Experience explains it all. George W. Bush and his cabal had experience defined as the apprehension or perception of an object, thought, emotion, or event through senses or the mind. The result is that if it feels right, it must be true. That is the basis of senseless belief.
The second meaning of experience is the active participation in events or activities, leading to accumulation of knowledge or skill. This is acceptable only if the participant is objective and not already tied to prior convictions.
In neither case can McCain or Palin be experienced in anything but blind prejudice and dogma. If they were able to learn from experience they might become useful public servants. but their convictions belie their honesty and objectivity,
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The Gospel of Chaplain John
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On torture, McCain has made a supremely moral argument: that we distinguish ourselves from our enemies by how we treat our enemies. McCain has not rooted his stand against practices such as waterboarding in pragmatic concerns about America's public image. He argues that, in Vietnam, "We knew that we were not like our enemies, and that we came from a better nation and better values and better standards." (Though McCain opposed a bill that would have applied Army interrogation standards to the CIA, he insists this legislation had nothing to do with waterboarding or torture.)
On immigration, McCain has been forced to make some policy compromises. But even at the point of his greatest political testing in the Republican primaries, he asserted the dignity, rights and humanity of illegal immigrants. In a June 2007 immigration speech, McCain talked of María Hernández Pérez, nearly 2, with "thick brown hair and eyes the color of chocolate," and Kelia Velázquez-González, 16, who "carried a Bible in her backpack." Both died terrible deaths in the Arizona desert. "We can't let immigrants break our laws with impunity," he continued. "But these people are God's children who wanted simply to be Americans."
On foreign policy, McCain's humanitarian instincts are sharp and proven. He has been an outspoken, outraged critic of oppression in Tibet and mass killing in Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. He has supported global AIDS relief and proposed to "end malaria in Africa" as president. His immediate reaction in a foreign-policy crisis is usually to stick up for the victims of aggression and confront the bullies, as we have seen again in Georgia.
It is difficult to imagine McCain's connecting these dots into a coherent social-justice agenda. He does not appear to bring any broad, philosophic framework to his political decisions. Rather than reasoning from first principles, McCain makes choices case by case, based on his conceptions of loyalty and duty.
But the choices that emerge are not random. Instead of a philosophy, McCain has a code, combining a religious concern for the weak and the oppressed with a military conception of national honor—an almost Roman belief in personal integrity and sacrifice for country. And this is likely to have considerable appeal among religious voters of every background (recent polls show McCain leading among white Catholics by 22 points in Florida and 15 points in Pennsylvania).
McCain still doesn't show much "religiosity." But there is much to admire in Chaplain John and his single-finger salute.
Gerson, a former speechwriter and policy adviser to President Bush, is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a NEWSWEEK contributor.
© 2008
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