 |
The More Things Change, The More McCain Stays the Same |
 |
We all get nostalgic over some things. For me, it’s ’80s movies and music. For John McCain, it’s the Cold War (hey, who doesn’t get a little misty over a time when thermonuclear war and the omnipresent fear of nuclear winter floated over our heads?) Mccain sounded positively energized when invoking possible NATO action as a way to respond to the fighting between Russia and Georgia (and who can blame him if he happened to get some basic facts wrong along the way?).
McCain is clearly more comfortable in the past, a time when Czechoslovakia was still a country and real men knew how to talk tough. For the rest of us in the year 2008, new problems require new solutions. In the 21st century, we’re trying to prevent terrorist attacks by non-state actors while also keeping an eye on a resurgent Russia and countries like Pakistan, North Korea, and China. It’s no longer a bi-polar world, and things are, in many respects, more complicated than they were 20 or 30 years ago.
Falling back on the (oddly) comfortable East-West dividing line seems to come as naturally to McCain as converting an attack by non-state actors into a contrived rationale for attacking Iraq came to George Bush. The reality is that we need a united world to confront Al Qaeda. We need Russia and other states to help us track down terrorists, who have the pesky habit of moving from country to country, and helping us to secure dangerous materials that could otherwise fall into terrorist hands. That doesn’t mean we roll over for Putin and do whatever he likes (Bush failed to see what might happen in Russia when he found a friend in Putin’s soulful gaze). It does mean that seeing the world through Cold War lenses is unhelpful and reflects a misunderstanding of the world we live in. Falling back on overheated (to mix temperatures) rhetoric from the past is even less helpful, as it gives Russian nationalists red meat to throw to nostalgic Russians who, like McCain, may want to re-live the pre-1989 world.
McCain, more comfortable in the 1960s or 70s than today, may have a nostalgic yearning for the feisty rhetoric of the Cold War. That’s the last thing the rest of us need now. McCain can feel free to indulge his nostalgia. Personally, I’d prefer a 21st century president who understands the world we live in now and isn’t forever  re-fighting past battles.
This is a nice analysis, and as convincing a portrait as any of what’s going on in McCain’s mind.
It’s interesting to me how complicated - and unstable - Bush and McCain are psychologically. For all the charges of elitism against Obama, Kerry, or Gore, we never hear the charge that they simply can’t hack it mentally. That charge rings pretty true for McCain and Bush though. Bush the alcoholic, with various complexes, and McCain with all of his ego and temper problems…if nothing else people should recognize Obama simply isn’t bringing the same baggage with him.
thanks Alex. it is really disturbing to consider the points you raise about Bush and McCain…and more disturbing that traditional media doesn’t ask questions about this. There was that one piece on McCain’s temper (several Republicans, including some senators, said it is a huge problem–one said the though of McCain as president sent a cold chill down his spine), but it has otherwise been pretty much overlooked