McCain is not an option
by Bill Fletcher Jr.
In large part because of the inflammatory tactics of the Hillary Clinton campaign, along with the polarizing of the alleged debate within the Democratic Party between Sens. Clinton and Obama, suggestions have begun to circulate within Black America to the effect that should Sen. Obama not get the nomination, there should be a vote for McCain.
Such a vote, it is proposed, can either be explicit, i.e., pushing the button for him, or implicit, i.e., not voting. Either step would be a disaster.
It is critical that we are clear as to who Sen. McCain is and who he is not. He is a former prisoner of war who withstood very harsh conditions during the Vietnam War and returned home safely. That courage is to be applauded. But courage is only one part of what makes a person a good and capable leader. The other part revolves around what ideas and programs s/he proposes to advance. On that score, Sen. McCain comes up short.
There are five areas where it is clear that Sen. McCain would not only be unhelpful as president of the United States, but would be a disaster. Not in order of importance, these include:
• People of color: Sen. McCain, simply put, does not have people of color on the radar screen. He has no track record of being an advocate for racial justice.
• Iraq: Sen. McCain has continued to support Bush’s illegal war and occupation of Iraq. He has focused on the “troop surge,” which he believes has been successful, and has gone as far as to suggest that the USA should be prepared to remain in Iraq for another 100 years. In a related point, this is the same person who smiles and sings a “cute” song about bombing Iran.
• Torture: Reversing himself, Sen. McCain has become a bit ambivalent (to be diplomatic about it) about torture, moving away from his one-time adamant position against the use of torture. His original position was based on his claims of having been tortured in Vietnamese prisons during the Vietnam War. It is unclear what changed to alter his original views.
• Social Security: Reversing himself, Sen. McCain has now adopted Bush’s widely repudiated position that Social Security be privatized. The privatization of Social Security, which was introduced in Chile after the 1973 U.S.-backed coup against then President Allende, was a disaster for the people of Chile but a boon for the Chilean rich. Sen. McCain originally stood against privatization, but something happened to alter his views.
• Working people: In addition to displaying no interest in supporting the right of workers to join or form labor unions free of employer interference, Sen. McCain has voted against the increase in the federal minimum wage. He further supported an effort that would make it possible for states to opt out of future federal minimum wage increases. McCain is additionally a strong proponent of free trade and regularly cautions against anything that would get in the way of corporate-led globalization.
Sen. McCain, in this sense, is no option for us. His attitude toward international affairs represents a continuation of Bush’s disastrous policies, and his views on domestic affairs are not much better. In fact, his relative silence and oblique references to the economy are fair indications that he has not a clue as to how address the looming economic crisis.
For these reasons, suggestions that we ‘punish’ the Democrats if Sen. Obama does not receive the nomination by voting for Sen. McCain make little sense. The deeper challenge derives from the fact that the internal organization within Black America has weakened, and therefore we are less in a position to advance candidates and platforms that represent the core of the concerns of Black America - the concerns that speak to the overwhelming majority of Black Americans, who are working people.
McCain cannot be an option in November 2008 unless one is looking forward to a period of endless war and misery at home. I don’t know about you, but the boot is already pressing too hard on my neck for more of the same.
Bill Fletcher Jr. is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies and the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum. He can be reached at papaq54@hotmail.com.
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