As my readers know, I’m a registered Republican (albeit a very liberal one, in the Lincoln Chaffee/Olympia Snowe/Millicent Fenwick/Pete McCloskey mold). I supported John McCain in the primary with no intention of voting for him in the general, because (despite the fact that he would prove the toughest candidate for a Democrat to beat) I wanted to support the Republican least beholden to the “movement conservatives” who have done so much to damage both the party of Lincoln and the nation.
Let me say again, for the fortieth time, I’m voting for Obama. McCain is Greener than most Republicans, but not Green enough — and the environment is my top issue. McCain’s track record on equal pay for women and on reproductive rights is also lamentable. I share some of his economic views, mind you, and my liberal internationalist streak (the one that competes with my inner Anabaptist) likes a willingness to use force to protect the vulnerable. But in the end, I’m voting for Obama-Biden. The selection of the ultra-conservative Sarah Palin certainly did nothing to move me towards voting John McCain twice in the same year.
But I enjoyed McCain’s speech last night immensely. I found it moving, even as he trod down a path that is familiar to all of us. And what I found fascinating about him is his extraordinary insistence on “country first”. McCain comes across as an essentially secular person (which is a bit of a relief, frankly, compared to some in his party). If asked to order their priorities, I’d imagine your typical GOP conventioneer would offer 1. God, 2. Family, 3. Country. McCain seems to reverse that trinity.
I teared up at this:
But after I turned down their offer (that of his North Vietnamese captors to release him early), they worked me over harder than they ever had before — for a long time — and they broke me.
When they brought me back to my cell, I was hurt and ashamed, and I didn’t know how I could face my fellow prisoners. The good man in the cell next door to me — my friend, Bob Craner — saved me. Through taps on a wall, he told me I had fought as hard as I could. No man can always stand alone. And then he told me to get back up and fight again for my country and for the men I had the honor to serve with, because every day they fought for me. (Cheers, applause.)
I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here; I loved it for its decency, for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people.
I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore, I was my country’s. (Extended cheers and applause.)
I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. (Cheers, applause.) My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.
Bold emphasis is mine.
I don’t share McCain’s views. Indeed, as a progressive evangelical, I find them in some sense appalling. God is invoked only to enable McCain to do what he feels is the highest calling, fighting for the nation state that he sees as the source of his salvation. Am I the only one seeing something vaguely pagan in all this? More specifically, last night McCain was more Roman than Christian in his elevation of patria to the highest allegiance of all. And to use the language of salvation repeatedly, and to ascribe that salvation not to God but to country, was absolutely extraordinary. And yet, it was moving and compelling in its own way.
It’s common to tell “lost but now am found” stories. Lots of us tell stories about being broken, and then saved. I tell mine. George W. Bush told his. But when most Christians tell our stories of falls from grace, of being laid low by hubris or addiction, we describe a conversion experience that was brought about by God. McCain’s was brought about by the patria. America, not Jesus, saved John McCain. And that’s an experience with which very few in either party can identify.
McCain’s patriotism is, in the end, basically secular. The Christian right’s patriotism isn’t. McCain wants to fight for America because he loves it more viscerally than anything else; Christian conservatives want to transform the state to bring it more closely into alliance with one particular set of biblical principles. I think that that disconnect is one reason among many for the greater appeal of a more straightforward right-winger like Sarah Palin, and for the continued discomfort so many in the hardline conservative movement feel with the latter day Cato the Elder whom they have nominated.
As a Christian, do you have a problem with McCain’s faith in country? Can one serve two masters?
Of course. Obeying the civil authorities is fine, attributing to the civil state the power to save is a bit much. Render unto Caesar, but don’t worship Caesar.
Just to clear up, are you answering “of course” to the first or second question? I would say that attributing salvific power to the state is more than “a bit much,” it is damn near idolatrous.
The first question. Yes, it’s idolatrous. “Bit much” was deliberate understatement.
Thanks for the thoughts here. Did I miss your post on Obama’s counterpart speech at the DNC? Given your comments on McCain’s speech, how do they compare? Did you tear up listening to Obama? Were you more satisfied at his priorities on God and country?
I was barely awake, alas, for Obama — home and jet-lagged! I kept nodding off.
I, too, was stunned at his salvation language to describe his love (worship?) of country.
I’ve been aimlessly looking around the web for other Christian responses to this, but haven’t found anything insightful yet. Have you? Surely the Republican Right hasn’t seduced American Christians into just glossing over this…
at John Hobbins’s blog: Biblical Tropes in John McCain’s Speech
Well, if McCain does get elected, I hope you’re spot-on and that he does, indeed, hold the USA up to an ideal, the way so many of us did during the Vietnam era. That’s probably the one and only way he will keep this leaky ship of state afloat. The recent bunch of losers seems to be trying to steer us into some weird sepia-toned hybrid between Puritan New England and Wall Street (”Greed is Good”) with a happy ending.
Am I the only one seeing something vaguely pagan in all this?
I’d like to think it’s another check in the “John McCain just isn’t religious” column. Really, the guy strikes me as the sort who identifies with a religion out of passive tradition more than any active belief. That would, obviously, make his recent…epiphanies mere pandering to the Republican base, but it would also explain nation preceding God in his priority list. It even addresses your “two masters” objection; if you don’t acknowledge God, then Caesar (metaphorically speaking) is all that’s left.
