The Duality of Mr. McCain… Centrism RIP?
Former
Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter last month said the Pentagon’s F-35
program manager told him he had kept the fees high because he liked the
Lockheed executive in charge, and the company official had said he would be
fired if the fees fell below 85 percent.
Carter, who was the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer
at the time, made the remarks at a university event on May 16 and they were
reported by InsideDefense.com on May 30.
“This is, of course, totally unacceptable. It is the
kind of cronyism that should make us all vigilant against, as President
Eisenhower warned us over 50 years ago, the military-industrial complex,”
McCain said in a speech on the Senate floor on Monday.
By J.M. Hamilton (9-1-2018)
U.S. Senator, John McCain III, will be laid to rest tomorrow. The Senator – the product of two generations
of Navy Admirals - was born on August 29, 1936.
And it could be said that the Senator was born a second time on October
26, 1967, when he was shot out of the sky, while flying over North Vietnam
(assisting in carrying out Operation Rolling Thunder against the North
Vietnamese government).
What to make of the soldier, the Navy pilot, the Senator, and
his repeated attempts at running for the highest office in the land? Much has been written since his death: the
mainstream news media (owned by major corporations) has been predictably
laudatory, while articles in the alternative press, magazines, & journals of opinion have been more nuanced and at times, flat out critical.
For some the Senator drives up stark images, bordering on the
extremes of “good & evil,” but for others, Mr. McCain brings up mixed
emotions.
Certainly as a soldier – fighting on behalf of America – the
man should be celebrated, and as w/ nearly all soldiers commemorated and
honored. As JMH has argued many times,
the women and men who serve all too often do so under extraordinary
circumstances, w/ far too little pay and even less praise. Moreover, we can disagree about US
involvement in any war (debating politics and its extension, war, is quintessentially
American); but when citizens find a war to be objectionable, our criticism
should not be aimed at the women and men who serve, but rather, directed at leadership: from the US Congress, right up to the POTUS.
So today, Mr. John McCain, Navy pilot, deserves to be paid the
same respect we should be paying all military personnel that serve. As a Senator – who served upon, and ultimately
headed up the Senate Armed Services Committee – arguably, and perhaps, US
citizens should view Mr. McCain in a differing light. That is in view of the tremendous power the Senator
held over the US military, in terms of its funding and our Armed Forces' use
& misuse.
We are all products of our environment, and Senator McCain
was no exception. His belief system would have been shaped by
his upbringing w/in a military family; and undoubtedly, Senator McCain would have
seen America as a great beacon of hope, particularly on the heals of WWII,
communist containment in North Korea, and ultimately, with the defeat of the
Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
America, it seemed, truly was exceptional, and our intentions
honorable, and - in the minds of many Americans – unquestionable. And so it is with many of the soldiers who
serve, but the same cannot always be said of US political leadership
(particularly in recent times), and the billionaires that pull their strings.
The Senator was a member of a tribe of establishment republicans
that is recent decades had clearly lost its way.
The writing was on the wall after Vietnam, America was not destined to
win every war, nor was bombing the hell out of our enemies - the one size fits all
solution to every foreign policy problem
- the answer.
Senator McCain was renowned for speaking his mind, and, to his credit, had no problem directing his ire at the military industrial
complex. But his anger often fell short. In the aggregate, the Senator did not withhold funding
from incompetent & recalcitrant defense contractors, nor did he seek to
break up the MIC cartel (for purposes of greater competition, efficiencies, and
to better preserve taxpayer dollars).
Moreover, Senator McCain never saw a war he didn’t like; he left in
place the 2001 AUMF – to the present day (basically, letting Congress off the hook from its responsibilities); and when faced w/ second and third
Vietnams – that is failed nation building w/in Afghanistan & Iraq - his
solution was to double, & triple, down.
Throw more bombs & money upon the bonfire of atrocities & failure.
As is often the case w/ America’s foreign policy, from Vietnam forward, war often
serves no real objective, and has become little more than a money making venture, for: war profiteers; jingoist; neocon cheerleaders &
think tanks; and commercial interests w/ designs upon the natural resources of
our targeted “enemy.” (Did Iraqis or Syrians fly planes into the
World Trade Center? Nope. But the Saudis sure as hell
did.) Hence, we are running up on two decades of failed nation building in Afghanistan and Iraq. In both instances, exaggerated
fears of terrorism have been amplified to justify, and sell,
these wars, while the true winners - the MIC & Big Oil (read Exxon Mobil) -
make out like bandits.
(Meanwhile,
the true terrorist – homegrown, entitled, white American males, sponsored by
your friendly gun lobby, the NRA – run around shooting up the place.)
Some liberals have accused Senator McCain, and his selection
of his 2008 VP nominee, Sarah- Cuda- Palin, as: stirring up trouble; the drawing
of a direct line to POTUS Trump; & resulting in the subsequent disintegration
of the establishment Republican party.
If only it were that simple.
Rather, the straight line to the GOP establishment crack up – and the
pending Demo establishment crack up (already well under way) - is directly correlated
to the failure of the political duopoly to serve the American people.
The political duopoly makes a great show of their differences
over social issues – which keeps the 99% conveniently divided & distracted
– but when it comes to economic and foreign policy, particularly w/in the US
Senate, the two parties are virtually indistinguishable.
“Centrism” implies a grounded – moderate – political center,
but the two establishment political parties (of which, Senator McCain was very
much joined) are both highly immoderate.
Bailouts for banks & billionaires; unlimited war; trillions for an unaccountable/unauditable DOD/MIC; tax cuts for the wealthy; elections
owned and operated by the donor class; captured fiscal, foreign, monetary,
regulatory, & tax policies (an owned SCOTUS?): There’s
your centrism, and there lies the establishment of both political
parties, finally, exposed to the sanitizing light of day.
Senator McCain did not beget Trump, but centrism & the political establishment - with
its worship of the billionaire/multinational class – did beget Trump (just as
failed centrism produced a strong Sanders candidacy). The irony is - that despite all the gnashing
of teeth surrounding POTUS Trump - when it comes to economic & foreign
policy issues, he’s been as establishment as they come (more tax cuts for the
wealthy; more austerity for everyone else; more reckless deficits; and
surprise, surprise, more war w/out end).
Trump’s genius lies not in his actions, but in the political
theatre & sideshow he utilizes to keep the nation distracted and divided,
as the 1% quietly cart off the remaining spoils of our bankrupt US government (in a Neo-Gilded Age).
Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.
Two US presidents appeared at Senator McCain’s funeral today
to deliver eulogies, one a Democrat, and the other a Republican. Both presidents are considered centrist, both
establishment politicians, and on economic & foreign policy issues, one
would be hard pressed - particularly in regards their delivered outcomes & results - to find all but a sliver of daylight between the two of them.
No wonder the GOP establishment is dead. No wonder the Democratic party now finds
itself in the midst of its own Tea party like revolution… chalk it up to failed centrism.
Along with Senator McCain may centrism rest in peace.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2018
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