If the only gaffe he made was that he referred to Czechoslovakia, a country that hasn’t existed for well over a decade. Or if his only gaffe had been referring to the border between Iraq and Afghanistan as a very dangerous and important one (look up that border on a map. I’ll give you $100 if you can find it. Iran doesn’t count.)
If it were only one thing. For instance, if he had only conflated Sunnis and Shiites once, but he did it at least four times—twice when he was in the Middle East. If he had only reversed one position, but he has reversed several—sometimes within the same paragraph (offshore drilling, negative campaigning, raising taxes, etc.). If he had lost his temper only once but he seems to do it often. If he had only questioned Obama’s patriotism once, but he does it at every stump speech and then lies about it.
If it weren’t for the fact that he fought against a very good G.I. Bill, because it might make conditions so palatable for the serviceman that he might serve only one term of duty, and then stood up and took credit for its passing even though he wasn’t even present for the vote on it.
If he didn’t imply that Barack Obama, a forty seven year-old man, is a youngster and then treat him with absolute contempt.
If he wasn’t constantly rewriting the history of the Iraqi war and his involvement with it.
If he had made only one joke about decimating our perceived enemies, or didn’t seem excited about the idea of getting in another cold war with Russia, I might cut him slack.
If he hadn’t projected his own overriding ambition to be president, which he admitted to in his 2002 memoir, onto Barack Obama…
And, finally, but not completely, if he hadn’t agreed with every word a woman said at a town hall meeting two days ago—every word which included a demand to reinstate the military draft, I wouldn’t be reminded of this.
The possibility that it may be that his attention span ran short and he didn’t hear the draft comment only makes me think this more:
He reminds me of Gaius Marius.
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Before eyes gloss over let me quickly describe Marius and then move on to my point. Well…really… my point is in the description.
Marius was a general in the generation prior to Julius Caesar. He completely reformed the Roman army in a way that allowed the poorest members of the society to better their standing by serving as a soldier. Because his soldiers were mainly poor men they could not hire servants to carry their belongings as had been the practice in the past. Thus they had to carry their own possessions. Thus they were nicknamed Marius’s Mules.
Everything from the pack which my father carried on his back as a soldier in basic training to the G.I. Bill which educated him can be traced back to Gaius Marius.
The fact that my ability to write about such matters can be traced back through my education and station to that G.I. Bill, means that I owe something to Marius, so he has my respect and appreciation.
Along with this, and this marks the boundary of my respect, Marius was the elected leader of Rome six consecutive times. However this was not enough. He believed that he was destined by prophecy to be the elected leader for a seventh term. This belief consumed him throughout his final days until, eventually, he became so embittered by his opponents who blocked him in his old age from reaching his goal that he viewed them as personal enemies.
I’m leaving out many details but for the sake of brevity, I’ll simply write that , even though he was right to be offended by some of the arrogance of the higher born opponents—even though he was a very rich man himself—he was wrong in how he went about fulfilling his destiny.
He surrounded himself with old loyal friends, who, although they were troubled by his new actions and moods, still believed in that hero of former days and helped him to invade Rome and take his place as the seven-time elected leader of the city. Even though that final election was a complete sham.
What followed were five days of absolute terror where Marius had his soldiers search the streets for his enemies and execute them. Their heads were placed on pikes where they rotted until his death, by natural causes, a week later.
Historians have all concluded that all of his behavior during the last months of Marius’ life was a clear indication of advanced senility.
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I’m not claiming that I know for certain that John McCain is senile. And I am, of course, not claiming that McCain’s election would usher a reign of terror through the streets of America.
But when every high ranking military officer claims that a draft would be a bad thing since part of the strength of the American military is that it is voluntary and incentive filled. When the only reason there would even be talk about a need for a draft is because of a disastrously costly war in Iraq which McCain has supported from the beginning and is willing to carry on for 10,000 years. And when you add this to the daily growing number of gaffes and mistakes he makes, like the ones I listed at the beginning, I think it is a fair question to ask whether he is or is not the man he was. And it is important that each voter consider all this before making his or her decision.
John McCain has my respect for who he was. This does not mean that I have to respect every action of the man he has become. And it is my duty as a citizen to question why he has changed so much.
J.A.L.
