Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics (37 page)

BOOK: Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics

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In every one of these critical aspects, John McCain is perfectly illustrative of the same twisted process that has infected our political discourse and converted our national elections into, using the words of John Harris and Mark Halperin, a personality-based freak show. The media depicts McCain as a moderate despite his warmongering extremism. He is heralded as a “new kind of Republican” even though, as a candidate, he is the spitting image of George W. Bush and, on the issues, a more or less reliable supporter of the defining Bush/Cheney policies. He is relentlessly painted as an independent, apolitical maverick despite a willingness to change positions the minute that doing so is politically expedient. The press refuses to subject him to critical scrutiny because of their great personal affection for him. And he is held out as the honor-bound truth-teller despite both a public and private life that has long ceased to contain any actual acts of honor and truth-telling.

John McCain is a natural candidate, right at home in a political party led by Great American Hypocrites and with a press corps that reveres great American hypocrisy. The press adores him for the same vapid, personality-based reasons it adored George W. Bush. And McCain’s media-built and media-sustained reputation as a trans-partisan man of principle and conviction is every bit as genuine as it was in the case of Bush. If the GOP-media machinery manages to elect him, he will undoubtedly produce extremely similar—if not worse—results.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the Acknowledgments section of my previous book, I noted that the collaborative nature of blogging, whereby one is endlessly interacting with readers, commenters, and other bloggers on a daily basis, renders it impossible to trace and thus acknowledge the exact genesis of every idea one has. That is still true. Where I was able to recall the original inspiration for a particular insight, I was as diligent as could be in crediting specific bloggers, but many of the unaccredited ideas in this book are undoubtedly the by-product of my being able to read the work of all sorts of political bloggers and comments from my readers. Constant exposure to new ideas, and having one’s old ideas subjected to rigorous and immediate scrutiny, are among the principal benefits of the medium.

Numerous individuals provided invaluable assistance in the writing of this book. My agent, Dan Conaway, and my Crown editor, Sean Desmond, were both instrumental in shaping the theme of the book and helping to create its structure. Two students, Vincent Rossmeier of NYU’s School of Journalism and Matthew Berman of George Washington University, provided superb, comprehensive research assistance with regard to virtually every topic covered here. And Mona Holland once again wielded a merciless editing pen in order to eliminate verbosity and keep the arguments tight and focused.

On a more personal level, several people are always due thanks for anything I produce, including Werner Achatz, Mark Greenwald, and my parents. And, as always, David Miranda is my eternal partner in everything, at the center of everything I do.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Glenn Greenwald, a former constitutional lawyer, is author of the political blog Unclaimed Territory, at
Salon,
where he is also a contributing writer. His reporting and analysis have been cited by the
New York Times,
the
Washington Post,
the
Los Angeles Times,
and numerous publications. His first two books,
A Tragic Legacy
and
How Would a Patriot Act?,
were
New York Times
bestsellers.