Sunday, August 24, 2008

Listen to McCain

As beautifully summed up by Frank Rich, "McCain increasingly resembles those mad Japanese soldiers who remained at war on remote Pacific islands years after Hiroshima."

But what about the people who don't see McCain that way? Who are scared of change? Who want the "old days" back?

That nostalgia for the old days isn't because the old days were so good. In older people, it's increasingly a stand in for what they used to be, and no longer are.

So we can't reach people who are clinging to McCain the way they used to cling to their blankie.

But people who, despite the odds stacked against them with the TV Talking Heads and the overwhelmingly negative coverage of Obama, are still trying to find something that will help them choose a candidate they feel comfortable with: They should listen to McCain.

He's outright telling people what he's going to do. Is it stuff they want?

Bringing back the draft? McCain was enthused about a woman's suggestion that the draft is the only way to keep all these wars going. He loves the idea of more warm bodies for his foreign policy, which is:

Fighting an endless series of wars? His plan is to fight wars for oil, wars for other countries who disagree with us, wars as the solution to any foreign policy problem.

Increase the national debt? McCain's economic policy does nothing to address our staggering debt. In fact, he'll increase it, because:

Tax cuts for everyone, only the rich get most of it?
Under his tax plan, the middle class, which he defines as anyone not making $5 million a year, will get tiny cuts, while the rich, like him, get massive cuts. He's not worried about pumping his own gas, because his energy plan:

Energy policy that will offer only psychological relief? Yes, let's drill everywhere. Even though he admits it won't bring gas prices down. But people who already have a lot of money, like Exxon, will make more that way. He doesn't care when prices for gas and food are high, because he says:

People who struggle to make their bills are whiners. The man in charge of his economic policy called anyone in difficulties "whiners" whose money problems were because they were in a "mental recession."

Keeping our present health care system to make insurance companies rich? That's what his tax breaks for health insurance scheme is. We get a tax break to pay rich insurance companies for junk insurance, and our taxes then go to profit, not anything we can use to make our lives better. Does he suggest legislation to make sure the insurance companies actually insure people and pay up when these people need health care? Not that I've heard.

Skip all his talk of honor and change and experience. What he promises to do is right there in his words.

A country racked by debt and economic turmoil, where people are poor and desperate enough to sign up for more war, all the time, with a draft for the slackers and no help for those who aren't of any use to his crazed chess game with lives.

That's what he's promising. Listen to what he'll actually say he'll do.

And decide if that's something you want.

1 comment:

  1. Very nice. Succinct.

    I'm sorry I wasted my time reading Rich's long article.

    Yours is better.

    May I add you to my blog?

    Suzan

    ReplyDelete