Quote:
Originally Posted by randolph
To put it as simply as possible, McCain--and his cohorts--are trying to score political points against the President in the midst of an international crisis. It is the sort of behavior that Republicans routinely call "unpatriotic" when Democrats are doing it. I would never question John McCain's patriotism, no matter how misguided his sense of the country's best interests sometimes seems. His behavior has nothing to do with love of country; it has everything to do with love of self. Repubs are just passing the same old shit.  |
Well, wait a minute...let me get this straight. FIRST you say you won't question McCain's patriotism, which by pure definition means you feel he's doing or saying things because he genuinely loves his country, which in turn means that the ideas he's expressing are what he REALLY believes deep in his heart ARE in the best interests of the country...
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BUT THEN you want to turn right around and say "His behavior has nothing to do with love of country; it has everything to do with love of self." No offense, Randolph, but you can't have it both ways. You can't try to sound like the nice guy and say "I respect McCain for his service to his country and I won't question his patriotism", but then instantly stab him in the back and say "He's only doing this for himself." The two statements just don't jive.
And for the record, what McCain and many of the Republicans are simply doing is staking the SAME ground that Reagan took against military regimes himself. As others have noted, the best parallel for Iran right now would be Poland during the Reagan years, where the people likewise staged a political revolt because of constantly shitty and corrupt elections. And frankly, I do think Obama is taking the wrong path here, all because he's trying to weasel his way and have it both ways. He's trying to say muddled things, send mixed messages, so that no matter who comes out on top he can then say "See! I was on your side all along."
To that end, I respect what Reagan did a helluva lot more, when he basically went on national TV and in a televised speech essentially told the Polish government in no uncertain terms: "Get your shit together and have fair elections and respect the will of the people and let democracy be respected or else the United States will cut you off in a heartbeat. And even after we cut you off, then we'll do whatever we can to repeatedly fuck you over again and again just to ram the point home."
Now THAT was a President showing some balls and taking a stand FOR an emerging democratic movement when it needed emotional support the most. For being a former college professor, Obama could certainly learn a few things from the history books.