09-04-2018, 02:00 PM
The Myth of the Maverick may be more welcome than the reality. In all fairness, John McCain was not a remarkably-good politician. Maybe we would have been better off had he acted differently to that 'black baby' smear that Karl Rove pulled on him on behalf of Dubya. He might have won, and he would get to be his own person. I am tempted to believe that he would have read the intel on the 9/11 plot and thwarted it with arrests and deportations, and of course exposing the details to the rest of the world. (But I say the same of Al Gore, assuming that what I would do myself is what a rational actor with respect for intelligence services would do).
With or without him, we will need to recover the validity or morals, ethics, and ideals without which we become cynics devoid of effectiveness. With a President who shows contempt for democratic norms, demonstrates undue respect for dictators, baits people who have done nothing wrong as 'losers', accuses the media of being 'enemies of the people', and acts with an eye largely to his own corrupt gain, then morals, values, and ethics become precious.
Let's put it this way: if you have $20K in savings or marketable investments, $30 is something you can slough off. If you are broke, then $30 is big money -- a fill-up at the gas tank, or an oil change. When we have a President like Obama, morals, ethics, and ideals are to be taken for granted. OK, the Hard Right might disparage his ideals in favor of a culture that glorifies and obeys the dictates of the Master Class.
With or without him, we will need to recover the validity or morals, ethics, and ideals without which we become cynics devoid of effectiveness. With a President who shows contempt for democratic norms, demonstrates undue respect for dictators, baits people who have done nothing wrong as 'losers', accuses the media of being 'enemies of the people', and acts with an eye largely to his own corrupt gain, then morals, values, and ethics become precious.
Let's put it this way: if you have $20K in savings or marketable investments, $30 is something you can slough off. If you are broke, then $30 is big money -- a fill-up at the gas tank, or an oil change. When we have a President like Obama, morals, ethics, and ideals are to be taken for granted. OK, the Hard Right might disparage his ideals in favor of a culture that glorifies and obeys the dictates of the Master Class.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.