"You will hear from my opponent's campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I'm running for President Bush's third term. You will hear every policy of the President described as the Bush-McCain policy. Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to repeat that idea over and over again?" - John McCain, June 2008
I started off as an independent voter. And I know that many of you will laugh at this, but I cast my first vote for Ross Perot in 1992. He had that populist vibe that I've always been a sucker for ("America is like broken a car, and what we need is to get under the hood and fix it"), but ultimately what persuaded me to vote for him was because he was right on the most important issue of the day: he was against NAFTA and "free trade". Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush toed the line on the issues and carefully parsed their words, but Perot gave me a sense of genuineness. No bullshit. He didn't tell me what I wanted to hear. He was going to give it to me plain whether I liked it or not.
That said, after putting my support behind Clinton and working as a volunteer for his slam dunk campaign in 1996, it was only natural that I turned my attention to a fiery, straight-talking Senator from Arizona in 2000.
Alan Keyes was there for the free post-debate
all you can eat buffet.
Had John McCain won the Republican primary that year I most likely would've voted for him. He was (or framed himself to be) an anti-corruption, pro-environment fiscal conservative, who at the same time slammed the Christian right wing and railed against the racist pandering that was inherent in the Republican Party. Like most voters, I didn't delve into the details. Hell, I didn't even care about the details. Everyone has their flaws. This is a post-modern age in which everything revolves around appearance and messaging. I bought into that, and unlike now, back then I was just too lazy look up the facts. McCain seemed to be a no-shit guy.
(i've become much more informed voter since 9/11, but that's another story...)
Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger (or at least risk) in which they have been placed.
Since 2000 everyone can agree that John McCain has changed. He now supports many of the positions he once derided. He has become the smiling-through-gritting-teeth champion against his own ideals. He has fallen in line behind the man and the organization that called him the "Manchurian Candidate" and the "fag candidate", that highlighted his wife's drug addiction, that smeared his service to his country, and said that he frequented prostitutes and had an illegitimate "black baby". Why would he embrace those he despised? Because now he is only focused on one singular goal: to win, take power, and vindicate himself.
"The fact is that I have agreed with President Bush far more than I have disagreed. And on the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I've been totally in agreement and support of President Bush." -John McCain Meet the Press June 2005
To win, take power, and vindicate himself.
Why else would he go through this?
It's been a long 7 years since McCain began his Faustian Bargain. You can easily tell that it's taken it's toll. Every disingenuous vote, every parroted talking point, and every compromise has chipped away at him bit... by.... bit. To the point that now, now he's almost unrecognizable.
The greatest Hell one can ever know is being away
from the one you love.
So in honor of the man I would've voted for, I now happily, as he would have wished it, denounce and mock the person he has become. You wanted to be president, but instead you're a parable.
John McCain: Portrait of a Maverick (3:34)
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If you liked this video you may want to take a look at my other three. Feel free to pass them on, or use them educate your Republican friends.
Republican Party Values
Republican Party Values 2
Iraq: The Reality On The Ground