Conflating Patriotism and Careerism

[Blue Meany]

The McCain campaing has been using the "country first," slogan as a way suggesting that Republicans are more patriotic than Democrats. But look again at the candidates.

McCain followed his father and grandfather into the Navy and pursued a military career. His military record is clearly second-tier or he would release his records. He was known for breaking the rules, drinking, and getting into trouble. He finsihed almost last in his class at the Naval Academy. He destroyed several planes as a hot-dog pilot, in one case setting off an international incident when he took out power lines in Spain. It is common knowledge that to advance in the military during war time you have to serve in combat, so McCain volunteered to go to Vietnam. There, he had a role in the fire and explosions on the carrir Foorester that killed scores of men (Some think he was responsible for this, but without release of the records, it his hard to say).
Then he was shot down over North Vietnam and was a POW for 5 1/2 years. When he returned to the US, his admiral father had retired and was not there to protect him or insure his advancement; it became clear that he was not going to advance to the rank of Admiral, so he left the Navy and began a political career.

I don't see anything patriotic about McCain's story. He was and is a careerist, seeking his own advancement. He happened to get shot down in Vietnam, but there is nothing particularly patriotic about that.

By contrast, Barak Obama by-passed a lucrative career in business law to be a community organizer. This was not careerism, it involved self-sacrifice for the sake of the country. That is patriotism.

[Frances]

1. Why won't McCain release his military records?

Didn't JOhn Kerry release his?

[patrice]

2. I am a Veteran (non-combat). People who have not been in the Military do not know about careerists.

I've trained for months at a time with ALL branches. It appears that too many people think everyone in the Military is all about noble self-sacrifice. NOT!!!

I'm very sorry to say, some just don't want to have to compete in the civilian job market. It's not about what is Right, or Wrong, or Noble.

Whereas we SHOULD respect and fulfill our RESPONSIBILITIES to the men and women who sacrifice their humanity in order to serve this country militarily, we NEED very much to be honest with ourselves about who they (and We ) REALLY are.