“McCain’s Vision For Defending the World’s Vulnerable”
This recent speech by Senator John McCain is nothing less than outstanding. Here’s a taste (but please do read the entire speech):
There is a tendency in our age to accede to the spurious excuse of moral relativism and turn away from the harshest examples of man’s inhumanity to man; to ignore the darker side of human nature that encroaches upon our decency by subtle degree. There are many reasons for this. Blessed with opportunity, and intent on the challenges of work and family, our own lives often seem too full and hectic to take notice of offenses that seem distant from our own reality. There is also the threat in a society passionate about its liberty that we can become desensitized to the dehumanizing effect of the obscenity and hostility that pervades much of popular culture. It is in our nature as Americans to see the good in things; to face even serious adversity with hope and optimism. And yet, with so much good in the world, for all the progress of humanity, in which our nation has played such an admirable and important role, evil still exists in the world. It preys upon human dignity, assaults the innocence of children, debases our self-respect and the respect we are morally obliged to pay each other, and assails the great, animating truths we believe to be self-evident — that all people have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — by subjecting countless human beings to abuse, persecution and even slavery.
Confronting evil has never been easy — in our age or any other. But the failure to do so affects even those who are complacent with our own blessings and secure in our human rights. Accepting the degradation of values we believe are universal is to relinquish some of our own humanity. America was founded on the belief in the inherent dignity of all human life and that this dignity can only be preserved through shared respect and shared responsibility. We can retain our own freedom when others are robbed of theirs, but not the sense of virtue that made our revolution a moral as well as political crusade, and which recognizes that personal happiness is so much more than pleasure, and requires us to serve causes greater than self-interest.
That is beautiful and powerful prose, my firends. I am very impressed with both Senator McCain and his speechwriters. Well done, gents.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Damn, I only read the excerpt, but McCain sure does sound like a Founding Father.
(Cue obligatory joke about McCain rubbing elbows with the Founding Fathers…)
Excellent speech. Let’s just hope the action does the rhetoric justice.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Looks like McCain has endorsed Brownback rather than the other way around.
Yesterday, Creative Minority Report pointed out that McCain’s website “looks more like it belongs to conservative stalwart and culture warrior Sen. Sam Brownback than the John McCain we’ve come to know and…be wary of.” As evidence, they pointed to this:
The headline of the site is McCain looking off inspiringly into the distance and next to him it says “Defending Freedom and Dignity.” The dignity part is his attempt at code for abortion and euthanasia.
Now here’s the best part. Under it he has a quote from William Wilberforce which says, “When we think of eternity and of the future consequences of all human conduct what is there in this life that should make any man contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice, the laws of religion and God.”
Yep, sounds like Brownback to me.
Now if only McCain could channel Brownback on the issue of ESCR he might be able to convince me to vote for him.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:28 am
what a hopeful, uplifting speech. i’m sure americans will find his sunny vision very compelling
May 9th, 2008 at 10:29 am
John McCain: the best the 19th century has to offer. Manifest Destiny, baby!
May 9th, 2008 at 11:53 am
So, OUR revolution was only the first stage in a “moral and political crusade” to spread that revolution to all mankind? How very flattering, and how very foolish. The Founding Fathers would have had none of it, though Marx would have felt right at home with it.
When he speaks of serving causes greater than our own self-interest, to what exactly does he refer? Obviously, causes which have nothing whatever to do with American self-interest rightly understood, such as the spread of “values we consider to be universal.” (It should not go unmentioned that the UN has “values” it also considers universal, and we never tire of angrily denouncing their presumption, or the traitorousness of those on the federal courts who would subject us to “universal” visions of value. And they’re not even dropping bombs to make it happen.)
I’m surprised that this kind of messianic Wilsonianism has so thoroughly taken over what was once the American right. Folks, the reason we’re stuck with a Republican who despises the conservative base is because of the slavering eagerness with which we lap this self-flattering stuff up, without pausing for an instant to consider the full implications.