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Quotational Therapy: Part 38 -- John McCain On The War On Terror.

Arizona Senator John McCain, Speech To The 2004 Republican National Convention-

For all the criticism John McCain receives from Republicans for his misguided campaign finance reform crusade (and other things he does to irritate the GOP base), Senator McCain is one of the more effective and important members of "the team" when it comes to advocating the War On Terror. In that spirit, McCain talking about Iraq:

This week, millions of Americans, not all Republicans, weigh our claim on their support for the two men who have led our country in these challenging times with moral courage and firm resolve.

So I begin with the words of a great American from the other party, given at his party's convention in the year I was born.

My purpose is not imitation, for I can't match his eloquence, but respect for the relevance in our time of his rousing summons to greatness of an earlier generation of Americans.

In a time of deep distress at home, as tyranny strangled the aspirations to liberty of millions, and as war clouds gathered in the West and East, Franklin Delano Roosevelt accepted his party's nomination by observing:

"There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."

The awful events of September 11, 2001 declared a war we were vaguely aware of, but hadn't really comprehended how near the threat was, and how terrible were the plans of our enemies.

It's a big thing, this war.

It's a fight between a just regard for human dignity and a malevolent force that defiles an honorable religion by disputing God's love for every soul on earth. It's a fight between right and wrong, good and evil.

And should our enemies acquire for their arsenal the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons they seek, this war will become a much bigger thing.

So it is, whether we wished it or not, that we have come to the test of our generation, to our rendezvous with destiny.

And much is expected of us.

We are engaged in a hard struggle against a cruel and determined adversary.

Our enemies have made clear the danger they pose to our security and to the very essence of our culture...liberty.

Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war.

Like all wars, this one will have its ups and downs.

But we must fight.

We must.

The sacrifices borne in our defense are not shared equally by all Americans.

But all Americans must share a resolve to see this war through to a just end.

We must not be complacent at moments of success, and we must not despair over setbacks.

We must learn from our mistakes, improve on our successes, and vanquish this unpardonable enemy.

If we do less, we will fail the one mission no American generation has ever failed ... to provide to our children a stronger, better country than the one we were blessed to inherit.

Remember how we felt when the serenity of a bright September morning was destroyed by a savage atrocity so hostile to all human virtue we could scarcely imagine any human being capable of it.

We were united.

First, in sorrow and anger.

Then in recognition we were attacked not for a wrong we had done, but for who we are -- a people united in a kinship of ideals, committed to the notion that the people are sovereign, not governments, not armies, not a pitiless, inhumane theocracy, not kings, mullahs or tyrants, but the people.

In that moment, we were not different races.

We were not poor or rich. We were not Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. We were not two countries.

We were Americans.

All of us, despite the differences that enliven our politics, are united in the one big idea that freedom is our birthright and its defense is always our first responsibility.

All other responsibilities come second.

We must not lose sight of that as we debate who among us should bear the greatest responsibility for keeping us safe and free.

We must, whatever our disagreements, stick together in this great challenge of our time.

Read the entire speech here.

If John McCain wants to win the 2008 Republican nomination, he needs to focus on the two 'T's on which he is most strong, Terror and Taxes. But he also needs to work on another 'T'-- trust. Republican primary voters, today, wouldn't be able to trust John McCain to fight for their ideas, their values, and their policy preferences. But John McCain could certainly earn that trust over the next couple of years.

Earning the trust of Republican primary voters will not require a move to the right. Senator McCain is already far more conservative than many on both sides of the political spectrum give him credit for. McCain's problem with GOP voters is that the "mainstream" media adore him, that he tends to do bipartisan things (even just symbolic gestures, sometimes) for the sake of being bipartisan, and that he has taken positions on a few prominent issues of our time that are just plain annoying.

If he wants to win in 2008, he'll have to make a high-stakes gamble, potentially agitating, or losing entirely, his fawning establishment media. But Republican primary voters, as of right now, are not going to accept McCain "as is."

Incidentally, I guarantee that if John McCain were president today, the left would hate him with roughly the same intensity as they hate President Bush. And if he does become president, McCain will likely not be able to maintain his love affair with the media.

Previous Quotational Therapy Session:

JFK.

The right quote can be therapeutic, so tune in to WILLisms.com for quotational therapy every Monday and Friday.

Posted by Will Franklin · 22 August 2005 11:27 AM

Comments

Posted by: Rob B. at August 22, 2005 04:45 PM

Posted by: laxpat at August 22, 2005 06:07 PM

Posted by: Will Franklin at August 22, 2005 06:10 PM

Posted by: Zsa Zsa at August 24, 2005 03:21 PM