and a laziness and lack of scruple about where it gets projected.

American liberals see the Trump era as merely the midway-point in a middlebrow Sorkinesque drama. They're just waiting for the strings to soar and the gallant lonely hero to swoop in for the rescue. And they're credulous and degraded enough to cast even a cynical, cantankerous petty-tyrant like McCain into the role of protagonist. In this sense, their reality is as subordinate to fantasy as any Trumpling's.

this, as much as Republican malice and corruption (likewise a given), is why we continue waging indefinite global warfare, boiling the seas and burning the forests, lurching toward neo-feudalism, and galloping into the next great global financial meltdown.

also a fantastic post, i love the use of powerful but fair language. i didn't realise through your previous work you had this view.

 

[abelard]

also a fantastic post, i love the use of powerful but fair language. i didn't realise through your previous work you had this view.

Well, cheers. I don't think it is an especially fair use of language though. Snide and bombastic, certainly, as per usual. Nobody reads the writing I do when I'm actually trying to be fair (which, on GOT, is rarely).

I know a lot of people here will feel differently about this topic, which is also fair - otherwise, what's the point? And to be fair (haha) I also think Obama was even more skillful in exploiting these tendencies among liberals, albeit to generally less malevolent effect.

 

[Ruairi77]

You can tell how credulous and desperate American liberals have become, and how little regard they actually have for their own ostensible values, by the way they suspend disbelief and line up to fawn over even this boilerplate priviliged warmongering conservative oaf.

I wasn't a huge fan of McCain but I do have respect for the fact that he seemed to put country over party. I think that's why both sides are remembering him this way.
I don't think honoring McCain for a life of public service, even though I might disagree with his views or methods, makes me credulous or desperate.

 

[LinekersLegs]

McCain’s experience supposedly instilled in him a revulsion to torture, which he would speak out against for the rest of his career, even if his actual record on the issue was less than clear. It also instilled in him a hatred for the Vietnamese, whom he would insist on unapologetically referring to as “gooks” decades later.

Whilst the article as a whole addresses issues and contradictions which I think the media should have raised more during his life, particularly during both his attempts at the presidency, the above statement is incorrect as after initially doubling down he did apologize. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...wn-then-he-apologized/?utm_term=.2a1ca838b9e2

I also think the author underplays McCains role in re-establishing diplomatic relations with Vietnam, providing significant political cover for Clinton (the draft dodger) at a time when most veterans groups were vehemently opposed and a striking contrast to a lot of his other foreign policy antagonism.

 

[RAFUH]

His son says it much better than I have with very few words

 

[abelard]

I also think the author underplays McCains role in re-establishing diplomatic relations with Vietnam, providing significant political cover for Clinton (the draft dodger) at a time when most veterans groups were vehemently opposed and a striking contrast to a lot of his other foreign policy antagonism.

That's fair, though he was just one of many Republican veterans involved. It is the one lasting and constructive thing he accomplished which readily comes to mind.

I wasn't a huge fan of McCain but I do have respect for the fact that he seemed to put country over party. I think that's why both sides are remembering him this way.

Did you read the article I posted? I just don't see what ^this^ is based on. He devoted his career to pursuing private ambitions above all else, and even admitted as much.

I suspect most of McCain's newfound liberal admirers actually know very little about him. Apart from picking inconsequential fights with Trump (while pre-empting his rhetoric and voting for most of his agenda), it's the idea of John McCain rather than the man himself which tugs the heartstrings.

 

[Ruairi77]

I read the article, though starting the post with

This is the correct answer

and not adding 'IMO', didn't overly encourage further reading.
You're right. There's a whole lot not to like about the man. But, and perhaps it is more recently, I feel he put his country ahead of his party at a time when that was needed.
There are plenty of political leaders who's views I have no time for but whom I respect for their efforts to move beyond partizan stalemate. The northern Ireland peace process is a good example of this.
It's easy to focus on what he did wrong but focusing on what he did right doesn't make me credulous or desperate.

 

[LinekersLegs]

That's fair, though he was just one of many Republican veterans involved. It is the one lasting and constructive thing he accomplished which readily comes to mind.

You don’t happen to have any links to that do you? Most of what I’ve been able to find seems to paint it as a Kerry/McCain led thing like this
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/po...-bridged-gap-help-heal-wounds-vietnam-n904006
but, as has been mentioned earlier, the media did tend to give McCain pretty favourable coverage and I’d like to see an alternate take on the period.

Have to admit that if I’d gone through what he did in Hanoi Hilton I doubt I would have been able to move past it to support such legislation so I find it an interesting topic, especially as it appears to contrast so much with his other foreign policy actions.

 

[deipnosophist]

A venal warmonger imo

 

[Ghoat]

McCain was "loved" and "hated" by both parties at times, but respected by political allies and foes - that's rare.

We have a habit of making saints of people when they pass away, which, IMO, is intellectually dishonest - but that's another discussion.

He served his country honorably in time of war and paid a horrific price for it. That deserves respect. Nothing more, but it does deserves respect in my book.

I think he followed, and led, his party when he thought they were right. And when he thought his party was wrong, he would break ranks quickly and loudly.

We can debate if HE was right/wrong on issues to the end of time, but I believe he followed his convictions to what was best, regardless of what his party thought. In that regard, at least, we would do well to have more politicians on both sides of the isle like him.