Then again, I’m an agnostic irritated at Christianity being a requisite for American political office, so that might just be wishful (and useless, given the whole pandering thing) thinking.
But after I turned down their offer (that of his North Vietnamese captors to release him early), they worked me over harder than they ever had before — for a long time — and they broke me.
That there are the four words that impressed me the most. Contrasted with Sen. Obama’s inability to admit “I was wrong about the surge” in his interview with Bill O’Reilly … it becomes no contest between the two.
Gonzman,
After getting set up by an excessively rude talk show host who constantly interrupted him, I’m more than inclined to give Obama a break for not being able to get a word in edgewise in the interview you mentioned.
I’m not an Obama supporter, Hugo, but I have to wonder why John McCain gets points for falling in love with his country following a signal event, whereas when Michelle Obama declared that she felt proud of her country after HER signal event, many focused on her non-amorous condition before the event and attacked her. I realize that YOU have not attacked her. Still, a little perspective here. What took McCain so long? Why wasn’t he thrilled with the USA before his time in prison? It treated him pretty indulgently all his life.
Also, I think misogyny explains some of the gushing about McCain’s POW past. He did time in a club that didn’t admit women. Male suffering = badge of honor. Female suffering (for example severe gynecological cancer, brutal rape, traumatic childbirth) = shameful, gross.
The most moving line for me was “No man can always stand alone.” Not that it’s such a great line on it’s own, but it’s the opposite of what you’d expect from McCain.
But it also highlights a flaw–it’s completely at odds with his political career. John McCain has always acted like John McCain is the only honest man in the universe. His opponents, from either party, are always corrupt at best, traitorous at worse. McCain’s allies always seem to be tactical alliances of the moment–never does he rely on someone else for moral support or guidance as he had to do in Vietnam.
It’s tragic.
Not to mention that that phrase has implications for domestic economics that are completely at odds with McCain’s stated proposals.
Or, to put it another way, it’s somewhat unfortunate that McCain cast that experience as the saving power of patriotism rather than the saving power of comradery. I guess that’s why he always refers to the country as “my friends”.
I’m not sure of the ethics of voting for someone in the primary, not because you intend to vote for them in the general election, but for the sole purpose of depriving others of a choice you don’t wish them to have.
Lester, I am a Republican. I happen to have this quixotic vision of slowly moving both parties to the left — where both parties agree on protecting the environmment, on providing excellent public services, and on the importance of staying in a community of nations. And then we can have arguments between the parties over exactly where to place the estate tax exemption. McCain moved the GOP incrementally away from the far right.
Pushing both parties leftwards could have a good effect on our political system. Since the country is about 1/3 liberal, 1/3 moderate, and 1/3 conservative, the two left parties will end up fighting for dominance of the left half, and a new conservative party will spring up to represent the right half. The parties of the left will either bicker endlessly and split the liberal vote, leaving conservatives in charge of the actual government, OR they will fight it out to the death (intellectually) and we’ll end up, FINALLY, with an intellectually coherent party of the left which will be capable of rational governance.
Either way, the country wins. I’m on board with your plan - vote in all the primaries you like.
McCain moved the GOP incrementally away from the far right.
And then he shoved it right back into place by attaching Palin to his ticket.
The GOP will never liberalize, not while the religious right maintains its stranglehold over the party/country.
After getting set up by an excessively rude talk show host who constantly interrupted him, I’m more than inclined to give Obama a break for not being able to get a word in edgewise in the interview you mentioned.
Fair enough. I suppose he is used to getting softballs lobbed at him from the media, so I guess it threw him off his game.
Good grief. Who cares about policies, qualifications or political leanings - let’s just have a popular vote on “Who gave a better speech, McCain or Obama?” and be done with it.
I’d be a little more impressed with his speach if he hadn’t spent most of the campaign throwing his status as a POW around in order to excuse his behaviour.
No way, Mythago, that test is way biased in favor of you liberal elite coastal latte-sipping elite liberals!
VP Swimsuit competition, or nothing.
Oh, McCain was a POW? Why, that’s news to me! I had no idea!
Generally speaking I have little faith in politicians as they stretch the truth about their records. I also don’t place much stock in speeches as they are mere words with little substance and more importantly are NOT actions. I did watch both Obama and McCain’s speeches and many of the others. I have not made up my mind about either. I’m concerned about the enviroment too, but am not not convinced about Obama. I’m a registered Democrat, but I don’t base my decisions due to party loyalty. I never would have considered voting for someone in the primary, not because you intend to vote for them in the general election, but for the sole purpose of depriving others of a choice you don’t wish them to have. I wasn’t putt off by hearing about McCain’s POW experiences. It was obviously a pivotal experience in his life as it would be anyone with a similar experience. His love of country didn’t put me off either. I guess I expected both, so my reaction is neutral. My main concerns are economic and I want spending reigned in.
I’m now tempted to call McCain “Mr Dog” - that’s if he does fulfill the Caesar-like stance.
“Cake or death?”