McCain’s—and America’s—guilt complex

In a world filled with pressing dangers to our civilization, is VFR devoting too much space to the presidential campaign in general and to McCain’s inadequacies and eccentricities in particular? My answer is, how could we be giving too much space to it, when we are witnessing the process whereby America is about to hand itself over to the government of a colored leftist, an event some people not unreasonably believe will mean literally the end of America? (If you object to my use of the word “colored,” see the entry where I argue that it is an appropriate adjective, and a black conservative agrees with me.) I myself do not profess to know what it will mean or how he will actually govern. At one extreme, he could be turn out to be a third-world revolutionary; at another extreme, he could turn out to be what he’s successfully convinced many people he is, John F. Kennedy with a tan; and he could turn out to be any number of things in between. In any case, the fact that the American electorate appears ready to elect a man of his record and his far left, anti-American, and anti-white associations reveals a profound flaw in America’s psyche and intellect that must be understood and healed if America is ever to have a chance to survive as a recognizable country. And at the moment, the incarnation of that flaw is Obama’s pathetic opponent.

Bob Finch writes:

I’ve wondered what it is in McCain that holds him back from leveling any sort of reasonable criticism of Obama, particularly for his judgment in regard to personal associations. There is just too much out there that he is not using for him to pass up unless there is something within the man that is defective; surely his campaign advisors are pushing him. He must be dismissing much of their advice. His not pointing out that “spreading the wealth around” is a Marxist notion, which is easily tied to his former church, his upbringing and many others in his circle, just doesn’t make sense unless his character somehow prohibits bringing this stuff up.

Today, I picked up the Wall Street Journal while waiting for an appointment. On the front page was an article that I found fascinating, “Talk About Guilt by Association: Wall Street Journal Profiles McCain Family’s Slaves.” This evening I dug up some good analysis of the article at NewsBusters. Perhaps McCain is personally paying penance for what he feels are the evils done by his not so distant ancestors.

Lillie McCain is watching the presidential campaign from a singular perspective….Ms. McCain and her siblings are descended from two of about 120 slaves held before the end of the Civil War at Teoc, the Mississippi plantation owned by the family of Republican nominee John McCain’s great-great-grandfather.

In a year when the historic nature of Sen. Obama’s candidacy is drawing much comment, the case of the Teoc McCains offers another quintessential American narrative in black and white. For the black McCain family, it is a story of triumph over the legacy of slavery; for the white McCains, it is the evolution of a 19th-century cotton dynasty into one rooted in an ethic of military and national service….

Sen. McCain’s family lived primarily on military installations around the world. But they remained attached to Teoc, visiting repeatedly during Sen. McCain’s childhood, often for long periods. When they went to the farm in the 1940s and 1950s, the future Sen. McCain and his brother stayed in the rambling house, now abandoned, of their great-uncle, Joe McCain, who had become the plantation’s owner.

I have relatives who intend to vote for Obama in the misguided hope that it will mean the end of their being subjected (and subjecting themselves) to white guilt. I believe it will mean just the opposite, but that’s not my point here. What if McCain is holding back out of some strange sense of obligation he feels toward the Black McCains? Of course, if he is doing this because of some anti-racist bent, he’s just giving Obama Affirmative Action writ large.

LA replies:

Yes. He is a man driven by guilt and the need to make repeated public gestures of repentance, as the New York Times wrote in a profile of McCain on September 5. I think the article didn’t even mention his slave owning forebears. Examples it gave were Keating Five, opposition to the King holiday, McCain’s divorce.

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James N. writes:

“In any case, the fact that the American electorate appears ready to elect a man of his record and his far left, anti-American, and anti-white associations reveals a profound flaw in America’s psyche and intellect that must be understood and healed if America is ever to have a chance to survive as a recognizable country.”

That is exactly correct. The NATURE of the Obama choice is much, much more important than the substance.

I’ve been saying for months now that McCain would win, because I DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE COUNTRY WHICH WOULD ELECT OBAMA.

I mean that quite literally. I’m not blind to reality, I am coming to understand that he will win. But I was born in America and have lived here, mostly in New York and Boston, for almost 59 years. If and when Obama is elected, I will be forced to confront the fact that everything I believe, that I KNOW, about my country is wrong—that I have been deluded, and deluded for years, about what sort of a place it is, and what sort of people my fellow countrymen are.

This is, to put it mildly, upsetting.

To gain some understanding of how this event is possible would help a little, I think.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 18, 2008 08:07 AM | Send