John McCain, closet Iranian liberal
October 15, 2007
John McCain, after arguing in favor of an unlimited commitment to Iraq, wants to win hearts and minds in the Arab world:
As president, I will employ every economic, diplomatic, political, legal, and ideological tool at our disposal to aid moderate Muslims — women’s rights campaigners, labor leaders, lawyers, journalists, teachers, tolerant imams, and many others — who are resisting the well-financed campaign of extremism that is tearing Muslim societies apart.
This kind of talk is empty, of course, but wouldn’t it be nice if John McCain and the rest of the Republican Party would employ even a tithe of their economic, political, legal, and ideological tools to help out labor leaders, working folks, women’s rights campaigners, teachers, and many others here?
A President McCain would be able to sign card check legislation, raise the minimum wage, work for universal health care, and do any number of other things to further the liberal policy goals he apparently finds so admirable in Iran. And as a bonus, he would have been elected by Americans with a mandate to shape American policy, which mandate he would certainly not have if trying to shape Iranian policy, since Iran is, after all, a sovereign country some eight thousand miles away.
In any event, it’s a bit ironic that a party whose highest domestic priorities after tax cuts for the rich are the evisceration of Social Security and the destruction of the labor movement, can so eagerly and enthusiastically pretend to care about the foreign incarnations of movements whose American versions they hold in such contempt.
Ironic, but not surprising, since this drivel is not meant to be taken seriously, and is merely a prelude to the “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” philosophy with which McCain and the rest of the GOP candidates are more comfortable.
October 16th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
HMM Where to start with this one? For one I think that the Labor Movement and Feminist Movement are Obsolete today. Secondly The Teachers Union is a Joke they worry more about themselves than they do the Children they are supposed to be teaching. I mean the fact that the labor Unions membership has been declineing for decades is proof that the Labormovent is Obsolete. They did pretty much destroy the auto Industry here.
Now since that is out of the way lets get to what Sen McCaine what actually talking about. What he was saying is that what we should do is what we did in the Cold War. What we need to do with IRAN is set up Radio Free Iran. We need to support those millions in the Iranian population that want to overthrow the Theocracy there.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:26 am
For one I think that the Labor Movement and Feminist Movement are Obsolete today. Secondly The Teachers Union is a Joke
I’m sure John McCain agrees with you about that; it’s a common belief within the Republican Party. But if you think that labor unions and women’s rights groups are obsolete, you can’t also go around praising them in Iran, and saying you want to use “every tool” available to help them, in Iran.
Unless… maybe John McCain thinks that labor unions and feminism are useful, up to a point. They’re useful in Iran, because Iran needs to liberalize. But they’re no longer useful here, because we need to become more conservative. Maybe John McCain thinks there’s some happy medium of liberalism that exists at a midpoint between Iran and the United States. Maybe his platform is “make America more like Iran”.
October 17th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Those things are useful to a point, but In the USA they went over the cliff a long time ago and aren’t needed anymore.
October 17th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I don’t normally enjoy calling people names, but after watching John McCain back down, change his position, make up a new position, and steal the ideas of those around him and claim them as his own….the only thing I can conclude is that this man is a whore. Which is unfortunate, because I used to really like him.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Well what do you expect from a Republican that made the Media his Base.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
You can replace “Republican” with politician, no party has a monopoly on pandering.
October 19th, 2007 at 8:52 am
True enough but I see only one party that has the Mainstream Media fawning over it.
October 19th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
[...] McCain, closet Iranian liberal Ben added an interesting post today on John McCain, closet Iranian liberalHere’s a small readingAs president, I will employ every economic, diplomatic, political,legal, and ideological tool at our disposal to aid moderate Muslims — women’s rights campaigners, labor leaders, lawyers, journalists, teachers, tolerant imams, … [...]