CW and Daniel and Freddie on Me on McCain
Not by me!
cw writes:
I don’t think Reihan is constitutionally suited for election commentary, which is not a bad thing. Elections are an ugly struggle to amass power.
This is on target: why do you think I haven’t been blogging? I’m not the best go-to person for telling you who to vote for as I haven’t been a genuine partisan for a candidate since 2000. I can, however, give you my rough sense of the range of possibilities for a McCain or Obama administration. The trouble is that the worst McCain scenario is obviously worse than the best Obama scenario, and vice versa. So I find myself defending Obama to ardent conservatives, as I did a couple of nights ago in Los Angeles, and defending McCain to almost everyone else.
My friend Andrew Sullivan and I aren’t trying to do the same thing. He badly wants Barack Obama to win, and I respect that. I don’t think I’ve said anything harshly negative about Obama, in large part because I think he is a decent, thoughtful person and I think he’d represent a real improvement in some important respects over President Bush.
cw also wrote:
As for Reihan, as he says, he is a sentimental and loving guy. He has affectionate feelings for McCain of a type that many us less sentimental and loving folk can’t comprehend. When I read what he writes the conflict is obvious. He has good feelings for McCain but at the same time what the campign has made obvious, is obvious.
This is right (I have to say, I really appreciate cw’s comment), which is why I was struck by yet another reaction. Freddie has written a smart post excoriating my comment. He consider it “a disturbing document.” Honestly, I don’t quite get it as he associates me with various anti-Obama arguments and right-wing tropes that I assiduously avoid, but Freddie is always smart and always worth reading. Freddie doesn’t seem to recall the role that McCain played during Bush’s first term, as chronicled by Franklin Foer, Jonathan Chait, Josh Green, and others, and the moment in 2005 when McCain forcefully critiqued the idea of permanent US bases in Iraq (as HuffPo noted), but that’s fair enough. It was a long time ago.
Freddie writes:
He really wants people, I think, to believe in the John McCain he believes in.
Well, not really. The comment was written for the same reasons that I argued with my new friends in L.A.: I believe that Barack Obama wants what is best for the country — or at least that is the vivid fantasy that I am projecting on to Obama (as Freddie might put it), or rather that is the judgment I’ve made from my vantage point.
Daniel Larison offered some new thoughts in light of my last post. He does a far better job of explaining the dynamics we’d likely see in a McCain White House than I did in the comment.
I pointed readers to David Frum’s pro-McCain post. I couldn’t have written the same piece because I can’t endorse every point Frum raises. I don’t think this election is anything approaching a no-brainer. That’s obviously not very satisfying for anyone, myself included. Assuming Barack Obama wins, as looks very likely, I’ll be rooting for him to lead the country through a difficult period. Of course I’ll criticize and cajole him with the help of my tiny soapbox. But I certainly won’t be looking to tear him down. And as I noted in my last post, I think that partisan intensity matters and I really just want America to have a breather after eight traumatic years.
I’d also like to point out the obvious: the McCain campaign has seemed strangely vacuous because they’ve decided to talk about Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi (I own and have read The Iron Cage) rather than Jeremiah Wright; opposition to equal marriage rights hasn’t been anywhere near as central to McCain’s campaign as it was to the Republican effort in 2004; and the argument from “socialism,” absurd as it is, is at least an argument about the direction of our economy rather than an argument for McCain as a “Christian leader.” The McCain campaign has been an often imbecilic disaster, consistently outclassed and outwitted by the Obama campaign in a fair fight. It has not been the most dishonorable campaign in modern memory. That’s not faint praise: it’s not praise at all. I don’t intend to “defend” the McCain campaign: this is not a campaign I’d run and I will very happily continue living in American regardless of who is president, as I don’t think Republicans are fascists or that Democrats are communists. Rather, I’m offering a minor corrective to some overheated rhetoric. I should also stress that the tenor of a campaign depends on circumstances — is the movement in a defensive crouch, or flush with cash and united by enmity against a profoundly unpopular sitting president? Context!
I’ve droned on, but here’s the thing: America is a strange, diverse, sprawling country, and our elections reflect that fact. There are loyal black Democrats in California who will turn out for Obama and who will also vote yes on Prop 8, a measure that will strip a non-trivial number of married couples of their rights. There are lukewarm Republicans who will turn out because they believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim. There are good and decent people who believe crazy, bigoted, terrible things. And they are part of this process. I don’t think we do any good by demonizing each other. Let’s forcefully argue against equal marriage rights, let’s educate people about the canard that a believing Christian is somehow a Muslim, or, for that matter, that American Muslims like yours truly represent a danger to democracy in the first place. But we have to find some way to live with each other. Good grief.
