What Does McCain Mean?
By • 2/13/08The victory of John McCain in the Republican primaries is bad, no doubt. Scads of conservative commentators have pointed out his sympathies with “whites as cancer” liberals. (Sorry, but I can’t stop using that word!) McCain’s liberalism is evident not only in his stance on immigration, but also in his view of issues like the treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainees and global warming. According to the outlook of McCain and his ilk, whites are ruining the world by refusing amnesty to criminal Mexicans, filling the air with greenhouse gases, and not granting “O. J. trials” to jihadists.
So, has America turned to the dark side? Possibly. But there is some reason to think not. As Mark Steyn points out, voters probably chose McCain not because of his policies, but because of his tone. Steyn notes that the McCain campaign turned around when he clobbered Hillary over support of a Woodstock museum:
[T]he defining McCain moment came back in the fall when he responded to Hillary Clinton’s support for public funding for a Woodstock museum. If you’re under 70 and have no idea what “Woodstock” is or why it would require its own museum, ask your gram’pa. But McCain began by saying he was sure Mrs. Clinton was right and that it was a major “cultural and pharmaceutical event.” Which is a cute line. And McCain wasn’t done yet: “I wasn’t there,” he said. “I was tied up at the time.”
And the crowd roared its approval. It’s not just a joke, though it’s a pretty good one. It’s not merely a way of reminding folks you’ve stood up to torture and you can shrug it off with almost 007-cool insouciance. But it also tells Republican voters that, when Senator Clinton offers up some cobwebbed boomer piety, you know a piñata when you see one and you’re gonna clobber it.
And that’s the music a lot of Republican voters want to hear. For a certain percentage of voters, McCain is tonally a conservative, and that trumps the fact that a lot of his policies are profoundly unconservative.
If it is true that voters are more influenced by tone than policy, the McCain victory might not be so bad as it appears. After all, McCain appealed to voters by ridiculing the 1960s utopianism that lies at the basis of the “whites as cancer” myth. If people hate the Woodstock spirit enough to propel a candidate to victory in the Republican primaries, might this mean that, despite all appearances, realism is gaining ground?
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Ian Jobling notes:
“If it is true that voters are more influenced by tone than policy, the McCain victory might not be so bad as it appears. After all, McCain appealed to voters by ridiculing the 1960s utopianism that lies at the basis of the “whites as cancer” myth. If people hate the Woodstock spirit enough to propel a candidate to victory in the Republican primaries, might this mean that, despite all appearances, realism is gaining ground?”
An interesting observation Dr. Jobling, and I think that you and Mr. Steyn are onto something. I wonder if that many conservatives (a, cough, cough, “diverse” group to be sure) in the rank and file of the Republican Party and electorate, are not a bit bewildered at the conservative pundits’ and radio hosts’ vehement and bitter reaction to his likely candidacy? Many people are rather uninformed and do not think quite as critically as your average IW follower or talk radio listener; the “mainstream” media and the endless manipulative drone and outright disinformation they create, often can lead to anomalies in the public’s “opinion.” Hence, the fact that Comrade McCain was sustained to the point of frontrunner by them today, when his campaign was literally in a hopeless financial and momentum Red hole just yesterday. Face it, Comrade No Brains came very close to destroying himself with his arrogant and vindictive manner on the “immigration” issue and others.
Yet here he is today, the apparent Republican presidential nominee!
I have seen this phenomena personally, when coworkers (irregardless of their political persuasions) assume that my original choice for US President, was and always has been Comrade McCain. They know my politics to a point, and assume that I am for this “right winger” and “war hero.” When I lash out tenaciously and denounce him as the vile sellout and whining weasel that he really is, they look stunned and even aghast? Ironically, only Dr. White Privilege and my boss the Atomic T-Rex, are the only two who demonstrated any insight into my “inexplicable” reactions to this fool’s current victories. Dr. White Privilege simply “knowingly” nods or laughs at the shock of others around us; the Atomic T-Rex, simply roars approvingly and vents as well, right along with me.
As the Atomic T-Rex likes to note:
“Just because he was a POW, doesn’t mean he is qualified to even be senator, let alone president; it just means he was a POW.”
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……………You hit the nail on the head my radioactive and fearlessly “prehistoric” leader!
By on 2/13/08 at 6:48 pm
To All, a mildly off topic question,
Did anyone else catch El Presidente Curious George’s little anti-white rant of hate, dealing with the largely hoaxed noose “problem” in this country? It was nothing short of disgusting; one might just call it, a groveling multicultural “altruism” or idiocy crime.
Here is a blurb from The Detroit Free Press online today:
“President George W. Bush, commemorating Black History Month, said Tuesday that noose displays in recent months indicate that some Americans may be losing sight of the suffering black people have endured.
‘Displaying one is not a harmless prank,’ Bush said in a ceremony at the White House. ‘They have no place in America today.’” (See the link below.)
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802130376
What a pity this feckless wretch didn’t address the actual disparities in interracial rapes and murders, rather than nonsense such as the “Jena Atrocity.”
Well, I guess his mostly black audience were not really open to hearing about Knoxville or Wichita.
As always, God help us all!
By on 2/13/08 at 6:52 pm
One of my conservative friends was talking to me, and he made a good point. Elect Mccain, we may be facing 8 years of hell. Elect Obama or Clinton, at least in 4 years, we can renominate a conservative.
As bad as McCain is however, he’s more likely to listen to the restrictionist republican base than the democrats are.
By on 2/13/08 at 5:33 pm