Matt Taibbi: John McCain's Bizarre 'Conservative Problem'

[babylonsister]

John McCain's Bizarre 'Conservative Problem'

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com. Posted February 28, 2008.

He's gone from laughingstock to presumptive nominee by campaigning for World War III. So why do conservatives fear him?


It's the day before the Virginia primary, and darkness has fallen outside the Aviation Museum in Richmond. Inside, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain stands proudly before a museum-exhibit version of his own A-4 Navy jet fighter, plowing through the Poconos-stand-up portion of his stump speech.

I've heard this shtick so many times by now that a kind of campaign echolalia has kicked in -- I find myself involuntarily blurting out McCain's punch lines before he even starts a joke. At present, we're about two minutes shy of a prison joke that ends with The food was a lot better in here when you were governor!

I clench my teeth, bracing for impact. Behind me, a pair of aging Soccer Moms in acrylic sweaters sing McCain's praises. "I can't even imagine being a prisoner of war," says Mom Number One. "It must be so hard."

"Yeah," agrees Number Two. "You know he won't surrender over there."

"Mm-hmm," says the first. Then, after a pause: "Oh, hey, you know what I watched yesterday? Saving Private Ryan. And We Were Soldiers."

"Oh, those are great war movies," says Mom Number Two. "Great war movies."

Another pause. Then, "Oh, I went to that new buffet," says Mom Number One. "The one with the salads. I have to say, I'm not that into sweetbreads."

I want to choke the life out of both of them. But how do you communicate to someone the sheer insanity of voting to bomb the fuck out of some distant country while you sit safe and cozy in the Virginia suburbs, evaluating sweetbreads -- just so the world can keep on feeling like the heroic war movies you rock yourself to sleep with on Sunday afternoons?

more...

http://www.alternet.org/election08/78024/?page=entire

[TwilightGardener]

1. Last paragraph of your excerpt--so perfect. I love Matt Taibbi.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Read the rest of it--McCain is truly a scary, psychotic man.

[babylonsister]

3. Thanks for reading; I haven't read the whole thing, but will.

He's so snarky, but Taibbi is a gifted writer imo.

[lazyriver]

4. He's very gifted and very snarky...two reasons I love reading

his stuff and why I subscribed to RS this year. He has a certain visceral power to his writing that I can't quite describe.

[babylonsister]

5. I still haven't gotten around to subscribing, but do pick RS up

on occasion. Maybe Taibbi will be my inspiration.

[lazyriver]

7. I subscribed primarily to support Matt's writing and the great

work of their other writers who do surprisingly great in depth stories on politics and other important current issues like the environment (the pig farming piece was mind blowing and life changing for me). I'm just a bit too old to keep up with the pop culture stuff they cover, but I try from time to time if only to stave off for a few more years sounding like a crotchety old man pooping on everything "the young generation" listens to, watches, and wears.

[Demeter]

6. The Meat of His Essay Is Here:

And that is one big reason why John McCain, defying the expectations of almost everyone who watched him last summer -- myself included -- has risen from the political dead to wrap up the GOP nomination. He's survived because Onward to Victory is the last great illusion the Republican Party has left to sell in this country, even to its own followers. They can't sell fiscal responsibility, they can't sell "values," they can't sell competence, they can't sell small government, they can't even sell the economy. All they have left to offer is this sad, dwindling, knee-jerk patriotism, a promise to keep selling world politics as a McHale's Navy rerun to a Middle America that wants nothing to do with realizing the world has changed since 1946.

The lesson of the McCain campaign is that one should never underestimate America's capacity for self-delusion. Balls-deep in one of the biggest foreign-policy catastrophes of all time, an arrogant military misadventure destined to make us infamous for a generation across a dozen cultures, minivan-driving suburban America is still waiting for Bill Holden to make it right by blowing up the Bridge on the River Kwai -- and returning, tanned and handsome, to get the girl with a mouth full of cool one-liners.

[NoFederales]

8. Or, Waste Deep in the Big Muddy ala Pete Seeger..........

PBS aired somewhat of a documentary on Pete Seeger last night; good timing, but I doubt younger folks can really appreciate his story.

NoFederales

[OneBlueSky]

9. PBS did a great job on that Seeger documentary . . .

and here in NY, they followed it with a repeat showing of a half-hour show about Pete's work to clean up the Hudson . . . great stuff, both . . .

[PerpetuallyDazed]

10. The man is RAVING INSANE and will bring about WWIII.

:scared:

"But McCain's entire career has been dedicated to the idea that America must always have the right to solve its problems by force. Throughout his political career, he has argued for increased use of force in virtually every military engagement the U.S. has been involved in since Vietnam. He complained about Bill Clinton's "excessively restricted air campaign" in Kosovo, campaigning strenuously for a ground invasion. During the 1994 flap over Pyongyang's nuclear program, he called for "more forceful, coercive action." Even before the latest Iraq War, McCain argued way back in 1999 that the only way to deal with Saddam Hussein was "to strike disproportionate to the provocation."

The most frightening example of McCain's fondness for force is on display in his own book, Faith of My Fathers, when he complains about the politicians who refused to allow pilots like him to attack, say, Soviet ships unloading arms in Vietnamese port cities. "We thought our civilian commanders were complete idiots," he writes.

Bombing Soviet ships, of course, would probably have started World War III, but McCain's vision, then and now, encompasses war as a way of life. There is significant evidence that McCain believes war is something righteous and necessary, a tonic for the national soul, intrinsically "noble" irrespective of context (he is still one of the only politicians to apply that word to the Iraq conflict). That is why it's no joke when McCain says casually, "There's gonna be other wars," or when he sings, "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." We have to assume that he will jump at the chance to expand this conflict and hit those politically sensitive targets his "complete idiot" civilian commanders once barred him from going after in Vietnam."