McCain Rally in Seattle

I took chance and drove down to the Westin Hotel in Seattle last night to see if I could get into the ballroom where Sen. McCain was delivering his Washington state address the night before today’s Washington caucuses. After hearing the horror stories of 17,000 ecstatic and tearful attendees earlier yesterday at the Obama rally in Seattle’s Key Arena, turning Obama supporters away at the door, I was surprised to find McCain’s rally only had about 500 attendees – and I easily found a place to stand about 20 feet from McCain’s podium. This was a small crowd of good, sensible, courteous people. They represented all age groups and vocations almost evenly, with a peppering of Navy vets, active military, Seattle businessmen, college students, and whole families. Although I never had the chance to speak with McCain – they rush him in and out pretty quickly – standing twenty feet from him showed me that he’s vibrant, healthy, full of energy and extremely sharp of mind. Age is not a factor here, no matter what anyone says. He was flanked by his Washington state supporters: Attorney General Rob McKenna, former Washington Governer Dan Evans, former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton, who was very old and rough – he made McCain look like an infant, and U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert (former King Co. Sheriff). The one dignitary notably missing was Washington Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Dino Rossi; it would have been fitting and appropriate to see him there after Gov. Christine Gregoire endorsed Barack Obama earlier in the day.

After seeing McCain and his supporters in person, it’s now clear to me that there’s a divide so vast between the McCain and the Obama campaigns that it could never be reconciled: McCain’s following is of working people, feet firmly grounded, thinking, rational, aware, well-tuned to the reality of evil in the universe. Obama’s is truly a cult following, and an expansive one that wins Obama the popular election with little effort if the counter-effort fails to come out in force for McCain in November. Obama supporters look like some of the people we see everyday, but at Obama’s speeches around the nation, Seattle’s rally being no exception, the followers descend into an primal emotional trance of ecstasy and fainting. These rallies sound like charismatic revival meetings, with salvation and healings and Obama standing before them as the Christ-figure. Since we’re talking about a U.S. presidential candidate, and in fact, not the Messiah, this portrait should be repugnant to all Republicans and Democrats with a care for the future of our country. A word to voting Democrats: I would strongly urge that you consider the much more sensible Hillary Clinton if McCain doesn’t hold up your political values. It looks pretty plain to me: McCain = policy, thought and action; Obama = self-indulgence, emotion, and unspecified “change” – more bluntly, a gaggle of idiots.

Here’s the Seattle Times writeup on last night’s McCain event:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004173350_mccain09m.html
The psychiatrist (Dimitry Davydow) mentioned toward the end of the article was standing two feet from me as the Seattle Times spoke with him, and I heard his interview firsthand.

A New Era in American Conservatism

I believe an important milestone in the history of American politics was passed today as events unfurled to indicate the inevitable nomination of Senator John McCain as the anointed Republican candidate of the 2008 United States Presidential Election, crowned by a forward-sighted speech from McCain to the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC.

This was most monumental to me as I was one who declared immediate and hearty support of a McCain presidency the day after he entered the race on 25 April 2007, and I have not strayed from that support a single day since. But it’s not a great occasion so much because the candidate I supported has found victory over the other suitors for the party endorsement; the day is important because our nation has just pushed through the sorest spot in an ideological growing pain, and now the slow healing can begin as a new age in conservatism begins to bloom. Whether or not everyone realizes it, the conservative wing of America just endured some of its greatest internal warfare it has seen in decades, both on the level of the news media and more importantly on the grassroots level. This is a healthy national development, and it proves that America is vital, breathing, and cares for her own welfare in the universe, even when misinformation and shrouded truth is owned and shared by the masses. The liberal wing of America is waging its own ambiguous battle of “change”, which has very little essence of substantive progressiveness, but much more of revolt against what was and what is. I have to emphasize this because the Obama and Clinton campaigns are founded primarily on a heavy sentiment of feelings and appeal, and they have offered up precious little in the way of a real game plan, executable policy or far vision. McCain has offered up all of these things, and the entire nation, conservative and liberal alike need to recognize that he alone has done this.

