The Darker Impulses That Control McCain

H2O Man

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Sat Oct-11-08 09:31 AM
Original message

The Darker Impulses That Control McCain

Edited on Sat Oct-11-08 09:43 AM by H2O Man

"The thing that has been done, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun."
--Ecclesiastes 1-9 ("The Preacher")

In the past ten days, both John McCain and Sarah Palin have engaged in ugly attempts to appeal to the fears and hatreds of the American public. This is not "new." It is as American as apple pie for such a response to any political/social movement that, like the Obama-Biden campaign, identifies a vision for positive change, and which has the potential to deliver upon that promise.

It is beyond debate that our society suffers from some serious illnesses. In a healthy society, George W. Bush could never have reached the office of the President. In a just society, VP Dick Cheney would have been impeached, charged with felonies, convicted, and incarcerated. If we were a moral nation, we would not be engaged in the war of occupation in Iraq. And, as Senator Obama points out, if we lived up to the goals expressed in the outstanding documents presented by our Founding Fathers, we would not have children in our country who are without medical insurance, without a proper education, and without hope for the future if the republican party remains in power.

The attempts by McCain and Palin to exploit the fears and hatreds of Americans bring back some unsettling memories for older DUers. We know that "politicians" often believe that they can exercise some type of control over the tides of passions that these fears and hatreds bring forth, but that no human being can control the destructive forces that McCain and Palin are seeking to unleash. For both the older DUers who will remember all too well, and for our younger DU siblings, I want to take a moment to recall two such examples. The first has to do with a person who identified the potential for change; the second is of a man who had the potential to deliver it.

{1} Martin Luther King, Jr., is the individual that is most closely identified with the Civil Rights movement in our nation’s history. Of course, he was but one of a very large and powerful force. Many others had paved the way, in order for Martin to do the wonderful things he did; and many others engaged in that beautiful struggle, both with Martin, and after him.

Yet no individual in our nation’s history has been able to articulate the vision for a better, more just society that did Martin Luther King, Jr. Thus, school children today learn about his "I Have a Dream" speech as part of their proper education. And for many of these children’s parents and grandparents, every time we hear that speech, we still get a chill down our spines, and inevitably think, "What if?"

That dream threatened some in America. The most extreme example of the dark side of humanity responding to King’s dream came in the form of a reptile named J. Edgar Hoover. And history has recorded a letter that the FBI sent King, which threatened to destroy him if he did not commit suicide. When Martin and his associates read the letter (a tape of conversations, etc, from King’s motel rooms was included), they knew that not only did it come from the FBI, but they recognized the author: J. Edgar Hoover. The letter contained key phrases that Hoover had been using to describe King, to politicians and jornalists: "You, even at an early age have turned out to be not a leader but a dissolute, abnormal moral imbecile …. Your Nobel Prize (what a grim farce) and other awards will not save you …. Satan could not do more. What incredible evilness …. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation." He might have signed it, "Yours truly, J. Edgar Hoover."

{2} In 1967, on the floor of the US Senate, Robert F. Kennedy made a controversial speech, in which he accused President Lyndon Johnson of "appealing to the darker impulses" of our society. Since becoming President in 1963, LBJ had feared that Robert Kennedy would attempt to reclaim the presidency for the Kennedy wing of the Democratic Party. He would later tell historian Doris Kearns Goodwin that when RFK began to speak out against his policies in Vietnam and at home, that he began to have nightmares.

By early 1968, those closest to President Johnson began to recognize symptoms of mental illness in LBJ. Bill Moyers told Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., that Johnson was "paranoid," depressed, and separated from reality. It is worth noting that, in many ways, RFK was advocating many of the same ideals that LBJ actually believed in. But under pressure, Johnson’s dark side always came forth. He had resented JFK in 1960 in much the same way that McCain resents Obama today: he believed that he lacked the experience needed to be President, but had charmed the public with the very qualities LBJ knew he lacked – good looks, a talent for articulation, and social grace. In RFK, Johnson knew he faced a man who represented something else Johnson lacked – moral courage.

Today, we are witnessing McCain and Palin appealing to those same darker impulses of our society in their vicious, hateful attacks on Barack Obama. Their methods are not new. Rather, they are channeling the same paranoia as Hoover, and the same instability of Johnson. They provide us with evidence that both MLK and RFK were correct in saying that those who hate, become hatred in their very essence.

There are, of course, some who will say that Barack Obama is not Martin Luther King, Jr., or Robert F. Kennedy. Of course, he is not. That misses the point. We exist here and now, and the same opportunity for Barack Obama to call upon the best potential for America, in the manner of MLK and RFK, presents itself. And what that translates into is the opportunity for you and I to recognize that the same potential strength that MLK and RFK called upon is found within our selves. Neither you nor I are MLK or RFK, but we can learn from, and bring forth in our nation today, the qualities that they recognized were demanded of us all, in order to insure that our society resist and overcome those darker impulses.

Thank you.

Your friend in peace,
H2O Man