For me, it is an easy choice.
For me, it is an easy choice.
By Paul from Chicago, IL - Mar 24th, 2008 at 11:40 pm EDT
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I happened upon the MSNBC candidates profiles a week or so ago. I saw the one on John McCain twice. A few thoughts have been percolating since I have seen the program.While I would commend McCain for his service to our country throughout his life and his desire to lead, my choice against his accent is easy. As just a humble observer of the reported “facts” about McCain’s qualifications I am uncomfortable with the the qualities that are supposed to pass for qualification. I am sorry that Sen. McCain was disfigured and abused and it is not something ever to be ignored, however it does not augment the qualification’s for President of The United States.Reluctantly pursuing a Naval career like it was just the family business is the foundation of experience relevant to my limited understanding of McCain’s continued youthful indiscretions. In my view, it has carried forward with it unfortunate events and greater problems than disappointing a parental expectation. Some people believe that overcoming the personal need to choose one’s path in life by allowing that path to be chosen for you by one’s parents as a singularly positive example of self sacrifice, but life is not that simple. While John McCain’s life might have been better for the structure imposed by a military career, it is not clear that we will be better off for that experience. What has followed that experience?
Graduating near the bottom of his Naval Academy class, pursuing a life of fast cars, smoking and drinking; there is nothing wrong with that, I myself was not a very dedicated student, and have had my share of drink. Some could speculate that having an active Admiral for a father can make a difference, and it would still be just speculation. I would ask another Admiral’s son, in Jim Morrison of “The Doors” rock band fame, if he were alive.
There is false impression we have as a society that ordinary service conveys an honor that is transferable by association, or the inverse. In the positive transference, there is the hope that the next generation will be better off and as well succeed where we ourselves have failed or have had failings, that the next generation will have learned from our life, but each of us are more complex. We do transfer things from generation to generation, skills will still vary.
It is fortunate for John McCain that he has survived the circumstances that have befallen him. Unfortunately for us, in my opinion, bad things happen around John McCain because he has been positioned. Call it being in the wrong place at the wrong time, coincidental, if you like. I have to ask myself, if John McCain was not fully qualified to be on an aircraft carrier, were there others not qualified? Was there a practice at one time of pressing warm bodies into military service that were not prepared, in technical skills, or discipline?
We say John McCain is a hero for having survived 5yrs of captivity and torture. In part that is true by what is described in his MSNBC bio of the grueling conditions of his captivity. But I have to ask was it his own maverick, reckless behavior that put himself in that position? McCain having been told to stay out of anti-aircraft range, found himself there none the less!
There is a kind of initiative needed in wartime to get a job done, the kind when facing a desperate circumstance one might choose to sacrifice one’s self if that time was desperate enough. To say all wartime activities, because one has served, makes one a hero would diminish those that have chosen the path of ultimate self sacrifice so that many others might survive. What is a hero? While one could debate even the validity or justness of a war that was never declared impacting the foundation of heroic acts as well, I want to make clear, surviving torture is a singular kind of heroism! John McCain survived torture.
All military targets are considered important to the military. One could ask what was ever desperate about our government’s need to become involved in Vietnam. Like recent military activities the United States involvement in Vietnam was predicated on false information and deliberate deception. The true cause or need for war making we might discover in time, for now we have to choose who would not find it easy to sacrifice our treasure based on a deception.
The whole argument of John McCain’s heroism is based on his surviving torture. He physically survived, but he was broken long before he signed a confession no one in their right mind believed. John McCain was broken by his family tradition. It is a hard thing to have said. As well, do we pity John McCain’s tragedy so much that we all must sacrifice our well being to make John McCain “all better,” so he can take his “rightful” place in his family history?
John McCain has had military training. John McCain has followed orders apparently his entire life. John McCain is not a bad person but he is as well notorious, of note, for his poor choices and being bailed out by those around him. Folks have been covering for John McCain being just an ordinary guy. There should be nothing humiliating about being ordinary. It is unfortunate that what ever powers that be continue to position John McCain as some kind of superhero when even McCain himself would modestly decline the label.
John McCain’s lack of distinction, his inability to stand out, except for all too many questionable circumstances could position him to be ultimately sacrificed by the very humiliating children’s story, “The Emperors New Clothes.” That is not a flag they have draped you in Sen. McCain it is a goat’s skin. But hey, is that the political game you signed up for?
For my self it is an easy choice on who’s judgment I could rely, Barack Obama’s. I think it is a difficult argument to question what makes John McCain a hero. I mean no disrespect in questioning his qualifications. No body should question that McCain suffered under torture, but I am not going to sit by and pity him to my detriment. Bad things happen around John McCain but he has survived, I don’t know what that means. My own fear is that the greatest disaster has yet to befall McCain, at worst let it be failure to attain the presidency.
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