Curious about John McCain?
Yeah, me neither - or at least, I like to think I have better things to do with my time than study up on the life histories of asshole politicians.
On the other hand, I am voting, and while I know how I’m voting, I do like to be able to justify it should the need arise. I already know what I need to know about both candidates in the form of their policies (granted, only one candidate is talking details; the other is slinging slogans - and that alone’s pretty good evidence if you ask me)…but I did bother to look up Obama’s history and experience - both very impressive - and I did pay attention to things like the one house/one car/one bicycle Obama household versus the vast privileged holdings of the other side…so yeah, to be fair, I owed the background of Sir McCain some attention.
I found this article thanks to my husband, who gives such things much better scrutiny than I usually do, and I even fact-checked quite a bit of it, which is easy if you’re friends with Google. It’s a good, thorough article.
It’s also scary as hell. Here’s some of the least damning stuff in it:
“We have now watched McCain run twice for president. The first
time he positioned himself as a principled centrist and decried the
politics of Karl Rove and the influence of the religious right,
imploring voters to judge candidates “by the example we set, by the
way we conduct our campaigns, by the way we personally practice
politics.” After he lost in 2000, he jagged hard to the left
- breaking with the president over taxes, drilling, judicial
appointments, even flirting with joining the Democratic Party.
In his current campaign, however, McCain has become the kind of
politician he ran against in 2000. He has embraced those he once
denounced as “agents of intolerance,” promised more drilling and
deeper tax cuts, even compromised his vaunted opposition to
torture. Intent on winning the presidency at all costs, he has
reassembled the very team that so viciously smeared him and his
family eight years ago, selecting as his running mate a born-again
moose hunter whose only qualification for office is her ability to
electrify Rove’s base. And he has engaged in a “practice of
politics” so deceptive that even Rove himself has denounced it,
saying that the outright lies in McCain’s campaign ads go ‘too far’
and fail the ‘truth test.’”
…
Okay. Well, a month to go and it’s good to know I made the right decision already…but Christ, I sure as hell hope other people do, too. The alternative is to literally have a monster of an asshole representing our country to the whole world, making crucial decisions in a time of war and economic instability…good lord, I can’t even contemplate it. ::shudder::
Originally published at *Transcendental *Logic. You can comment here or there.