Did John McCain sleep through 1989? Was he on some kind of yearlong bender? Maybe he was just really busy clearing up after that Keating affair.
In any case, John McCain doesn’t remember 1989. That means he’s forgotten some of the most unforgettable moments in the 20th century. And having forgotten them, or having somehow, incredibly, missed them entirely, John McCain is unable to understand what happened and why.
Instead, McCain tries to rewrite history as though 1989 never happened. And from this foolish and fictional history, he draws some foolish and fictional lessons. Here is John McCain speaking yesterday at a gathering of the American Legion:
My opponent had the chance to express such confidence in America, when he delivered a much anticipated address in Berlin. … And in that speech, Senator Obama left an important point unclear. He suggested that the end of the Cold War proved that there was, “no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.” … As I recall the world was deeply divided during the Cold War — between the side of freedom and the side of tyranny. The Cold War ended not because the world stood “as one,” but because the great democracies came together, bound together by sustained and decisive American leadership.
To McCain, apparently, talk of unity is wimpy weakness. To McCain, strength comes from division. To McCain, America can’t be strong with people from other countries, we can only be strong against them. McCain’s notion of America’s strength and purpose seems to be a paraphrase of President Eisenhower’s notion of civil religion: “Our government makes no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt opposition to an enemy — and I don’t care what it is.”
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