McCain The Cad: A Study in Republican Hypocrisy and Why Obama Will (or Should) Win the Family Values Vote
Republicans have developed a nasty habit of turning a blind eye to sins that might put them in a bad light. This double standard reaches a new zenith with the right wing/evangelical embrace of McCain. Caligula is in bed with the Church Lady, and the Church Lady is pretending to like it.
If they vote for Senator McCain the evangelical/conservative/Republican base is going to have to reach for a new level of hypocrisy. So are honorable military men and women voters.
In McCain's candidacy the folks who have driven American politics to the sanctimonious moralistic right for 30 years are about to be hoisted on their own petard. As for the military vote, a glaring chunk of McCain's life -- after Vietnam -- is the opposite of honorable.
I am a former life-long Republican, a former evangelical right wing leader. I'm also the proud father of a Marine. In the 70s and 80s, along with my late father Francis Schaeffer, I was a founding instigator of the religious right. I re-registered as an independent out of disgust with Rove, Bush et al. Today I am a dedicated Obama supporter.
It is as a former insider's insider -- I once labored with Jack Kemp, C. Everett Koop and Gary Bauer, the Bush family and the Fords et al., to get evangelicals to vote Republican--that I note that according to evangelical theology and right wing morality, McCain is virtually in a class of his own when it comes to bad behavior. He makes Bill Clinton's moral lapses look benign by comparison.
Here are some well known -- and undisputed -- McCain facts presented by Sharon Churcher (Daily Mail June 8 "The Wife Of US Republican John McCain Callously Left Behind.")
McCain likes to illustrate his moral fiber by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children.
But there is another Mrs. McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator's presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain's three eldest children....But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife [Carol] had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier...
When McCain... was released in March 1973, he told reporters he was overjoyed to see Carol again. But friends say privately he was 'appalled' by the change in her appearance...'I thought, of course, we would live happily ever after,' says Carol. But as a war hero, McCain was moving in ever-more elevated circles. Through Ross Perot, he met Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California. A sympathetic Nancy Reagan took Carol under her wing.
'John started carousing and running around with women,' said Robert Timberg. McCain has acknowledged that he had girlfriends during this time, without going into details... He was also fiercely ambitious....
In 1979 -- while still married to Carol -- he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage.
Carol and her children were devastated. 'It was a complete surprise,' says Nancy Reynolds, a former Reagan aide.
...[D]espite his popularity as a politician, there are those who won't forget his treatment of his first wife.
Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans' rights, said: 'I have been following John McCain's career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is -- deceit.
'When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it.
"Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better."
"This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.'"
...Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel -- even by the standards of modern politics.
"McCain is the classic opportunist. He's always reaching for attention and glory," he said.
"After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.."
Republicans have been winning elections by appealing to a holier-than-thou sense of American goodness. One plank is the anti-gay and anti gay marriage agenda. In McCain they have a leader who represents the antithesis of family values. In fact McCain is sort of man who got horsewhipped by irate fathers on behalf of wronged daughters in Victorian novels. He's what used to be called a cad.
The idea of the folks who uphold the "sanctity of marriage" joining forces with this man is mind boggling. They choose divorce and abandonment over commitment. So much for consistency. Talk about straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel!
For the record, I don't think it's appropriate to measure public service by personal sexuality and/or private behavior. But the Republican Party should be judged by its own pro-family standards. As it has judged others, so let it be judged. (Disclosure: I actively supported McCain in 2000, because I figured W. Bush was worse. Now, with Obama, I am supporting someone who I think will be a great president, not as a best of a bad alternative, but as the most inspiring candidate in my lifetime.)
The Democratic Party (unlike the Republican's evangelical base) is not selling itself on personal moral rectitude. But the fact is that Senator Obama and his wife Michelle are the model of traditional morality.
Evangelicals and other members of the right are in a strange position. The candidate representing their "Christian values" is a disaster, while their "godless" opponent -- variously described as "a Muslim," "unpatriotic," "hates America," and "pro-abortion," etc., etc., walks the walk of bedrock America.
By contrast McCain has not only broken the rules of decent family conduct, by tossing over his wife in her hour of need--a wife who loyally waited for him and raised his children -- but he has broken his much vaunted military moral code of honor too.
