McCain Sees Enemies Everywhere (Except in the NRA)

As you may have heard, John McCain attacked Barack Obama over the weekend in a speech to the National Rifle Association:

Of course, McCain has historically had an adversarial relationship with the NRA. In addition to criticizing his support for background checks for gunshow purchases, the NRA opposed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform effort because it threatened their influence in Washington. Here is McCain's response to their objection in 2000:

This weekend's speech was yet another instance of McCain pandering to elements within the Republican base that he's alienated in the past, an activity he does most days.

In this instance, pandering means going before a group of people who have nothing to do with foreign policy, but everything to do with weaponry, and having a fearmongering/warmongering fest. Apparently, McCain has decided that the best strategy for national security is to stoke our enemies as much as possible, and that anyone who dares suggest we embrace diplomacy and talk unconditionally — as in, in the spirit of making peace — with leaders like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez is naive and reckless and unfit to lead.

However, McCain never enlightens us as to what the consequences of such "recklessness" would be. Listening to his speech on Saturday, I couldn't help but wonder what exactly he thinks will happen if we talk to our enemies. Maybe I'm missing something, but I think the worst that can happen is that they don't listen and keep on doing exactly what they've been doing. Never has McCain explained how talking to our enemies puts is in greater danger than we are now, yet he describes the idea as naive and reckless.

Notwithstanding the arguments for why I think talking to our enemies puts us in less danger, here's what I think: McCain never takes the "naive and reckless" explanation to its logical conclusion because he can't — because he secretly knows that adopting a position of respect, equality, non-aggression, and cooperation toward our enemies will probably lead to progress. I say that on some level, the man grasps that when you approach an adversary and start talking, and embrace similarities before addressing differences, you can neutralize them as a threat and advance your own interests.

That is why he's talking to his old enemies, the NRA. McCain didn't go the NRA and talk tough to them about campaign finance reform, did he? Rather, he went there and talked about what they have in common — their commitment to national security. Wouldn't it be nice, though, if he embraced the spirit of reconciliation that seemed to overcome him at the NRA, and used it to actually make Americans safer?

Call a man an enemy and you guarantee he'll be one. Call him a friend (or perhaps more realistically, call him "a fellow sovereign state, entitled to its own leaders and belief systems") and you suddenly have something to talk about. We have nothing to lose by acknowledging our enemies' abroad and listening to their grievances, though we certainly have lots to gain, and if McCain were fit to be president he would know there is nothing naive and reckless about saying so.

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