McCain's Corner: A McCain Politically Speaking

McCain’s Corner Politically Speaking

I spent several weeks of June and July in Ireland this year. I was over there speaking at the 17th Ulster American Heritage Symposium. When I travel in the UK, in Ireland, etc., I always notice the lack of accurate reporting of American politics there. What little news of the American political scene is filtered through a very left wing lens. Their Media reports President Bush’s low approval ratings, but fail to mention it is not the war, but his lack of action on the border issue. Bush has lost the Centre, not the Left, they were never with him. The average Irishman, Scot, Englishman, Welshman, etc. has very little concept of what goes on in the American South, West, or the Plains and our farm states. In the conversations, seated in the pub, I brought opinions and views not often heard and they were listened to with much interest.

Politically speaking I am an Independent. Here in what the American media likes to call the Red States this is a common political position among my peers these days. Many of us here really do not feel at home with either the Democrats or Republicans. To borrow a line from the great Will Rogers, the attitude here is don’t vote, it only encourages them!

I like the political ideas floated circa 1776 into the days of the early US Republic; it would be hard to improve upon those. In those days this country was a republic, not a democracy, in fact the Founding Fathers warned us of the evils of democracy. They feared a democracy would degenerate into rule by special interest groups and moneyed interests. Which suggest they were prophets as well as patriots to my mind as this is exactly what has happened. That is the state of the union today, we are ruled by an unwholesome cadre of special interest groups and men who have learned to slept with them. It is not pretty.

Now you might think my views unusual, I don’t think they are and many of my friends also see politics much as I do. We are normal people. Our views are logical and normal, I certainly don’t think them radical nor did the Founding Fathers.

The establishment media likes to marginalize or demonize normal people. I am reminded of Senator Obama’s reported comments about the mentality and questionable psyche of small town folk; here we are with our archaic religion and worse, our guns. If we only knew then surely we would be like the elites in San Francisco or New York City? I am thinking, are the elites on the East and West coasts really models of ideal human society?

My grandfather was a lifelong Democrat and my father is a registered Democrat. My grandfather would have shot you, or thought you needed shooting, for voting Republican. He wrote a letter to President Truman, and received an answer. He wrote Lady Bird Joh

nson after LBJ passed away, and again, received an answer and thank note from Mrs Johnson. He could not have comprehended a Southern man not being a Democrat. As a boy, I wrote the Kennedy White House and received a signed photo of John and Jackie. I often pull the photo of John and Jackie out of its protective sleeve and look at it… did that really happen, 1961, 1962, etc. I wonder how many light years ago were those days. In some ways I resent being forced out of a Democratic Party affiliation, I feel like it is a Southern family tradition. I think I am still there really; it is the party that has moved from me and my ilk. For that matter where is the Republican Party of Ronald Regan? I'd like to see it back please.

Today, the 2008 model Democrats and Republicans both involve us in foreign intrigues and undeclared wars; both tax us very heavily and have absolutely no restraints on government spending. They both involve the Federal government in aspects of government outside of that stated by the Constitution. They both accept the concept of redistribution of wealth, creeping socialism. They both accept feminist dogma, create a society hostile to one wage earner families in which the mother may stay in her house, create a ‘Home’ and raise her children. They both involve the Federal government in education and try to micromanage our schools and universities, etc., etc. and this business of taking God out of our society, is just stupid.

We are the people who like to sit on our back porch, have an adult beverage and talk, but it is getting to the point that just being normal and having normal thoughts makes one a radical. We live outside the Pale and the Pale looks pretty dark from where we sit.

So who do I support this presidential election?

John McCain of course, true he is a distant cousin to me, we share the same Irish immigrant ancestor. I am also a typical Southern lad and tend to support my blood. Family still means a lot here in archaic Mississippi, but the real reason I support him is character.

John McCain is a naval aviator that has flown high risk combat missions. That’s right; he’s not a lawyer. He chose to climb into an A-4E Skyhawk fighter bomber, fly over enemy territory, knowing he was going to be shot at by anti-aircraft ground fire that includes Soviet made ground to air missiles. You see that takes the sort of grit that our dear Republic needs.

He served his country well and has paid his dues and then some. On one of his visits to Oxford, I did get a chance to meet and speak with him. I found him very intelligent, quick witted, and clever. As for his much reported independent streak, I like that and it is one of his greatest strengths and a great asset to a leader of a nation.

Yes, I do disagree with him on several policies, but you know I am an adult and can handle that. I’ve been married to the same woman for decades. Are you wondering what that has to do with the issue? The married men know exactly what I mean. I’ve learned life is not always having your own way boy howdy, ain’t it so. It is a blessed relief really, the day you realise that it is OK not to get your way all the time. You will get over it, it is called growing up.

One policy I have concerns over is the borders… I do want the borders closed and the illegals out… period. I like Mexico, I like Mexicans, I speak Spanish, but it is not right to allow an invasion of illegal immigrants to occupy our country and use our social infrastructure without any avenue for US citizens to protect themselves and the economy of the American family or bring some order to the situation.

It is not the Federal Government’s job to provide slave labour to large American business and multi national corporations.

Does our government know how many Americans lose work, have had their families fall apart, have lives of despair and growing poverty, just because the Federal government will not do one of its bona fide functions, i.e. secure the borders. I do think we have a better chance of having the Federal government secure the borders with McCain presidency despite his past position on the matter.

John McCain is a very typical McCain, I can say this because I am a McCain family historian and I have in the last few years travelled all over meeting McCain families, getting to know our tribe. As most people know, our family comes from Ireland. We started immigrating in 1718 and McCains continued to emigrate from Ireland every generation or so right up until today. There are pods of our McCains in Canada, across the South and West, of course many still in Ireland.

John McCain’s line of them are what we call the Teoc McCains, so named for the little town in Carroll County, Mississippi, that saw them rise to their ascendency. The Teoc McCains have produced a line of talented and successful men and women. My own McCains hail from just a few miles east of Teoc. In my research working on the history of McCain family I came upon several accounts of the Teoc McCains, about their character and honour. Even in times of racial tension in the first part of the 20th Century, the Teoc McCains were known for their fair dealings with the black community in Carroll County even to the point of risking their lives to prevent violence.

Friends, he and his people are the type we need in positions of leadership. A McCain presidency and a trend of returning government to that established by our Founding Fathers would suit this Red State Independent just fine.