The Man Behind the Myth

I've finally escaped from my zombie-enforced seclusion from the rest of the world, and have had a lot of catching-up to do.

First was watching the Biden-Palin debate, or at least as much as I could stomach. How she managed to fool anyone into believing that was a competent performance just because she managed not to fall off stage, stand in utter, uncomfortable silence or shoot Biden with a moose-hunting gun is beyond me.

And then there was this profile of John McCain in Rolling Stone, which puts the lie to pretty much every aspect of his carefully constructed maverick myth. Chilling, really, to hear the opinions of so many in his past - he's called a brat, a bully, a hothead, an opportunist, and none of it comes across as incompatible to what I see in the man.

But that's the thing. It, as a story of a man, fit neatly within my own constructions of him. But I can't imagine handing this article to a Republican in-law and it having any bearing on their opinion. They would dismiss it all out of hand as McCain-hating liberal bias. As I've mentioned before, I believe the Right has built an immunity to cognitive dissonance.

I've concluded, just this weekend, after the debate and this profile and Palin's "palling around with terrorists" remarks, that if McCain-Palin were to win, it wouldn't be the country getting it wrong, it wouldn't be our democracy hijacked. It would time for us to accept that maybe this really isn't the urban-ites' country. That the US really is a country of bullies and dimwits and angry dogmatic indignation.

Because, really, at that point, how would we be able to deny it? They elect this angry, flip-flopping bullshitter and his attack dog/fluffer, and the proof will be in the pudding.