Matt Welch: McCain's Straight-Line Thinking
[Matt Welch (matt.welch@reason.com) is editor in chief of Reason and the author of "McCain: The Myth of a Maverick" (Palgrave-MacMillan).]
On Sept. 22, 2001, as a wounded nation ached for emotional leadership, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered one of the most beautiful speeches you'll ever hear from a politician. It was a eulogy in San Francisco for Mark Bingham, one of the passengers who helped bring down United Airlines Flight 93 on the foul morning of Sept. 11 rather than let terrorists fly the jet into, perhaps, the United States Capitol building. Bingham, a former rugby player who had been a McCain supporter and an active member of the Log Cabin Republicans, was gay....
A lot has changed in the nine years since, both for the country and for McCain. After two debasing political campaigns — first for the presidency in 2008, then to keep his Senate seat in Arizona this year — the "maverick" has made a series of crude reversals in the direction of social conservatism....
Because Vietnam syndrome so nagged at the nation's and the military's conscience and its willingness to wage war, McCain became the most influential legislator in putting Vietnam behind us. The ex-POW helped resolve the POW question and restore full diplomatic relations with still-communist Hanoi. Because "cynicism" was steering Americans away from public and military service and from support of U.S. ventures abroad, McCain has gone on periodic crusades against any target that seems to breed the stuff: money in politics, featherbedding in military contracts, even steroids in professional sports.
So we should take the 74-year-old at his word: He's against repealing "don't ask, don't tell" simply because he thinks (however wrongly) that allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the armed forces could have a negative impact on military effectiveness....
Read entire article at LA Times
On Sept. 22, 2001, as a wounded nation ached for emotional leadership, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered one of the most beautiful speeches you'll ever hear from a politician. It was a eulogy in San Francisco for Mark Bingham, one of the passengers who helped bring down United Airlines Flight 93 on the foul morning of Sept. 11 rather than let terrorists fly the jet into, perhaps, the United States Capitol building. Bingham, a former rugby player who had been a McCain supporter and an active member of the Log Cabin Republicans, was gay....
A lot has changed in the nine years since, both for the country and for McCain. After two debasing political campaigns — first for the presidency in 2008, then to keep his Senate seat in Arizona this year — the "maverick" has made a series of crude reversals in the direction of social conservatism....
Because Vietnam syndrome so nagged at the nation's and the military's conscience and its willingness to wage war, McCain became the most influential legislator in putting Vietnam behind us. The ex-POW helped resolve the POW question and restore full diplomatic relations with still-communist Hanoi. Because "cynicism" was steering Americans away from public and military service and from support of U.S. ventures abroad, McCain has gone on periodic crusades against any target that seems to breed the stuff: money in politics, featherbedding in military contracts, even steroids in professional sports.
So we should take the 74-year-old at his word: He's against repealing "don't ask, don't tell" simply because he thinks (however wrongly) that allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the armed forces could have a negative impact on military effectiveness....