The contempt John McCain has shown for the people of this country by plucking the wildly unqualified Sarah Palin to sit a cancer-prone heartbeat from the presidency leaves only one conclusion. John McCain hates America.
Eight presidents -- or nineteen percent of them ---have died in office. This comes out to roughly one in five, and we've had eight in a row who survived, so we're overdue. Add to that the actuarial tables and the early deaths of McCain's father and grandfather (he's already outlived them both) and it's clear that President Palin is far from a remote possibility.
And yet, the true significance and consequences of this grim prospect seem to be off limits for public dialogue. Our not-just-useless-but-actually-complicit mainstream media would rather spend a day repeating the mantra "lipstick on a pig" than urging the public to really contemplate what it would mean if this vindictive, intolerant woman -- with her five-colleges-in-six-years education -- were to become the most powerful human on the planet. It's like it's unfair to mention the inconvenient truth that Sarah Palin is an authoritarian religious zealot totally unsuited for the position John McCain has recklessly named her to -- a truth so obvious that anyone with eyes and ears who's not blinded or deafened by ideology can see and hear it.
But forget about the media. It's up to our representatives to protect us from this harsh fate. Let's not kid ourselves -- there isn't one respected member of Congress, in either party, who doesn't know how grotesque this situation is. But, because of the nation's bitter partisan divide, it's the Republicans who have to speak up.
Hey, Thad Cochran. You said, "The thought of [McCain] being president sends a cold chill down my spine." Does the thought of Palin being president warm you up any? Hey, Liddy Dole. What does Bob say about this? Hey, John Warner and Pete Domenici. You're leaving office, what have you got to lose by speaking out? Hey, Dick Lugar. Hey, Arlen Specter and Kay Bailey Hutchison. Hey, Chuck Grassley and Mitch McConnell and Olympia Snowe. Hey, Lamar Alexander and Kit Bond and Robert Bennett and Orrin Hatch. Hey, Richard Shelby and Judd Gregg and George Voinovich and Pat Roberts and Susan Collins. Hey, Chuck Hagel!
Hey, all of you. Don't just whisper amongst yourselves how insane this is. Share it with the class. Your silence can only be interpreted as support for this lunacy. Most of you can't stand the guy anyway. Say something! Yes, a Republican revolt would cost McCain the election, but after this insulting move, doesn't he deserve to lose? Hasn't he disqualified himself from the presidency with his mavericky first decision?
The country has just endured the worst leadership in modern history, and no lessons have been learned. Despite what we have witnessed over the past eight years, tens of millions of people are willing to instantly repeat the same mistake and elect another sadistic ignoramus to national office because she's able to hide these qualities behind the deceptive dazzle of charisma. This cannot be allowed to happen.
That John McCain is a shameless panderer who'll do anything to get elected president has become increasingly obvious over the eight years he's spent reversing every principled position he'd ever taken. That John McCain has renounced every shred of honor that ever attached to him is clear to anyone who bears witness to the parade of scummy lies he calls his advertising campaign -- a campaign that no less a bottom feeder than Karl Rove said has gone "one step too far" by "attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100-percent truth test." That John McCain has cravenly sold his soul for a prize that he doesn't even seem to want for any reason other than just to have it is undeniable to anyone who looks into his now-dead eyes. He's a walking corpse.
John McCain likes to wrap himself in the flag and call himself a patriot, but foisting this dangerously inappropriate successor-in-waiting on the nation puts him at the opposite end of that spectrum. By disregarding the kind of risk his country will be at if this know-nothing reactionary ascends to the presidency, he reveals himself not as a patriot, but rather as a traitor. If John McCain dies in office, he should be posthumously tried for treason.
With this fuck-you to America, John McCain has proven himself to be -- and I never thought I'd be able to say this about anyone -- as despicable as George W. Bush.