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Unlike many politicians, one cannot question John McCain's motives. He loves America more than most of us can imagine. That is a simple statement of fact, solidly based on his deeds. It would also seem, from looking at his long career in Congress, that financial greed is not relevant with him; nor a desire for power in its own right.
Despite his unimpeachable character and patriotism, though, it is still possible for him to be mistaken. Honestly mistaken, to be sure; but mistaken nonetheless. And in looking at the particular mistakes he tends to make, one can perhaps gain insight into the man.
This past weekend, Sen. McCain made a profoundly revealing statement on the campaign trail. As has been discussed extensively elsewhere, McCain is (at best) a recent convert to the concept of secure borders and an end to illegal immigration, which 80% of the American people strongly want.
He's taken flak for his minority position throughout this whole campaign; in fact, for a long while his candidacy was thought to be dead because of his intransigence on the issue. In recent months, he has backpedaled, saying that he has heard the call of the voters to secure the borders first, and will accommodate their wishes.
According to AP:
One audience member [asked] a pointed question on his immigration plan. McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona. Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain's job offer. "I'll take it!" one man shouted. McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. "You can't do it, my friends." Some in the crowd said they didn't appreciate McCain questioning their work ethic.
Picking lettuce in the hot Arizona sun is hard work, no doubt about it. But for many if not most Americans, an hourly wage of $50 is the stuff of dreams, for which they would do darn near anything.
The average national hourly wage in 2006 was $16.75 so Sen. McCain's statement is quite extreme. He seriously thinks that Americans find lettuce so unappealing that they wouldn't pick the stuff for three times the average wage, and thus we must import millions of illiterate peasants to do it instead?
Let's look at it another way. No matter how unpleasant is the lot of a lettuce-picker, surely it is vastly preferable to many other roles in life - such as, for example, that of being tortured and imprisoned in North Vietnam for six years. Was McCain's military salary in excess of $50 per hour during this time? Doubtless not. So, in his own life, Sen. McCain has personally been willing to endure far worse, for far less.
That's hardly a fair comparison, of course - nobody serves their country in the military for the financial rewards. But in effect, Sen. McCain is saying Americans are too lazy and soft to do what needs to be done; therefore, we have to get other people to do it for us while we sit back in our recliners and watch TV.
He certainly has a point that Americans like convenience. But is it useful for a president to think that most Americans are hopeless slobs, and there's no use even trying to inspire them to get out and work?
American citizens don't want to pick lettuce, that's for sure. But it's not because they hate that particular vegetable, or even the Arizona sun. It's because the wages being paid are so pitifully small - and that, in turn, is because of the tens of millions of illegal immigrants who accept those un-American wages.
Raise the wages, and there will be no shortage of Americans perfectly willing to do whatever is being asked of them. This is true, in parody, for McCain's lettuce-pickers. It's equally true, in reality, when the government does its job and chucks out the illegals who have been knowingly hired by law-breaking businessmen because they are cheap.
We've seen this effect even in the recent "show" raids against meatpacking plants. The plants are frightened of losing their workers and being closed, so they dispense with the illegals. Of course, to hire legal Americans, they must pay higher wages to the workers - a good thing, isn't it?
John McCain tells us that Americans won't do dirty work for love or money. One can't help but think in contrast of Sir Winston Churchill. He bluntly told the Brits at the opening of the Second World War, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." But he then went on to inspire them to resist the all-powerful Nazis with words that ring down through the ages:
We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender...
Now that is the kind of leadership Americans yearn for.
John McCain is a great American and a great patriot. But when he told an American audience "You can't do it, my friends," he disqualified himself to be President.
In the dark days of the 1970s, when "stagflation" and the oil crisis dented the American spirit, Jimmy Carter gave the famous "malaise" speech, while wearing a sweater to demonstrate that the White House, too, had turned down the thermostat. In summary, he said these hard times are permanent, get used to it. Then Ronald Reagan came with his "Morning in America" message, and the rest is history.
Americans don't want to listen to snotty elites telling them what they can't do. They want leaders who will inspire them to new heights of achievement and greatness. Anyone who thinks there is anything Americans cannot or will not do has lost faith in the American people, and is unfit to lead them.