McCain says he belongs to the fraternity that "never leaves a man behind," much less a wounded comrade. But that is exactly what he did to his wounded and disfigured wife.
One reason Obama will win is because evangelicals are going to have trouble swallowing the jagged chunk of awkward moral hypocrisy that is John McCain. They are also going to have a hard time hating Obama, whose personal life mirrors their values, who's religious beliefs are sincere and humbly and devoutly Christian and who's family devotion is authentic.
Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back
Follow Frank Schaeffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_schaeffer
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It’s not very often that I find myself agreeing with an author here on the Huffington Post, and I was especially surprised to find myself agreeing with Mr. Schaeffer. I spent a few days with Mr. Schaeffer and his son a few years back while he was promoting their book, Keeping Faith. I liked them both (in his son’s case, how could I not like a relatively new fellow Marine?), I’m just glad we never talked politics.
I agree that McCain is a far from perfect choice for President. I respect him for his military history. But as a politician, not so much. The choices he has made over the years paint him far from conservative. And as Mr. Schaeffer has pointed out, the choices he has made in his personal life leave him somewhat short of an outstanding example.
But in the same breath, I will disagree with him. Just like Mr. Schaeffer’s choice in 2000, conservatives today must choose the lesser of two evils in McCain. While Obama may be the model of an American family (would that he were, but that’s another discussion), his politics rub elbows with evil. No two ways about it, he is a socialist. I, and millions of conservatives like me, will not allow the downward spiral of our country to be given a turbo boost by a socialist at her helm. That “jagged chunk of awkward moral hypocrisy” is far easier to swallow than the sure destruction of a beautiful country.
Sometimes I wish the labelers would actually flesh out these buzz words: Socialist? What does that mean? Seriously, is wanting an end to this war (that does not include the fantasy that Iraquis are going to line up and throw flowers at us?), better health care options, accountability in how our agencies are run, a functioning government that can respond to crisis (like Katrina), a sane foreign policy that doesn't draw its inspiration from a John Wayne movie, and an economy that is not run by people who seriously believe against all evidence that if provide corporate welfare to companies (who btw do not have any problems outsourcing employment) while handing out cookies to the rest of us (guess where my rebate check is going? If you guess for GAS, you win!) is socialism, well I guess the former Soviet Union know where to send the extra statutes.
I take your conservative challenge to "not allow the downward spiral of our country to be given a turbo boost by a socialist at her helm" and raise you one. I (and a whole lot people) will not allow a bunch of flag waving, flag pin wearing arm chair warriors bully us again into allowing another 4 years of policies driven by a failed administration to put our great country further behind, no matter how many times you shout "socialist" or "marxist".
Indeed, look where way-too-free-market, Corporations-Gone-Wild policies have gotten us over the past 7 years. Do I need to spout the litany of ways our economy -- nay, the entire worlds' economy -- is in the toilet?
CEO's wages are now more than 500X the avg worker's salary, up from 40X less than 30 years ago. I'm all for rewarding excellence, but there's been almost no correlation between rise in pay and corporate profit performance. (It has tacked along a similar profile to the S&P 500.) And how many more "golden parachute" stories do we have to read about when failed CEOs leave their companies?
Under the Bush regime, overall the rich have gotten richer in America, the poor have gotten poorer, and the middle class is starting to fall back. Mission Accomplished I guess, Mr. Bush.
"While (the) Obama(s) may be the model of an American family (would that [they] were, but that's another discussion)"
Okay, let's have that other discussion then. What you're basically saying here is that the Obamas appear to be the model of an American family but they're not. Why?
Both Barack and Michelle worked hard to put themselves through school and only recently paid off all their student loans. They both have outstanding academic records. When Barack finished school, rather than taking a lucrative career in law he became a community organizer and sometime constitutional law professor. Then he ran for State Senate and his political career began. Barack and Michelle have two beautiful daughters. They are enjoying their success and living the American Dream. Some might say they are the embodiment of it. Then again, as evidenced by your commentary, some might not. So I ask again, why?
