John McCain is more than just Bush's successor, he is the GOP's latest version of masculinity.
Dubya defined GOP masculinity with Texas stereotypes of cowboys and hyper-military codpieces. At every photo-op, Dubya had a new outfit, as some sort of short-hand for the message he was going to deliver and like a real-life dress-up doll.
George Lakoff said the GOP frame politics in terms of a male-dominated family, and from this standpoint, the GOP president is supposed to be "daddy". To counter this frame, Lakoff suggested liberals should frame their candidates and policies in terms of a nurturing "mother".
This is a mistake because it still uses the GOP frame of politics as "family".
I suggest that the frame should be a spiritual or religious frame. With all this talk about cults in the news, America has had a good look at what a self-proclaimed "religious figure"--in Warren Jeffs--can do to a community. Jeffs is also the perfect mirror for whoever the GOP throws out as their latest definition of masculinity: authoritarian and cowardly.
As religious figure, McCain is the prodigal son, the one-time "maverick" come home with his shit together finally to take over the family business, just as daddy is set to retire.
McCain may appear to be an outsider and a man whose ideas are his own, but his recent conversions regarding campaign finance reform and torture show that persuading him takes little more than the promise of more power. McCain's newly found support for those two policies shows a desire not to please his constituency, but an effort to please the guardians of his Party; as a son tries to please his father.
McCain's real father was an Admiral in the Navy, his grandfather was also an Admiral, and is the namesake for the Naval Air Station in Meridian, Mississippi. Having this lineage to live up to, McCain joined the Navy and was the victim of several unfortunate accidents, including a fire that killed 134 and another that ended with his own capture behind enemy lines.
Accidents and capture by the enemy are a way of life in the military during wartime. So, how would military duty translate into the framework of a religious cult? If it is defined as "sacrifice".
In the framing of a religious cult, each prophet follows in a narrow line of succession from one true believer to the next, never wavering from the purest of cult dogma. The prophet's worthiness is measured by his sacrifices. How would the GOP religious cult compare an accident-prone son to his accomplished Admiral father? By comparing him to someone else: his predecessor, who in this case is Bush.
What sacrifices will McCain have to perform to please his party elders the way Bush had/does? McCain will have to embrace the self-proclaimed base of the party: the Christian right-wing. He will also have to sing the praises of GOP party policies as though they were his all along, such as rejecting his own work in campaign finance reform and what he knows from first-hand knowledge of torture to better coincide with those of his party's.
What better sacrifice than to ignore one's own truth in deference to the party line?
As a military man, McCain performed his duties admirably. As a politician, McCain is the second-coming of whichever man will get him elected.
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