McCain't do it!
McCain the War Hero(tm) embodies the cult of personality; or given the mainstream media's love of him, perhaps the cult of "pressonality" -- his undeserved reputation as a maverick invariably gets kicked under the rug when dealing with the man.
For the non-Republicans who like him, please examine his actual voting record, which is the best measure of the man, at least where Democrats, moderates, and independents are concerned, those people who mistakenly think McCain is on their side, or at least isn't as bad as the "real" conservatives.
The American Conservative Union gave McCain an 83 ranking on his lifetime votes -- Sam Brownback earned 95 (by comparison, Democrats Russ Feingold earned 12, Hillary Clinton 9, Barack Obama 8, Charles Schumer 6, and Barbara Boxer and Ted Kennedy 3). Many things McCain may be, but a maverick he's not.
McCain is a press product, an action figure, a cipher, a strawman, a figment, a mirage -- people project onto him what they want to see, and he and his handlers worked that angle so well, at least until after 9/11, when McCain had to step across the line in the sand drawn by Bush. It could be that circumstances have dimmed the media-cultivated aura that previously surrounded McCain. If 9/11 hadn't happened, if George II hadn't happened, McCain would have almost surely have been president. And that's scary.
Let's hope we're able to move past Potemkin Village politicking and into something more substantial. Or maybe Americans aren't yet tired of empty symbols, sly illusions, and cynical/creduluous houses of media mirrors.
Note to moderates, liberals, and fence-sitters: McCain isn't one of you, and never was. Vote for him at your peril.
-- Slackie Onassis
(later)
Success is the best revenge?
I suppose the only cultural and/or political defense against fascism would be a widely-shared prosperity. If fascists feed on despair and fear and uncertainty, then democrats (small "d") would have to bring people to the table through solid increases in pay, better work conditions, investing in the community, and other classic economic populist moves that bring hope and prosperity to many people currently left on the margins of the American political process.
The Right's decades-long attack on the idea (to say nothing of the practice) of Good Government has only lent to the culture of despair, the tyranny of diminished expectations.
Fascists thrive on crises, which is why they seem to appear during times of unease. Not all crises can be prevented, but things like social inequality and concentration of wealth and opportunity can be legislatively addressed and can help offer the needed stability to weather the political threat posed by would-be fascists, who are the ultimate political opportunists.
A broadly expanded middle class is the recipe for social stability, which is why fascism seems so much a middle-class movement -- when the middle class feels threatened, it seems to turn to fascism, which offers something other than the complete overturning of the social order (ala Communism). Bolster the middle class, and the invidious appeal of fascism evaporates.
Shared prosperity just might pull the fangs on the fascist snake oil salesmen who are, at heart, hucksters and charlatans selling pretty lies to delude and mislead.
There's one or two others, but I can't find'em.
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