I had a little notion for a video project during the primaries. It would be a montage of man-on-the-street questions about McCain with each person invited to call out his name in whatever expressive fashion would strike them. That was with the assumption that mostly, like myself, these Rep primary voters would harbor some desperate exasperation over the contradictions typifying his life, his statements and his long, long career. Think of young military types ruefully but respectfully moaning, “McCain.” Then would there be an agitated old woman in red, white and blue shaking her parasol while croaking, “McCain!” Hardhats would shake their heads in bewilderment, “McCain?” A whole, modest family would cry out plaintively, “McCa-a-a-ain….. ” And of course I would act all these folks out to whomever was willing to listen to my childish fantasy. Because the fact is, if you do ask the man on the street, and he is one of few who recognize the name and is one of the precious few with any inkling of his identity you will almost certainly find that they know him only as a military man of some past accomplishment who ran against Obama for twisted reasons best left obscure. McCain may get the historical berth he has long sought, however. He has proposed a bill that would grant the President the unreviewed power to hold citizens in custody without charge and without trial. Forever. This while he makes a weepy plea not to restore waterboarding, a proposition NO ONE has brought, because squirting market-bombers with the hose is against foundational American principles.

I’ll bet McCain’s name recognition goes up significantly if this shiny bauble gets enacted. Like his previous signature legislation; a series of restrictions on electoral speech, this snide tyranny takes us back, not to the days of our last King but back before the Magna Charta. Look not to Obama or any other elected Lefty to scuttle this scow. McCain’s treason of the day is the hammer. The anvil? Obama’s executive order of last week that claims the power to indefinitely detain whomever, citizen or not, even if they have had their trial and been acquitted! Which approach is more strict is somewhat ambiguous and that seems to be the only contest of any consequence.

McCain is the resident Tough Guy in the Senate and big-time politics overall. This doesn’t rest on his ass-kicking ability which is curtailed by his serious war wounds. McCain’s toughness of today instead rests on his willingness to confront his own party or his own presumed principles. This has made him the Other Guy in many an eruption of bipartisanship. Ted Kennedy was often his partner. Russ Feingold was the other “name” on the Campaign Finance Reform of ’02. Back then they were getting tough on the “big money men” of politics. “Big money men” never focus group well and this was painful to McCain and his troop because, hey, that’s US! The whole advent of CFR, blighted illegality that it is, was to give the actual Big Money Men of politics a chance to denounce and revile “big money men” in the abstract. Of such absurdity is our current dilemma constructed.

Tough. Everyone has to be Tough. Romney has a Toughness Coach who has instructed him to admit only that Romneycare was not successfully or legally scaled up when it was dragooned for national service as Obamacare. No, you can’t say that the whole thing was crapulent and, by the way, violative of your stated principles. See, that would be a climb down; an about-face. That shows weakness. You want to be Tough! Get all agitated when anyone asks you about it. Contradictions? Double-standards? Double-talk? No such thing! The accusation is scurrilous! And if I were not bound by the precepts of my religion (although I am no fanatic) I would take you out to the woodshed! Yes, I would!

Trump lays his claim to Toughness through public profanity. Newt gets tough on the druggies, no one will care, eh? Hillary earned her Toughness under fire and under Bill. Bill earned his by Tomahawking here, clusterbombing there and making the odd maneuver against his presumed base. But everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY had better be Tough.

Of course Tough Guy Numero Uno is that Unborn-again pacifist who argued AGAINST every element of Bush’s Tough regimen of investigation, adjudication and prosecution. The subject on the board at the moment of course is the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques which included mock drownings, yes, and a puny array of deceptions and minor coercions that would not impress your average schoolyard bully. Making these declarations, that too was Tough. In that case it demonstrated Toughness against Bush and his hellions. Tough indeed.

But McCain was also Tough on that measure, and maybe even Tougher. After all, he was going against his OWN base and the sitting President of his own party. Whether his position was one of intellectual and passionate conviction or an exploitation that let him indulge his animosity for W while  distancing himself from same is immaterial. By definition it seems, to act against Bushery in whatever context is Tough.

Now I don’t recall anyone making a Tough call on, say, the bank bailouts. Toughness there would have been a simple saying of Nay to the Paulsons, Geithners and their numberless clones on the business side of the revolving door. Declaring we would all be eating grubs from the dumpsters in 48 hours if that particular raft of billions were not constructed and launched immediately, the fiscal mad scientists had W on their side and NO ONE apposite. The Tough Guy of 911 and Andover could not find the guts to question this for an instant himself. No one applied Toughness to the auto companies or unions regarding their insane business practices and poor market showing. Everyone was on board for a soft-touch for these squanderers of public will, public money and public trust. Even more glaringly, there seems to not be a Tough Guy from horizon to horizon when it comes to stating what we all know; that there is no money left whether for Social Security or an Iraqi election. Borrowing is repaid with printing and printing justified with borrowing. And nothing out there now has any hope of improving that fact.

No Tough Guys present themselves for this irksome chore. Instead, any truth that might be taken amiss by the sour and ignorant public is eschewed and a vigorous display of Toughness is undertaken. While they decline to be Tough in the interrogation rooms of Guantanamo the twin headed beast of McBama promises a thoroughly Tough regimen for American citizens. You didn’t think civilian trials were called for among the Gitmo goatherders? Why, we couldn’t agree more! A trial of any sort is not a “right” but a privilege and so not for unprivileged enemy belligerents. What’s that? We’ll tell you later. Maybe. While posturing as Tough on our borders this same creature prepares featherbeds of entitlements, voting rights and forbearance of criminality to whomever can set a toe over a painted line. No Toughness is called for there. Nope, the Tough Guys are not going to use their gutsy habits in defense of the Constitution, American citizenship or simple freedom; not to fight an invasion from the South or treason in the Senate. They will use them for the clamp down; prisons for the uninsured, hangings for the growers of hemp, confiscation for the earners of money and above all a quarantine of contempt for anyone who will notice these ravages out loud. Tough times are upon us, America, with a bipartisan face. But we have a few Toughies on our side as well, I think. More than a few.

 

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