So, on Monday, dear sweet precious Meghan McCain was at it again on The View, this time accusing President Biden of "doing grave spiritual harm to himself and harm to this country" because he supports abortion. She added, "He’s going to have to ultimately talk to his Creator when the time comes as we all do, and reconcile his politics with his personal faith."
It was just another in an ongoing series of the terminally petulant Ms. McCain feeling entitled in proclaiming herself a victim for pretty much anything she doesn't like, based on a sense of superiority provided to her by being the daughter of a former presidential candidate. To be clear, I don't think Meghan McCain is without abilities. It's just that there are many people with abilities -- many even much-greater than hers (some less) -- who are unknown to the national public because their fathers are not former presidential candidates. And if Meghan McCain wants to use that fortunate chance of birth to give her a foundation for a national platform, including co-hosting a national talk show, fine, that's not unreasonable. Use what you've got. But once given such a platform in life, it's always struck me as best to build upon what that and not just use it to so-regularly whine about feeling victimized because you aren't getting your way about everything and deserve to because you are the daughter of a former presidential candidate. I note all this because I've always been pleased that when Meghan McCain came to attention because her father was running for president in 2008 and she seemed sane and reasonable to most of my liberal friends, I would argue back that, no, she only seemed sane and reasonable compared to other Republicans, and only just barely that. And I mention this because there were two Republicans around that same time about who I had this same debate with my friends -- that they seemed sane and reasonable to my friends, but I argued that it was only compared to other Republicans. The other was...Lindsey Graham. I wish I had been wrong. But I feel very comfortable saying that I was absolutely right, about both. The bigger argument was about Lindsey Graham. Meghan McCain was a fairly unknown quantity, so people didn't put up a huge argument -- they didn't know enough about her -- they only disagreed and would say, "I like her." But Lindsey Graham was a pretty substantial public figure at the time. And not just a U.S. Senator, but also a Navy JAG officer. And he did occasionally take some impressive, fair-minded positions for a Republican. The problem was that he also was taking some significantly unfair-minded ones, and I always thought you didn't get too many bonus points for being fair and decent, that that's supposed to be the starting point for all people. Yes, one such admire "fair and decent" -- because it's right and proper and basic and standard, and you admire such things. But you shouldn't be seen as special for it, most especially in a way that forgives all the times you act reprehensibly. And Lindsey Graham acted reprehensibly enough to make me thing, "Gee, that's not actually a very good person." We're supposed to be fair and decent. When you wander off that reservation too far and too often, it doesn't bode well. And it hasn't boded well over the years for Lindsey Graham, who has now gone full-crackpot fascist, nor for the princess-in-training Meghan McCain, who is at the point where she would feel personally victimized for 5,000 years of Jewish oppression because she once ate a bagel. What's also somewhat interesting is that Meghan McCain and Lindsey Graham have one big thing in common. John McCain. He was Graham's closest friend in the Senate, And obviously her father. Whether their recent growth in ethereal petulance and out-of-control self-righteousness has blossomed in the years after John McCain passed away specifically because of that, taking away their protective moral compass and unleashed the whiney kraken within, or whether it's just a coincidence of timing, I don't know. After all, sometimes it takes a while for a person's wild immaturity to mature and come to full blossom. I suspect it's a little of both. But mainly, every time I see Meghan McCain and Lindsey Graham go Full Self-Righteous Authoritarian Crazy, my first reactions is for every corpuscle in my body to cringe, and my second is to wish I could find every person I argued with about them long ago and say, "I told you so -- and I wish I was wrong."
1 Comment
Apparently there are two different versions of the audiobooks for the Harry Potter series. I was aware of Jim Dale reading the books, but apparently that's just for the American market. But it seems that Stephen Fry does the audiobooks for the series in England. The only thing I can figure is that Fry has a more low-key style that they figure fits young British readers better. Or not. (If you don't know his work, for years the very erudite Fry was partnered with Hugh Laurie as a comedy team -- not doing standup bits, but sketch comedy and a series about Jeeves and Bertie Wooster based on the P.G. Wodehouse Jeeves books.) This is simply a funny story that Fry tells (wonderfully) about doing the audio books for Harry Potter. I came across it by accident over the weekend. It’s all great fun, but there’s a point to it that’s a hoot, which you will love. I don’t want to give it away. Yesterday, I was exchanging emails with a friend in Texas that had to do with the blistering weather there. I went to a weather website to track down some information, and once there I saw a headline to story about a tornado that just hit a Chicago suburb. I knew that growing up in Glencoe, north of Chicago and on Lake Michigan, we'd occasionally have tornado watches -- though rarely reaching the level of a tornado warning -- but the tornados (and most "warnings") were usually in the more outlying and western inland areas. I immediately clicked on the article and saw that the subheading said that the area hit was southwest of Chicago. That gave me some relief, because I was mainly checking for Glencoe (where I'm from) and other norther suburbs where most of my relatives in the area live. But then I realized that I have a cousin who lives southwest of Chicago in Naperville, so I wanted to check about that, though happily "southwest of Chicago" is a very huge area. And reading deeper in the article, it turned out that the down hit by the tornado was...Naperville! This is where my cousin Diana lives. I've mentioned her several times for her artwork (including the memorial fiberglass horses she was commissioned to design by the City of Chicago) and the articles that periodically have been written about her. When I phoned her, there was no answer, so I