Good grief, indeed! One quibble, to those who think Khalidi is a dangerous radical on whom social opprobrium must be heaped (Pipes, Ajami, etc)like rice at a Tamil Nadu home, it is not the “Iron Cage” but “Palestinian Identity” that rankles most.
— Nayagan · Nov 2, 01:26 PM · #
My argument with you, Reihan, is that McCain is a corrupt and debased candidate that can do nothing to project the conservative movement into an accomodation with the future.
It would be a truly terrible thing for this country and for the party if he were elected.
McCain’s election would propagate unfit memetic traits in the GOP by rewarding self-destructive behavior.
The GOP needs to evolve.
— matoko_chan · Nov 2, 04:07 PM · #
<i>Freddie is always smart and always worth reading.</i>
Why are conservative bloggers always sucking up to Freddie when they disagree with him?
— JD · Nov 2, 08:00 PM · #
Because I’m so goddamn powerful. I mean, come on— you can’t fight my media empire. I’m a regular Rupert Murdoch.
— Freddie · Nov 2, 09:27 PM · #
“There are good and decent people who believe crazy, bigoted, terrible things”
Let’s not bring my mother into this.
— cw · Nov 3, 02:21 AM · #
I cast my early vote ballot this weekend (Obama. But I was much for fired up to kick to the curb a Senator who’s been airing some amazingly misleading ads lately. Go figger, it’s always base motives for me.) It was nice, the election workers kept putting “I voted! 2008” stickers on my 6-month old son, which warmed my heart: bragging about his first felony.
Here’s the thing, Reihan: I totally agree with your op-ed at least as regards McCain. But I feel like you’re arguing past it. The point isn’t as simple as, what McCain believes. In some measure you vote for the man, in some measure for a group, and how that’s split probably varies. John McCain in particular is someone where you’d think the individual matters more — but he’s spent a hell of a lot of effort this electoral season trying to convince me that, no, it’s the group. And if it’s the group, not the man, then Frum’s wonderful list magically turns into the case against: (10) the surge brought things from the dark pass they were in because the Republicans refused to brook any realistic examination of the situation on the ground and fought (against McCain) to deny any need for the surge until their backs were against the wall. (9) the Republicans don’t seem much interested in lower spending. (8) Meet the guys who brought you the Medicare prescription drugs benefit. (7) Compromise? Never! These are the “nuclear option” Republicans … and so on. The case for John McCain was always that he is exactly who you describe — and indeed who I believe he is — and that he would fight like hell against the entrnched interests in his own party when necessary. He is telegraphing that either he won’t, or feels like he can’t.
That bothers me a lot. I have two big issues in this election: I’m unhappy about the ballooning power of the Presidency, and I’m unhappy about the treatment of prisoners. A priori I think McCain is simply better than Obama on both issues. I care enough about the way we’ve started treating, say, Uighur refugees captured in Afghanistan that I’m doing what (probably negligibly effective but personnaly strenuous) things I can about it. I think both men want to close Guantanamo and shut down prisoner abuse, maybe expose what’s been going on … but I trust McCain more. I think the great and good American people may well decide that, on balance, they don’t give a crap about torture and habeas and may even like it a little — and then there’s a Clintonian “triangulating” thing I sense and fear greatly in Obama. McCain: McCain hates this crap, and he has no votes to gain by playing footsie with it. And given his biography, the nuts in his party can’t effectively fight him on this issue.
So what does McCain do? Hire as his spokesman a man who’s made clear his support for detainee abuse. He picks a VP who plays POW rights for laughs in her acceptance speech. I totally agree with you about McCain’s fundamental nature: he is a great man. But he is telling me his hands are tied. OK, then, Obama it is.
— Sanjay · Nov 3, 07:19 PM · #
Great post, Sanjay.
— JA · Nov 4, 12:19 AM · #
“Let’s forcefully argue against equal marriage rights….” Thank you,sir! QED. You want the world to kowtow to your moralizing bigotry by stripping some of your fellow citizens of their civil rights.
— elle loco · Nov 4, 05:25 PM · #
The fact that mccain has run such a hateful campain was enough for me to vote obama.I couldnt with a clear conscience pull the lever after convincing many in the party the other candidate is a terrorist and traitor and running with that.I kept getting those disgusting e-mails and it would take me five minutes with google to find the facts.I realize elections are not for the faint of heart but when you have a sizable portion of the voters believing Obama is a muslim terrorist,dont you think that just a little dangerous?Mccain and Palin{who really did have ties to an anti- american group,AIP}Have been pouring gas on this fire they started in the hopes of frightening people into voting for them?Thats a reason?One can only pray that these fools who have been suckered in by the lies and distortions dont also get it into their head the only patriotic thing would be to kill the terrorist.Nice party.You should all be very proud!
— truthynesslover · Nov 4, 07:03 PM · #