John McCain was shot down while conducting a bombing raid over North Vietnam in October 1967.
He was taken prisoner, tortured, and held for five years. Surely, he suffered enormously and probably returned with PTSD, from which he seems to still be suffering.
One of the things that stands out about McCain in this campaign is his obsession with his POW history. He mentions it often, seems to believe it affords him some superior status, as well as excuses for everything anyone calls him on, and sometimes says unusual things, like today when he addressed his audience as "my fellow prisoners."
No one can deny the trauma McCain went through, even though few of us ever had the same experience. On the other hand, many of us had traumatic experiences that McCain cannot identify with, and so he seems at times to be callous and unthinking in his behavior.
McCain, as I wrote above, was in a prison camp for five years starting in October, 1967. The following year, the nation suffered through two assassinations: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. For many of us, these assassinations were horrifying and traumatic. For African Americans, especially, the assassination of MLK was like the death of the most important and beloved person in their family. It not only shocked us, it set progressive politics and the cause of civil rights on their heels for a long time. In a sense, as a nation, we suffered a kind of collective PTSD. This experience is something McCain cannot possibly identify with.
And so we see McCain callously and without apparent understanding of how he is playing with fire, sending out Sarah Palin to not so subtly incite anger against Barack Obama because of his name and his limited acquaintance with a domestic terrorist from the sixties (though Obama was only eight when the man was engaging in criminality.) These continual references, along with some ads stating that Obama is dangerous, are inciting some of McCain's followers to shout angry violent threats against Obama and perhaps to even harbor violent fantasies.
One wonders if McCain who, because he was not here at the time, and cannot possibly relate to the horror the nation endured with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, realizes what a dangerous game he is playing. One wonders if he has any understanding of the fear African Americans and others have for Obama's safety.
McCain has a real sense of entitlement. He believes that as a former POW he deserves the presidency while Obama, who never served in uniform, doesn't. One has to wonder if there is some racism in his attitude as well. He deserves the presidency because he is white, while Obama is undeserving because he is black. (Next time you doubt this, see how many African American staffers and advisors you see around McCain.) His contempt for Obama shows in every encounter they have and it is so visceral that you really have to consider the racist angle. When you pair that with the dog whistle messages sent out by Palin, who has no African Americans around her either - in Alaska or now in the campaign) and in the campaign advertising, it becomes a real possiblity.
But while McCain thinks we should all honor his traumatic experience, he is completely oblivious to the trauma the nation suffered when MLK was assassinated. If he had any sensitivity at all to his fellow citizens with darker skin, he would not be doing this. But on top of his sense of entitlement and his obliviousness to the country's trauma when he was in Vietnam, McCain seems to possess a narcissism that probably pre-dated his capture. This makes him incapable of empathy.
None of this excuses his behavior, however, and we should not tolerate it. After McCain is defeated this November, his state should send him into retirement. People this despicable and psychologically impaired should not be rewarded with a salary paid by the taxpayers he so obviously despises.