What I was trying to get across is that the state of the American family in general has declined so significantly that the Obama family is now the exception, rather than the rule.
Do you have the power to convince the evangelists how anti-Judeo Christian his behavior was? If so, God bless you---
Mr. Schaeffer, I have to read your books. I wish you would read my profile. For the longest time I was alone, or I thought I was alone. I am so thankful for freedom of speech.
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He'd been tortured for five years, and she had been horribly disfigured. When they finally got back together after five years apart, neither of them was the person that they had married. That's a serious dual trauma that would've caused a lot of marriages to fall apart. Hell, most of the 50% of the marriages that end in divorce fall apart for far less.
I've been cheated on, and unceremoniously dumped, and I certainly suffered for a time, but the bottom line I came to terms with, was that you can't make somebody love you. And you can't guilt them into it. Love has to be voluntary not obligatory. If McCain had stayed with her out of obligation or pity that wouldn't have made her happy.
Marriages are very personal things, and without me knowing how things were in that McCain house, and how they interacted on a daily basis, I have to withhold judgement. I do know (from watching my parents) that when one or both of the people in a marriage is very unhappy ( for whatever reason) and cannot work it out, staying together is just masochism. When the feeling's gone, it's gone.
He set her up financially for life, and paid all of her medical bills for life. As long as she's not bitter, why should we be? I think McCain is the absolute worst thing we need as a president, but not because he divorced his first wife.
Thanks for this good moral lesson. No one should judge another, yet we always do.
You're talking about a subjective interpretation of very clear religious and moral restrictions.
To have and to hold.
For better or for worse.
In SICKNESS and in health.
If people want a pass on divorce as something that is better for both parties, it's time for America to re-write out marriage contract to allow for such whimsical actions as "falling out of love".
McCain entered into marriage with his first wife, and had children with her. Their marriage was intended to provide their children with two parents, financial support, and a solid family environment. That he was the party pursuing other women and seeking the divorce makes it his responsibility that the marriage failed, which I think is the point of this article.
I totally understand that marriage is personal, but then why does it receive federal protection and support?
John serial skirt chaser. End of story. Don't dress it up.
It pains me to say that McCain has the upper hand because there is no YouTube video of him dumping his first wife, whereas the Rev. Wright videos will be everywhere. If you can't watch it on TV or your computer, then it didn't happen.
ThePrisoner,
It's the Republicans who've established this standard for people so McCain, being their representative, should mirror those ideals; loyalty, commitment, 'till death do us part' etc. etc.
Obama never took the oath 'in sickness and in health, till death do us part' with Rev Wright. and the pastor does not speak for Obama. In additon, this story re McCain's first wife, is factual. Check it out. Many people, including myself, don't have to see it to believe it eg. I don't have to see the wind to know it's blowing all around me.
It's all about the Judges. The Christian Right will hold their nose and vote for anyone ho promises that the next several selected Supreme Court Justices will overturn Roe v Wade. The next few justices selected will probably replace more liberal judges and if McCain is elected the court will swing very far to the right. We will probably live with that court for many years and to my way of thinking is the reason we must elect Obama.
I do believe that Sen. Obama backs the idea of separation of church and state. However, I believe he realizes that people of faith are a political force, as a group. But I would hope that people of faith would not expect a presidential candidate to necessarily believe as they do. I think it's a shame that they can wield so much influence on politics. Not good at all. Usually evangelicals want everyone to believe what they believe or disappear. That is a bad thing!
Senator Obama has said that the extremes of both sides have done us a great disservice, with, for example, the "pro-choice" folks being unwilling to talk about difficult moral questions at the heart of being able to choose, and the "pro-lifers" characterizing those brave individuals who provide reproductive care as "baby killers."
Most of us aren't on those extremes, and we need to find a better way to understand each other.
I was raised Catholic, I was lucky enough to get scholarships because I was smart and my parents were--well, I used to think of us as "middle class" but I think we were actually poor--and I' struggled with my Catholicism all of my life. So does my mother. A lot of American Catholics thought the Pope would accept use of the pill--it was developed by a devout Catholic who attended Mass daily and thought he'd come up with a method of contraception that would be "blessed." Pope Paul said the pill was a sin; my mother, who loves her faith, and who was struggling to support 4 kids, stopped taking communion until after my dad died. It took me years to figure out why.
I am completely pro-choice, if I were faced with an unwanted pregnancy, I know that it would be an agonizing decision to make. But neither my priest nor the government should be able to make that decision for me, or any other woman.
Another thing that Obama has said, is that instead of this futile fight we are having between prolife and prochoice. A fight that isn't going to go away by half the country forcing its views on the other half through the supreme court. A fight that will never result in either side converting to the other. That we should work together to deal with the real issue that all of us can agree on... unwanted pregnancy. If you deal with that issue, such that you eliminate nearly all unwanted pregnancies, then you have managed to eliminate nearly all abortions.
We'll never get to a point of having zero abortions in this country. Be it rape cases, incest, medical emergencies, or back room illegal ones. You'll never get rid of them all, but if you can get rid of the vast majority by eliminating nearly all unwanted pregnancies, then you don't need to fight over abortion.
"...Today I am a dedicated Obama supporter....'
Hmmmm. Today, several C-span and Joe ScarBorough talked about the "welcome" appearence of religious "values" in a candidate and the political process. The problem I expect to lead to a religious dictatorship is on-going, that of "which party is more religious"? Imagine a candidate promising to prove he or she is more "godly" than his opponent by promising to ask for laws and amendments that will allow this nation to do away with heretics and non-believers.
Can it happen? In 1988, Pat Robertson was running for the republican nomination. Asked if he would niminate people of different religious believes to departments and agencies, he answered,"I will only name people who are my friends.....and I do not have any non-christian friends."
Obama's adoption of christianity scares me because people who convert are more "intense" about obeying religious dogma. I do not trust anyone who prays for guidance; after all, there is no one at the other end. I do not trust anyone who pray for someone else to have god enter their head and heart; that person may decide an auto-de-fe is needed for the good of the heretic's or non-believer's immortal soul.
No, Mr. Schaeffer, support of Obama does not automatically make someone a good, moral person.
We live in a complex world. We can't afford to hide in a shell or refuse to get invovled just because things are not perfect.
Part 2
Barack Obama had a message and a vision for our nation from long before he entered the race for President... He has lived his life according to that vision... he freely admits that he had no religious persuasion until he heard the sermon.. "the audacity of hope"
Have you even bothered to listen to it? I am guessing NO.... HIs call to his faith was late in life, my call against t my faith was late in my life.... That does not make me support him less... We need a leader with vision... we need that flawed leader as well... Bush is plenty flawed and his vision is morally wrong.... but you supported him... I did not...... but he has led us into oblivion if we don't start back on our true path again....
"Obama's adoption of christianity scares me because people who convert are more "intense" about obeying religious dogma."
Where do you come up with "convert"? Obama converted from what? Please tell me your not one of these geniuses who believe Obama is/was a Muslim.
.................And W put all those graduates from Fawell, Robertson's university ( i never can keep those two separate) into ever arm of governement and including all those "lawyers" at the Justice Dept which was Rove's political playground. That didn't work out so well !!!
Now we have a Republican nominee, the insane old coot, who will sell his soul to the same people to gain power and stack the Supremes and has no morals at all.
Yet we have a couple, in Obama and Michelle, who try to walk the walk of a moral family and they are called every name that can be hurled at them. Obama has stated that he wanted a family and a community that was grounded after being raised and up -rooted growing up.
Hard to figure out these Christians.......................But one thing is certain, there needs to be SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
Churches need to stay out of politics and Politics needs to stay out of religion, period !!
We should all go down on our knees and thank God that Pat Robertson never became an elected official. He is a vicious, hate-filled, immoral man. Greed is his motivation, and of course pride. His self-aggrandizing is gross. Now his adulterer son is poised to bilk the next generation of gullible faithfuls. They have perfected the art of scam. They have found a way to lie and to cheat and to steal and to then claim that God has blessed them. Gordon Robertson cheated on his wife and his famous daddy, the self-proclaimed holy prophet of God, helped him keep the affair hidden. Throughout Gordon Robertson's extramarital affair and cover-up they continued their on-air "healings" and "words of knowledge" because they are vital to their profitability. Please read my profile.
I posted this on another of Mr. Schaeffer's entries but thought I would post it here again...
Thank you Mr. Shaeffer...
I needed your viewpoint right now... I am so emotionally invested in this wonderful man and candidate that it sometimes makes me ill when I see how the Republicans are trying to paint him..... It won't work for me or for the other members of our movement,but, there are so many others out there in our diverse nation that will refuse to look beyond the smears.... that will refuse to actually look at John McCain and see what a sham he is.... The Republican party was once a great party and one to be admired with the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt....
Teddy Roosevelt
"Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds."
"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."
"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives."
Obama.. a new Democrat but an "old" Republican.
Wow good for you, Mr. Schaeffer. I'm glad that you woke up out of your religious stupor and are using your experience to inform others. I have very strong spiritual beliefs which make it all that much harder to understand how the Right has hijacked Christianity. Jesus was the ultimate liberal, teaching tolerance for all, compassion for the poor, non-violence, etc. etc. etc. I hope that more "Christians" actually start following the teachings of their Prophet as opposed to the teachings of hateful church leaders who have corrupted and perverted Christ's message of peace and love.
good comment.
to me the inconsistencies are glaring.
i am dumbfounded by the millions of faithfuls who continue to fall prey to the wolves.
i am dumbfounded by the media who seem to love the crazies and care nothing about the people who are being scammed.
I believe character is important in the leaders we select. Why should voters and average citizens be expected to live up to a high moral creed yet our leaders shouldn't be judged by such things?
Why is our character important in matters of employment, coaching and other areas of our life but we should throw it out the window when it comes to the leader of our country?
Yes, we are all human but some behaviors show very weak moral compasses. I'm a Democrat and I happen to place high values on marriage and have very little respect for adulterers. If McC was so shallow that he could not stay with his wife (he was no prize IMO) he could have had enough respect for her and his family to end his marriage BEFORE his cheating.
I don't care of you're the President or the trash collector...morally weak is morally weak!
Being a veteran does not give John McCain a pass on being a pig and a pig he has been and will continue to be - TO EVERYONE, including women, African-Americans and veterans!!!
As long as cindy mcinsane is always referred to as his present wife and his former mistress, I'm happy. Or he could stop trying to sell himself as some paragon of virtue.
This is a great subject but it is loaded with landmines. But its time for Democrats to take the upper hand in defining what the "model of traditional morality" is, because the Republicans have been two- faced hypocrites while being sanctimonious. Once the Democrats take the upper hand, unlike Republicans, they will be reasonable in their definition. And this was always, I believe, the initial intent of functioning morality. But it was Hijacked somewhere in the eighties by the Right. I wouldn't have called you an instigator, but a hijacker.
And if John McCain was so Mavericky why, considering his personal background, didn't he break away from the religious right and their hypocrisy and acknowledge his mistakes. Instead of strengthening the beliefs of a party selling personal moral rectitude. In the end, this just proves that he is no better than Newt Gringrich (divorced) and Rudy Guiliani (divorced). It could be, he's even worse, if he's spent decades benefitting from the Right, while "pretending" to be the outsider. Yes, Perot is right, opportunistic.
Devout Christians are a little lost right now. Thanks to these hijackers and their enablers. It may be that Evangelicals have to Exit - stage "Left" i.e. (Obama) to get their salvation back.
If this story is true then he is in the same boat with Gary Hart, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, GHW Bush. Preachers, Priests, Rock-Stars, Athletes (including NASCAR drivers) and countless others.
But, if a person has these lies in their background, kept as secrets, do not expect them to be honest when they take that oath, in January every 4 years, in Washington DC.
No one is perfect, on either side of the aisle.
But it's the utter gall, the myopia, the hypocrisy and the complete sell job on average (inattentive) Americans that really bugs me.
Compare the several-hour reading of the crimes of George W. Bush by Congressman Kucinich, versus what the right wing had on Bill Clinton.
Let's add Ronnie Reagan who dumped his first wife for Nancy who was 5 months pg.
I'm no fan of Ronald Reagan, but his first wife, Jane Wyman, dumped him. I always did like Jane!
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