Read It Or Not

Salvo in the battle for a post-racist America.

I admit it. I know it seems crazy now, but I honestly used to like and admire John McCain. Whether it was always just a myth, or whether he’s only recently sold his soul to the Karl Rove wing of the Republican party, I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem as if any vestiges of his independent, garrulous, straight-talking (dare I say it) ‘mavericky’ self remain.

I don’t think I ever would have been tempted to vote for him, as I disagree with his positions on most of the really important issues (with campaign finance reform being a prominent exception). However, had he beaten George Bush in 2000 and then gone on to beat Al Gore, I don’t think I would have been bitterly disappointed with the outcome, at least at that time.

For better or for worse, his truth- and decency-challenged 2008 campaign (as well as a few atrocious positions he took in the last year, such as his caving on the issue of torture under the guise of the Military Commissions Act– that someone who was tortured could have done this still flabbergasts me) has either served to open my eyes to what has been there all along, or else has represented the precipitous collapse of one man’s moral structure in full public view.

I think this interview with the Des Moines Register was the last straw; there’s no turning back for either of us:

The German government passes up the “opportunity” to participate in the plan to mitigate the clusterfuck we’ve created. Angela Merkel, the conservative chancellor, called for more regulation and transparency in the financial markets– funny how a dispassionate perspective results in a more realistic approach, as opposed to the ultimately meaningless free market dogma we’ve come to expect from our right-wingers.