John McCain is Channeling Nixon Now

The Republicans of 2008 tried to sell us Ronald Reagan, but switched to Teddy Roosevelt when Reagan's deregulation became the financial collapse of 2008. Now they seem to be switching again, in yet another reckless attempt to reignite culture wars, trying to sell us the Republican Party of Richard Nixon.

McCain is quoted in today's NY Times, asking "How can you countenance someone who was engaged in bombings that could have or did kill innocent people?" I had to look twice to be sure who was being quoted and who he was talking about. Yup it was McCain and he was talking about William Ayers, who in the 60s was a member of the Weather Underground.

What McCain isn't telling you, and many Americans are too young to remember, including the Democratic nominee for President, is that there were two sides to the culture war of the 60s. The side he is adopting, the side of Richard Nixon, was that there is a Silent Majority that supported the war in Vietnam, and the side represented by the anti-war movement, who, it turns out actually did reflect the opinion of the majority of Americans, that the war in Vietnam was a terrible mistake. If one were to measure the goodness of one side over the other based on how many innocents they killed, there's no doubt that McCain's side killed far more. Orders of magnitude more.

In Thursday's debate the Republican candidate said that every Presidency makes mistakes, and it's true of generations too. She said we shouldn't look back to the Bush Administration for their mistakes, so what is the point of McCain digging up the mistakes of Nixon? Or maybe it does deserve looking at, if so, at least Ayers has moved on and done something constructive with his life. McCain, who likely bombed his share of innocents in the 60s, didn't learn, and took us into another senseless war in which we are again killing huge numbers of innocents.

If we're going to have this discussion, and re-litigate the outrages of the 60s, let's look at it from both sides. Or perhaps as so many have, we should just move on and deal with the problems of today and learn from the mistakes of the past.

Update #1: Jane Smiley writing at Huffpost saw the same irony. "John McCain's defense is that he was performing his patriotic duty, and that's what William Ayers would have said, too." Again, the perennial response to Republicans is that they don't have an exclusive on love of country. I wonder when they'll ever hear that and stop claiming one.

Update #2: In my travels I came across this 1972 infomercial for Nixon. You gotta watch it. It'll give you a fresh perspective on how all this Republican michegas got started.

Comments

[LondonTownNY]

What nobody will say, is that all the so called radicals as they are labeled, peaceniks, anti-war movement people, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower ( who has a General), were all warning this country about the growing beast, America's Military Industrial Complex. They were all trying to hold off the inevitable rise of a hungry war machine which needs to be fed. Had America listened to those voices rather than demonizing them and in some cases having them killed, perhaps we would not find ourselves where we are today. As the rest of the world has advanced, America is in a period of decline and facing uncertain times. John McCain's rhetoric has long been discredited by history, but even he is too foolish to recognize, that unlike himself, some of us read history books and some of us have had our eyes open over the last 35 plus years.

[Indubio]

Weather Underground has a black reputation but the social conditions that led to their creation are usually ignored. Republicans claim the silent majority supported the war (and Nixon) but they avoid noting that governments can manufacture consent and use its power to destroy opposition. Manufacturing consent and destruction of opposition happened in the 1960s. When government stifles dissent and when it uses its power to control how citizens think, it isn't hard to understand why some might grasp violent radicalism. We may criticize Weather Underground--what they did was criminal--but considering their motives, they were in a sense acting patriotic (as are John Birchers and other far right wing fringe groups such as Posse Comitas). Thus, the term terrorist is misleading since one persons terrorist is anothers freedom fighter. Consider our present situation: Should Republicans manage to steal another election how might some respond? Might not some folks declare war on government? Would they be terrorists or freedom fighters? Radical groups form when people feel that reasonable, legal alternatives are no longer viable. This is what led to TRoosevelt's Fair Deal and FDR's New Deal. The Roosevelts understood that the best way to avert radicalism is to empower those lacking it. Neoliberals like Johnson and certainly incipient fascists like Nixon and GWBush can never understand this, and, it remains to be seen if Barack Obama understands. I can't condone Weather Underground methods but I understand and would argue that their political motives were understandable.

[Gib]

One day after "there ya go, pointing the finger back to the past again", we have Palin pointing the finger back to the past. The irony!

[MajorKong]

McCain is just swinging wildly and hoping something connects at this point.

[BillZBubb]

McCain is flopping around like a flounder on the deck of the boat. He's desperate and it shows.

[tjfxh]

Desperation setting in, John? Can't a hero like you take it without trashing your own honor, not that there is much left of it anyway.

[LeftRight]

Speaking as a lifelong liberal, and a veteran of the United States Navy, I can say with CERTAINTY that the conservatives do NOT have a lock on love of Country!!!