Now, with McCain on the bridge deck of the USS GOP we can witness the kind of progress that happens when a nation’s most critical foundational ideas are recollected, reconstituted and transferred into its most meaningful expression of a prosperous society undergirded by the guarantee of individual liberty. And we’re not just bound to witness it, but obliged to drive it, in a way that can only happen in America. Among past presidents, the spirit McCain possesses was held by Thomas Jefferson, by Abraham Lincoln, by Theodore Roosevelt, and by Ronald Reagan – and without a doubt Winston Churchill breathed this spirit into Mother England as he led the charge against the unprecedented fascist tyranny of the last century. President George W. Bush also bears this spirit, but many imperfections of circumstance during his administration have suppressed it at times into complete ineffectiveness. My senses tell me that McCain has the unique will and ability to blast off this same suppression that crushed Bush, pick up the banner and oversee a great reformation in our time. The Reagan Era of conservative ideology is now finished, and the McCain Era has commenced.

In subsequent entries, I’ll map out this McCain Republican ideology in detail as I see it, one point at a time with hopes of assuaging the fears of those who love liberty and prompting the same to fervently support and consecrate a McCain presidency through the power of the vote.

Read John McCain’s address today to the CPAC

John McCain vs. the Conservative Talk Radio Demagogues

A battle for the title of “most conservative idealogue” is on for the 2008 election, and the line has been drawn somewhere between GOP nomination hopeful John McCain and the band of talk radio hosts that dominate conservative airwaves. Who’s winning? It’s hard to tell, but John McCain has shown remarkable stamina and substance in the fight, with many common American independents and conservatives lining up boldly behind him, I among them. His leading adversaries in radio are some of the old guard and the mainstreamers with an extensively established following of conservative listenership, namely Hugh Hewitt, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and the lord of the hosts – Rush Limbaugh. I’ve personally tuned in to Levin, Hannity and Limbaugh several times each in recent months, and every word I’ve heard from them has been a rant against McCain and his lack of conservativeness. And when they’re not tearing down McCain, they’re ripping up Mike Huckabee with other lies and demagoguery. Among those, Levin has been the most scathing, hurling near-profane insults at those who dare to support McCain – basically attacking me, the listener. Limbaugh seems to simply question my stability and sanity when I listen to his broadcast. And so I return the sentiment in kind.

There is apparently only one conservative radio host in the national media who defies them, and proudly supports the nomination of John McCain: the eminently sensible Michael Medved. Medved’s full declaration of support for McCain against Romney came forth less than a month ago, but it was a declaration I warmly welcomed after thinking all of the conservative media had both abandoned me and abandoned any thoughtful consideration of facts and logic.

Read this article for the Associated Press take:
Fighting for Nomination, McCain Also Fends Off Conservative Radio Backlash

Note Hugh Hewitt’s quote, very typical of the right-wing media: “Sen. McCain is a great American, a lousy senator and a terrible Republican… …He has a legislative record that is not conservative. In fact, it is anti-conservative.”

The problem with this kind of widely-held doctrine among conservatives is that it’s founded in a bed of lies. True, Sen. McCain is a great American, but that’s largely because he’s a great senator and a great Republican, with a tremendously consistent legislative record that proves his profound conservatism beyond a doubt. One of the biggest problems here is that so many lies have been told and retold by these same talk show hosts and columnists so many times that they’ve practically become truths by repetition, which in turn makes it easy for the average media consumer to believe that McCain has a legislative record that is anti-conservative.

I believe that a McCain victory, should he be selected for the GOP nomination will be a well-deserved sobering blow against some of the reckless rhetoricians in conservative media, and it just may save the face of the Republican Party before the people who count most – the American people.

Hope & Prosperity: Engaging the New Year

After laying the foundation of this blog and allowing it to grow moss for nine months, I return with intent to feed and water the garden back to health. I have to remind myself that while a weblog should not become a trash heap of rhetoric, it’s also nearly impossible to craft one into some kind of masterpiece. I’ve seen plenty of the former and none of the latter.

I pen this entry in homage to the New Year.

Historically, New Year’s Day has had no impact on my being and thinking. I could say the same for my birthday, or anyone else’s. I’ve always thought too much homage was given to these milestones, and not enough care was given to the really important events and developments in between. Although this thinking has not changed, my appreciation for the potential value of these milestones has.

What has happened for me is I’ve just begun to see past the superficial New Year’s rhetoric and resolutions, and I suddenly see things that really matter for real people, right now. From now on, New Year’s Day for me is Hope & Prosperity Day.

In my vocation, I correspond with scores of people every day from every corner of the earth: research scientists in U.S., British and Israeli government defense labs, university professors in Germany, Russia, Brazil and Japan, young students in Colombia, Ireland and Poland, as well as American Ivy League schools, industrial engineers in Metropolitan China and the Heartland of America, company executives and their front desk receptionists. I feel privileged to call this my work, because each one of these people are very different, one from the other. Nearly all of them are accomplished in life by anyone’s standards, from 101 level academic achievements up to and including receipt of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among these brilliant men and women are many Orthodox Jews, observant Muslims and Christians who serve as elders in their Churches.

For me there is one thing they all have in common, and I with them: we all have genuine hope and optimism for the year to come, and we’ve been sharing that with one another by email and phone in subtle but meaningful ways. Professors in China wish me and my family a happy and blessed New Year, with prosperity, and I genuinely wish them the same back. And I’ve come to discover that the sacred day commemorating Jesus Christ’s birth has profound implications in secular Japan and nearly secular western Europe.

As a professing Christian, I believe in good and evil, and I believe good wins, but not without great cost to beauty and innocence. I believe there are dark forces at work in this world, here, there and everywhere. These forces will do all they can to crush hope and undermine prosperity, to manifest themselves through misguided doctrines and suspicions, envy and strife. But these forces are not the men and women I interface with each day. Those are people, and God’s children, and I want nothing less than the best for them and their families, because we can all have it. Dark thoughts would have us think life is a zero-sum game, wealth and happiness are limited, and we must take it back from one another. Socialism thinks this, communism thinks this, power-seizing warlords and raging terrorists think this. This thinking is all a lie.

And so to all who read this, and to those who don’t, I wish you boundless hope and prosperity in the new year and heartfelt gratitude for the countless blessings of the year past.

Boëthius?

Why Boëthius? Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius isn’t an outstanding figure of history to me. I learned of this 6th century Roman master-of-all-trades “Renaissance man” in an English lit course on Geoffrey Chaucer in college. Most of us know Chaucer best by his flagship piece, The Canterbury Tales, and we know that Chaucer’s writing had a great impact on all literature after him, and on the formation of the English language.

But Chaucer also rendered a Middle-English translation of Boëthius’ flagship, The Consolation of Philosophy. I discovered that Chaucer was consoled by Boëthius enough to bring his work to life again some seven centuries after Boëthius’ execution, as if no value or meaning was dropped from this work. And I stand some seven centuries after Chaucer, moved deeply by Chaucer’s archaic and nearly unreadable Middle-English, again as if no time had passed at all. I had the same surprising experience with Chaucer’s retelling of Troilus and Criseyde, and I recommend both of these pieces to anyone willing to grapple with some antiquated language.

The point of Boëthius here is twofold:

1) He stands on the bridge of civilized history, linking all important art, poetry, philosophy, religion, science and thinking from the ancient empires to the present day. The Last Roman, as he’s been dubbed is also the first modern man concerning the sharing of knowledge and the discussion of ideas. He looks both backward and forward with equal relevance.

2) He appeals to discussion, not just as a tool of speech or a means to an end, but as a comfort food. It’s the pleasure taken in the dialogue of high and low ideas for the sake of fellowship and the appeal of common sense.

Boëthian Papers is homage to the great discussion had by the founding fathers of the United States regarding its pending Constitution – The Federalist Papers.

So I begin this blog with hopes of engaging in high and low discussion of consequential and inconsequential things, but always with purpose: for the consolation of philosophy.

I welcome comments on all entries, and I will always do my best to engage the comments – especially comments of disagreement. If nothing else, check back often for short, entertaining and hopefully out-of-the-ordinary pieces on society, religion, politics and the arts – Boëthian-style.