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 SEN. JOHN McCAIN ...speaks up at a rally |
Does McCain have guts
and a clean conscience?
of TheColumnists.com
DEAR SEN. McCAIN,
Until this election year, I had the highest respect for you as a politician. You reminded me of the moderate Republicans I used to occasionally vote for, even though I've been a lifelong liberal Democrat. You were not afraid to veer away from the increasingly right-wing posture of your party when no other path seemed acceptable to you.
But I guess your admirers knew you never could win the nomination and become the Republican candidate for the presidency unless you started making compromises. You've made a bundle of them in the past year, so many that I hardly recognize you as the man I used to respect so much for your courage.
I still think you come up with some pretty good ideas, like your recent suggestion that the IRS ought to back away from the rule that requires taxpayers to start withdrawing their savings from their IRA accounts once they reach age 70 1/2. To make some of us pull a big chunk of our IRA at a time when the market is collapsing and our shares are dwindling in value every day seems just plain wrong. Worse yet, we'll have to treat it as taxable income and cough up even more to the IRS when we're struggling to stay afloat for our retirement years.
And because I'm a boxing fan, I always liked your plans for the federal government to step in and do something about the ridiculous tangle of ruling bodies in the sport, which I'm certain puts fighters in jeopardy and lines the pockets of greedy executives. That's federal regulation--coming from a man who's usually dead set against it. But you and I both know you can't leave regulation of prizefighting to the states or you'll continue to have the corrupt setup we have right now.
But you've moved sharply to the right on virtually everything else and you even seem to be playing up to the Christian conservatives and other often-warped factions that proliferate in the GOP. But I'm most concerned about the people you've embraced by adopting hate-mongering tactics you have at least tacitly supported since you started falling behind Barack Obama in the polls, the ones that send your minions out to warn the public about that dangerous radical senator from Chicago.
When you stood up for Obama's good name last week at one of your rallies in Minnesota, I almost fainted dead away. That brave guy who risked the boos of his own supporters was the John McCain I used to applaud frequently. And I think you did it for the highest and best reason: You are beginning to cringe at the sounds coming from the angry and twisted people who are starting to come out of the woodwork of the Republican party.
I think you know in your heart that letting Sarah Palin tell your followers that Obama "pals around with terrorists" is not only wrong, but dangerous. The woman at your rally who said Obama is not like the rest of us, that he's "an Arab," is not just an ignorant woman. She's also a potentially dangerous woman. The man who told you he fears an Obama presidency probably isn't the kind who would pick up a gun and try to prevent that event from coming to pass, but you know darn well there are people out there who would be willing to do it.
I don't believe it makes any difference how negative you think Obama's ads have been getting about you. What makes a difference is what you think of your own ads. If you think the ones that fan the flames of racism and hatred can be defended, then you're beyond redemption. I have to believe you're embarrassed by some of the things being said in your name. And I'm pretty sure you don't really believe it's okay to turn loose Governor Palin to behave like a junkyard dog because you know it reflects poorly on your character, not just hers.
The fact that you defied a crowd of supporters to try and scale down the rhetoric that night in Minnesota is probably the best act you've taken since you began your campaign for the presidency. It won't hurt you with voters overall. You'll pull many fence-sitters over to your side if you take that ball and run with it. many more than will boycott you for telling them how you really feel about such a moral and ethnical issue.
This is the time to write your own "profile in courage," Sen. McCain. If you ordered your campaign people to lay off the negativity and went public about your reasons for doing it, you will salvage the self-respect you have squandered in recent months with behavior that makes you appear to be a man who will do anything in order to become our next president.
Believe me, a bold and brave act like that would force Obama to match you with his own effort to clean up the rhetoric. You are probably going to lose the election anyway because you're linked in the public's mind with the unsavory and hapless reign of George W. Bush. With the economy gasping for air, it seems almost impossible for a Republican to hope for a mighty victory.
But if you do the right thing and take the high road, you might trigger a boom in your favor. You will NOT have such a boom if you let Palin and the others pour more gasoline on the flames of racial hatred. You will go down in history as a blackguard if your provoke a Lee Harvey Oswald to come out of the shadows to save America for the white race.
If you take a decisive step to throw that element out of your campaign, you will, at the very least, preserve a reputation that once was unassailable and you will be able to sleep well at nights for the rest of your life.
©2008 by Ron Miller. This column first posted Oct. 13, 2008.
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