The Black McCains

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article and accompanying video about the McCain families in Carroll County, Mississippi: the descendants of John McCain's ancestors who still remain in the area where those ancestors owned a cotton plantation (Teoc), and the descendants of the slaves who worked that plantation and took their owners' surname. The McCains have a biannual reunion where family members of both groups of descendants meet.

Charles McCain, grandson of a slave at Teoc, the white McCain plantation, was active in the Civil Rights Movement:

Charles McCain was a central figure in the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. When civil-rights workers swarmed Mississippi in 1964, the black McCains housed white activists and received bomb threats and harassing calls.

"Daddy didn't want us to roll over and play dead or live as if you are not a person," says Lillie McCain. Her sister Mary McCain Fluker, 53, says their father "would always tell us you are just as good as anybody. 'You are no better than anybody,' he'd tell us, 'but you're just as good as anybody.'"

Civil-rights organizers held secret meetings at the family's church just off the Teoc plantation. The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a state agency formed to thwart the civil-rights movement, kept tabs on Mr. McCain, according to commission records. "Daddy was one of the leaders, one of the people out front," says 60-year-old Charles McCain Jr., a retired brick mason and teacher who still lives on the family land.

As Senator John McCain himself has said, slavery was "a dark and tragic chapter in American history." This article is about one plantation-owning family whose descendants turned to military service and fought for freedom abroad and the slaves whose descendants fought for their freedom here at home. (However, four of Charles McCain's children also served in the military: the black McCains did double duty--fighting for freedom abroad and for Civil Rights at home.)

Hat tip to Scott Horton, blogging for Harper's Magazine.

See also, "The Complicated history of John McCain and MLK Day," at Jake Tapper's Political Punch blog at ABC News online.

Not a Hater

Sarah Palin has long referred to people who do not support her or who actively work against her administration as "haters." She did this as governor of Alaska; she is following this same pattern on the stump as vice-presidential nominee. Everyone else, Democrats, liberals, people who don't live in small towns (most of this country's population is metropolitan) are "other." This kind of rhetoric not only unites the ones who support Palin; it unites those who oppose her politics and her worldview.

In the last presidential debate (if I remember correctly) and in speeches since, John McCain has raised the issue, as if it were something negative, of how much money Barack Obama has spent on political advertising. What McCain hasn't said is that the money is coming from supporters, most of them ordinary Americans such as I. Every time Sarah Palin opens her mouth to rally the faithful, every time she says she loves to visit the "pro-America" parts of the country such as North Carolina, she gets the dander up of all those other citizens who are just as patriotic, who realize that they are being labeled unpatriotic because of their politics or because of where they live. I've given more money to Barack Obama's campaign than I've ever given to another political campaign, and I am just one of those patriotic Americans who feels as if I am being slapped in the face each time someone in the Republican party claims that those who do not adhere to their views are unpatriotic. I betcha there are hundreds of thousands of Americans such as I.

Another example of how the "hater" remarks, the remarks that divide citizens into pro-American and anti-American groups, is generating response from those who feel unfairly labeled or from those who just do not like this recurring theme in our political landscape, is the money that poured into the campaign coffers of Michelle Bachman's political opponent yesterday. Elwyn Tinklenberg, the Democratic opponent for Bachman's Republican seat in Congress, reported that he raised $488,000 in 24 hours and that his campaign headquarters has received unprecedented support since Bachman publicly suggested that members of Congress should be investigated to determine whether they are "pro-American" or "anti-American."

While it's encouraging that people (such as I) are reacting positively to this negative campaign tactic by supporting those who do not employ it, these actions indicate that the tactics are further dividing parts of the electorate. Research shows that when like-minded people hang out together, excluding those with other views, shared views become more radicalized; no opposition is present to voice another view, to induce discussion, to initiate self-examination. So when leaders with strident voices insist that those Americans who adhere to one view are the "true Americans", they are not only rallying the faithful, they are radicalizing the country, pushing those whom they deem "outside" to congregate, to commiserate with one another, to act more strongly in rejecting the unfair labeling.

I am not a "hater," but I despise Sarah Palin's rhetoric and the rhetoric of those like her. I despise her "know-nothing" attitude about the wider world. And I'm worried that the rhetoric is further radicalizing those who vote Democratic and those who vote Republican. We need leaders who can remind us of what we have in common, of the values we share. And the Republican party at this time is woefully unwilling and powerfully unable to provide that kind of leadership. At one time, I would have said that John McCain is the kind of man to provide that leadership, but then he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, he hired campaign managers who promote extremely divisive political tactics, and he hired the very company that the Bush campaign used to slime him in the 2000 presidential race. Long-time acquaintances are appalled by McCain's campaign. "Where is the John McCain we knew?" they ask.

The Republican party is in such disarray that some of the party faithful are abandoning ship. Colin Powell just announced his support of Barack Obama. Christopher Buckley, long-time Republican supporter and son of the late William F. Buckley, has stated his support of Barack Obama.

For the sake of the country, the Republican party needs to re-examine its own values and to eschew the divisive tactics that have brought it power at a tremendous price to democracy. And if the Democrats win this race, they must prove our support was well-founded. However, with the divisiveness already so solidified, the fight for unity will be a hard one.

Update: Now, I don't want to leave the impression that I think that spending an exorbitant amount of money on a political campaign is a good thing. When a very rich person has a lot of disposable money to spend on his or her campaign, this is definitely not a good thing, for the process then eliminates the less rich but equally or better qualified. However, when hundreds of thousands of Americans pour money into one person's campaign, $10 here, $25 there, $100 when he or she can afford it, that's the voice of the people speaking. I wish there were better ways to fund political campaigns in this country--but that's where we are now.

And here is another voice on campaign financing, from Hilzoy, over at Political Animal, The Washington Monthly: "McCain on Obama's Fundraising"

And James Fallows on John McCain and Colin Powell: "Intersecting Arcs: McCain, Powell".

"The Eddie Haskell of Politicians"

Via Kevin Drum, a link to this article on John McCain, by Amy Silverman, managing editor of the Phoenix New Times.

Those who praise John McCain for being a maverick and a straight-talking politician would do well to read Silverman's article, "Post-modern John McCain: The Presidential Candidate some Arizonans Know and Loathe." The article reminds readers of McCain's activities with the Keating Five, of McCain's meanness, and of Cindy McCain's drug addiction. If she weren't rich and white, Cindy McCain probably would have served jail time. Bob Neuman, who, as Arizona congressman Mo Udall's aide, knows John McCain from the days when McCain hung out with Udall, calls McCain, "the Eddie Haskell of politicians."

More information

• Silverman's 1994 news article on Cindy McCain's addiction and illegal actions: "Opiate for the Mrs.," in the Phoenix New Times.
• Silverman's 1997 article on the media's love for John McCain, "The Pampered Politician," in the Phoenix New Times.