How John McCain became a POW in the Christian Right culture war

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Republicans and the McMedia echo chamber want us to believe that John McCain reestablished his "maverick" credentials by selecting Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate — a Christian Right conservative who is comfortably at home within the Republican conservative base. How maverick-y.

McCain’s selection of Governor Palin actually represents a major "retreat and defeat" for McCain. He desperately wanted his dear friend Senator Joe Lieberman as his running mate, but the Christian Right conservative base of the GOP threatened to revolt at the RNC Convention and ruin his 10-year obsessive ambition to become president of the United States. Conservative Ire Pushed McCain From Lieberman

McCain surrendered to the army of the Christian Right conservative base in the GOP, who effectively extorted from him the vice presidential nomination for "one of our own," Governor Sarah Palin, as the price he had to pay for their support of his election in November.The Secretive Right-Wing Cabal That Met In Minneapolis To Vet Palin

McCain is a captive – once again a prisoner of war (POW), only this time by the army of the Christian Right conservatives. The National Review last year published an article titled "A farewell to Culture Wars." But anyone who has been watching the Republican National Convention has been witness to the relaunching of a new culture war by the radical Christian Right conservatives who have hijacked the Republican Party as their vehicle to wage war against their fellow American citizens – including you and me.

A true "maverick" would have demonstrated the courage to select his friend Joe Lieberman and to stand firm before the Republican National Convention and address these "agents of intolerance," as McCain spoke in 2000:

[P]olitical intolerance by any political party is neither a Judeo-Christian nor an American value… The political tactics of division and slander are not our values, they are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country. Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right. CNN Transcript

A true "reformer" would have shown the courage demonstrated by Hubert H. Humphrey, then the Mayor of Minneapolis, who addressed the Democratic National Convention in 1948 to demand the adoption of a civil rights plank: "To those who say — My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late. To those who say — To those who say that this civil rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights." American Rhetoric: Hubert Humphrey – 1948 Democratic National Convention Address

Humphrey’s convention speech sparked a walk-out by the delegations of Mississippi and Alabama.  When President Truman endorsed Humphrey’s civil rights plank, Governor Strom Thurman of South Carolina organized a convention walk-out by southern state "Dixiecrats." 

That "my friends" is what a true leader and reformer looks like. That "my friends" is what a man of true convictions and principles looks like.

But Johnny "Mac Daddy" McCain was unwilling to roll the dice and risk a walk-out at his convention by gambling on his friend, Joe Lieberman. He was unwilling to reform the Republican Party by taking it back for the traditional Republicans and showing the door to the Christian Right conservatives – as he said he would do in 2000. In 2008, he placed a safe bet by acceding to the demands of the agents of intolerance.

McCain is a man so obsessed by ego and ambition to become president of the United States that he was willing to grovel before the agents of intolerance in his party.  He was willing to trade his very soul in a deal with the devil (Karl Rove), just to have the chance of realizing his lifelong ambition – a rank that his admiral father and grandfather never achieved – commander-in-chief.

Hasn’t this country suffered enough already from the psychodrama of George W. Bush trying to prove that he is a better man than was his father? (hint: you’re not)

If elected, McCain will be captive to the regressive social agenda demanded by these agents of intolerance in exchange for their political support. These agents of intolerance will pray for the day that Sarah Palin will succeed him in office. They will pray for McCain’s early demise, as they have done for others. Talk To Action | Reclaiming Citizenship, History, and Faith  McCain is simply the vehicle for these agents of intolerance to get "one of our own" into the White House.  You had better watch your back, Johnny Mac. The devil always collects his due.

Sarah Palin is but a stalking horse for the Christian Right conservative movement. New revelations re "stealth dominionist" Sarah Palin  She is now their "rising star" and the future of a radical Republican Party. That is what makes her so dangerous. And that is why this Republican ticket must be defeated.

As Abraham Lincoln warned this nation so long ago:

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

— January 27, 1838 – Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois