Why Does McCain Hate America?

Hypocrisy is a funny thing, and the Republicans have always been well endowed with it. I've written before about the right-wing's attempts to smear Michelle Obama and paint her to be some America-hating black panther or terrorist. The accusations are ridiculous and predictable, but that doesn't stop a lot of right-wing viewers/listeners of idiots like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity from actually eating it all up like it is real.

The most prolific smear against her has been the Republicans taking her comments that, as a result of the outpouring of democratic activity, energy, and America's acceptance, for the first time in history, of a minority presidential candidate, she was for the first time in her adult life, proud of this country. And literally for months now the Republicans have been screaming about this on TV, radio and on the internet, saying that Michelle Obama is racist, and hates America, blah blah blah. It has been insanity. It is beyond ridiculous that they have grabbed on to what was really a very positive comment about her really being proud of this moment in American history (Laura Bush even came out and said this is what Michelle meant), and tried to twist it into something bad to use to demonize her (Cindy McCain even jumped on the bandwagon repeatedly proclaiming that she has always been proud of this country). But like I said, it is absolutely predictable, because we know the Republicans can't win on the issues, because they are defending policies that have been horrible failures and have screwed this country up for the last 8 years. So they have to resort to ridiculous personal attacks like this.

Last night, Dan Abrams exposed some past comments from John McCain, in which he repeatedly stated the following:

"I didn't really love America until I was deprived of her company."

Woah now, McCain actually admitted, on multiple occasions, that he didn't really love America until he was taken prisoner in Vietnam?? He was 31 years old when that happened. He didn't love America for 31 years...? OH. MY. GOD. And of course the right-wing talk show hosts and pundits are jumping all over this screaming "Why does John McCain hate America?!", right? After all, they've been doing this for months now against Michelle, for comments that we arguably less "offensive" (if you want to call this offensive). Let's stop for a second and compare the comments:

• John McCain said he didn't love his country for 31 years.
• Michelle Obama said for the first time in her adult life, she was proud of her country. Michelle has been an adult for 26 years, and she just said "proud", she never said she didn't love America. And also, you have to realize who has been controlling the country for her entire adult life, the Republicans (and Bill Clinton who was Reagan-lite when it came to economic issues), and they have been screwing up everything for that time. All of these problems we are seeing now, none of them started with Bush, Bush just sent them over the edge, but they were all started with Nixon and Reagan. (See my comments below on idiots pretending the US can do no wrong)

So I submit to the most jingoistic, ultra-patriotic, red-blooded, beef-eating, flag-waving Americans out there, which is worse, not loving your country, or not being proud of it? Something tells me if you didn't tell them who said which, they'd point to the person who didn't love their country for over three decades as the anti-American terrorist-hugger. Yet somehow when it turns out that a white Republican male said it, it is OK, and suddenly the black woman Democrat is the American hater, while the Republican is just a hero. Do you see the hypocrisy? Do you see the double-standards? That happens because it isn't really about love for country or patriotism or any of that, it is about politics, it is about exploiting patriotism, and it is probably mixed in with a fair amount of bigotry and racial double-standards.

Dan Abrams, to his credit, actually made a point of calling the Republicans on their double-standards, he challenged his Republican guests, the same people who have taken part in the smears against Michelle, and asked what if she had admitted to not loving America until some event (let's say this election)? Would they be making excuses for the comments like they are with McCain? Or would they be screaming bloody murder and calling her an America-hater and a racist? We all know the answer, it is obvious, they would be demonizing her and raising hell about it coast to coast. Yet with McCain, they don't care, and they just praise him as being an American hero. Shameless.

The first part of the video shows McCain repeatedly making the "I didn't really love America" comments, and then Abrams and the guests fight it out for the rest of the clip. If you watch the rest of it, you'll hear the Republican guests make some ridiculous comments. For instance one of the guests says:

• Michelle said America is "mean". I have never heard of Michelle Obama saying that America is mean, a meanie-face, or any variation on the "mean" theme.
• Michelle said that average people can't make it in America. Where the hell has this guy been? This is just like those idiots who tried to say that Obama was wrong and people aren't bitter about being ignored by Washington and left behind economically. The middle class in America is wilting away. Unemployment is going up, prices of everything from food to gas are soaring. The price of education is soaring out of reach. Foreclosures and bankruptcies are happening left and right. We have BIG issues in this country, and average people are being shut out of opportunity. To say they aren't just exposes either how disingenuous the lying Republican hack who is making the comment is, or how completely out of touch and truly elitist they are. Just like those idiots who try to say that people making over $200,000 that would possibly have their taxes raised by Obama are "average people", if you really think that the top 3.5% of Americans who make $200,000+ a year are "average" or "middle class", you have been sipping champaign and cruising on yachts for far too long.
• Michelle said the country does horrible things. Again, I never remember her saying that the country does horrible things, but if she did she would be absolutely correct. Take an easy example: Iraq. We have done horrible things there, our invasion has lead to the deaths of over a million people and over 4.5 million refugees, to say nothing of the terror, the wounded people, the psychological trauma, or the ethnic cleansing. Our government has tortured people, I'd put that in the "horrible things" category. We have fought efforts and curbing global warming even though the consequences of inaction are enormous. I'd call that negligent, and horrible. Our country has a long long history of doing horrible things, going all the way back to before we were even a country, when we came to this land and started an ethnic cleansing campaign against the indigenous population. If that happened today we'd call it genocide. Our country has done some good here and abroad, but we've also done a lot of very bad things, to ignore that, and to attack someone who simply acknowledges that we aren't (or haven't been) angels, is insane, and intellectually bankrupt. This Republican hack, and anyone who repeats these ridiculous attacks just expose themselves as complete idiots.
• Michelle is "friends with terrorists" (William Ayers). First, I'm unaware of Michelle even ever meeting William Ayers. Second, William Ayers was never charged with any terrorist acts, and was never imprisoned. Third, all of the questionable things he was involved with happened in the 60s, back when Michelle and Barack Obama were still riding bikes with training wheels. Today Ayers is a college professor and active in the community, he is not a radical, not a terrorist, and a simply knowing the guy doesn't make anyone else guilty of anything. Like I said, he is a teacher, does this mean that every student that takes a course from him is suddenly enrolled in a terrorist training camp and comes out a suicide bomber? Of course not. These attempts to connect Michelle and Barack Obama to terrorists is RIDICULOUS. Ayers is a prominent member of the community that Obama represented in the state legislature. Obama's predecessor introduced him to Ayers and they've spoken on a few occasions. Ayers also happened to be on a board that Obama was also on. Does that mean they had slumber parties and painted each other's toenails? No. Obama was cordial, as any normal person would be. Yet here we have it again, the right-wing's transparent attempts to demonize people and link them to their opponents through guilt-by-association tricks because they can't win on the issues, so they have to play voters for fools. And to think, they try to make Ayers out to be some psycho mass murderer, while they embrace Bush, who has the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people on his hands. How's that for a double standard?

Later, another Republican guest (or maybe the same one) also makes the ridiculous comment that Michelle has it all, and doesn't see America as the land of opportunity, this despite her humble upbringing in the South Side of Chicago, and despite the fact she continually praises America as the land of opportunity where the American dream is possible by using her own life as an example. She has never forgotten the wonderful opportunities she has had, and she uses that experience to call for us to fix America and make it greater so that everyone will have the same opportunities that she had. She wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and you won't find a more down-to-earth first lady. She doesn't take anything for granted, and these idiots who try to demonize her know absolutely nothing about her, and as Dan Abrams and his more rational guests quite effectively pointed out, the Republicans cynically take her comments out of context to smear her, while they would never do the same to McCain or any of their own. And there you have it, like I said before, it has nothing to do with America or patriotism or her comments or his comments or anything of the sort, it is all about hypocritically and cynically distorting their opponents (or their family and anyone they ever met) for political gain, so they can once again distract voters from the real issues, playing them for fools, so they can be voted back into power so they can continue to whore themselves out for the wealthy while screwing over average, everyday Americans.



I should just note that I agree wholeheartedly with Dan Abrams, and I find nothing wrong with McCain's comments. I don't think anyone should be required to "love" their country, or even necessarily be proud of it, especially in light of all that is wrong with it. I expect people to be realistic about their country's history and what it stands for, and I expect that they want to make it better, which is the ultimate expression of love for country. I can't respect people who blindly profess love for something, essentially giving it a blanket endorsement, while completely overlooking reality. You can't love something or be proud of something you don't even know. It isn't love, it is lust, and not even for America, but for power and for yourself.