Because I Can

Or so he would want you to think.

Sen. John McCain said something "behind closed doors" that someone wrote down. And because he's someone that apparently people care about, that got reported. I don't have that problem, personally, because I can't get people to read something I write on the internet, much less care about anything I say privately.

But since his closed-door comments are kind of funny, as he remarks the following.

“One of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the Shiites
and the Sunnis down and say, ‘Stop the bullshit,’” said Mr. McCain, according to
Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi, an invitee, and two other guests.

Why didn't anyone else think of that? I mean really. We have these Muslim-majority countries, many of which tend one way or another to be vastly Sunni or Shiite by majority. These two particular groups have a history of not getting along, going back to when the groups were first formed. All over whether or not the Prophet had a hereditary successor! Honestly, just because this is a debate that's raged for over a millenium, it's obvious that a call to "stop the bullshit" would definitlely take care of things.

John McCain, having established his wisdom, now provides for us a domestic application of his plan for ensuring domestic tranquility.

He cautioned against ghettoizing immigrants, which he noted has brought about
disastrous results in France, and criticized elements in his own party as
“nativist” before lambasting the punditry of Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs and
Michael Savage for helping to “fuel the problem,” according to two of the
sources.

What is the problem? According to McCain, it is not illegal immigration, unless he has secret information telling him that Limbaugh, Dobbs, and Savage are secretly sneaking Mexicans across the border to take over the town of Rio Linda, CA.

The problem is with "ghettoizing," which is to imply that Mexicans are being forced to the ghetto, which invokes the first law of wisdom: when in doubt, make comparisons to Nazi Germany. It is clear to this brilliant man that the fact that France's socialist setup and near-impossible hiring conditions, not to mention its double-digit employment for the nation as a whole, are not the cause of this. McCain, uninterested in such a silly concept such as whether or not a nation has the right to sovereignly declare who may immigrate into that country, is addressing the real issue: anti-Mexicanism.

In drawing the comparison with France, McCain knows better than to think that the 20% and higher unemployment rate among young Muslim males in France is the cause of unemployment, because that would not translate to the American situation in which Mexicans cross the border specifically for employment, often staying because they find what they want. The fact that the US has an unemployment rate nationally of under 5% is clearly irrelevant to the ability of these immigrants to obtain jobs. What McCain knows is that the problem in France is nothing more than people hating Muslims simply because they are Muslims, and that does not satisfy the traditional definition of being French. The problem clearly translates, as logic would dictate, that Americans do not care about legal or illegal immigration, but are more interested in the definition of American as defined by the societal dictates of what it is to be American. Such arguments that the definition of being French is far more narrow than the definition of being American are silly, as both countries are very similar because their flags are red, white, and blue and they both had a revolution in the late 18th century. This clearly trumps any notion that American national identity is more broadly defined just because of a greater religious and ethnic diversity in non-segregated segments of society.

McCain gets picked on a lot in this respect, but he is no different from any other politician. Politicians in general do not set out to create schemes which will cause economic harm, restrict freedom, or fail to solve their objective. They are successful in these things, though, because they are too busy acting in accorance to what rhetoric would help them most to get re-elected, because that is what the people want. Yet at the same time, they have to think differently from the supposed "common sense," because they are the great minds that run Washington, and after all, they have to come up with such brilliant thoughts that the common folk (or "the masses," as Karl Marx so eloquently described those individuals who are not in some position of great power or stature) cannot understand, and need them. That is how Congressmen sleep at night.

Labels: Politics