admit to a little bit of concern -- but she called back about half an hour later. Her family was fine, and fortunately they have a basement and huddled there, While it was certainly concerning as the tornado sirens were going off at 11 PM, with torrents of rain and gale-force winds, happily there was almost no damage to the house, limited mostly a little bit of the grounds. However, when she went out for a walk the next day to assess the area, she came across where the tornado hit. Close enough, obviously, for her to walk to. (She quipped that before going out, she made sure to first put on her ruby red slippers. And no, just to be clear for anyone wondering, and not knowing her sense of humor, she didn't actually do that.) Not only was the damage terrible, it was only about a mile from their home. As awful as the damage was, though, happily no one died, and the one person who was listed as critical and be taken off that list. Here are some of the photos she took of the area a mile from her. And as Diana noted in her email -- there used to be a house here. What's odd is that the homes next door on either side were relatively spared, not in the absolute direct path. If you missed Last Week Tonight with John Oliver last night, the Main Story was on home renovation -- more specifically about the government PACE program which is well-meaning, for helping to bring environmental improvements to a home's energy efficiency, but has so many potholes in the way it's implemented that it's been a disaster for far too many people. The report is an odd one, but very good and often very funny. The one issue is that it's so detail oriented about regulations that, at times, the story risks spinning out of control. Another minor issue, that reader Douglass Abramson pointed out, is that the story doesn't mention one core reality for all home renovation -- never, never, never sign a contract to do home renovation with anyone who ever knocks on your door uninvited or cold-calls you. The other day, former Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the Western Conservative Summit and drew a rousing chorus of boos and cries of "traitor" -- all for the Today's Republican crime of following the law as defined by the Constitution of the United States. While it was a boos that got the media attention, my friend Myles Berkowitz sent me a note about something else that bothered him far more. (To be fair, there are many things that bother Myles "far more" compared to most people. This is not a criticism, just an observation that he has a fine-tune sense of being bothered. So, when his level of being bothered reaches that high level of "far more," it's worth paying attention. At that point, you can decide whether or not to be equally bothered. In this case, he's right.) When Pence began speaking the shouts of "boo" and bellows of "traitor," he wanted to make sure the people in attendance knew who he was and what he most stood for, that he was on their side and believed in everything they believed in. He told the Western Conservator Summiteers that he, Mike Pence, the former Vice President of the United States, who had been sworn to protect, defend and preserve the Constitution of the United States again all enemies foreign and domestic (including those who attend the Western Conservative Summit) was first and above all, in this order -- " A Christian. A Conservative. A Republican." Nowhere on that list is "An American." It's not that "An American" didn't make Mike Pence's Top Three. That's bad enough. But he didn't even choose to expand his list and make it a Top Four. And it would have been okay if he did -- after all, it wasn't like there was a limit on how long the list could be. It was his list, after all. And by choice, Mike Pence decided to leave out "An American." That aside, even forgetting for the moment that he put religion over country -- which happens, especially among the most devout (though once upon a time, Americans were concerned about electing Catholics to the White House because of the fear they'd be beholden to the Pope. We're past that today, though I suspect only until it's convenient for some to bring it up again), but I get "religion over country" for some, at least if it's tied to the morality of the religion -- what Mike Pence also did was put political philosophy over country. And political party over country. And that's the problem with today's Republican Party. And we saw it for the past four years. They have put their party over country. (Worse, one could suggest that they have put an individual over country.) That's what we see in Mitch McConnell saying openly that he'll block any major bills and federal judicial appointments and Supreme Court appointments if Republicans take control of the Senate. And it's what we see in all the voter suppression bills by Republicans to limit the basic, foundational American right to vote, out of fear that too many people might not vote for Republicans. Once upon a time, not too long ago in the breadth of American history, the late 1960s, Republicans railed about those protesting in the streets and cried out, "America, love it or leave it." Clearly, that GOP philosophy has been relegated to their dust bin. Along with other Republican chestnuts like "My country, right or wrong." That and, "My country, 'tis of thee" and "God Bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her." Now, for a Republican today, it appears that the mantra for what they view as most important, or perhaps even only important is being "A Christian. A Conservative. A Republican." Not "an American" in sight. And while, yes, this could have just been an oversight to Mike Pence. But it's a pretty huge thing to forget about when defining who you are at a political rally -- when you're the former Vice President of the United States. And given all I mentioned about about today's Republican Party, it doesn't seem all that much an oversight. It seems core. Especially when you add it how many Republicans supported Trump's love for Vladimir Putin and support for Russia and insistence that Putin should be trusted over the U.S. intelligence services. I am sure that most Republicans today consider themselves proud Americans. And believe that they support America and all that it stands for. The problem is that most Republicans today seem to show that what they believe America stands for is being a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican. That's the problem. And no, it's not about Trump. It's about the elected members of the Republican Party, and is base members who enable it all and are complicit. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|
© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2024
|