McDS in Action
A previous discussion about BDS and ODS got me thinking of the fact that there doesn’t appear to be much McDS, an irrational hatred of all things McCain. Oh there is plenty of attacking going on towards McCain, but I don’t see a burning hatred of the man himself, simply a burning desire to defeat his party in some quarters.
But you’ll never get anywhere in the blogosphere underestimating the paranoia of others, so 10 minutes after my previous thought, I found this:
So let’s all remind everyone we know that John McCain plans to overturn Roe and outlaw all abortions - and condoms too.
This is a wild misrepresentation of McCains actual position. Here is his full statement on the matter from his website:
John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench.
Constitutional balance would be restored by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion question to the individual states. The difficult issue of abortion should not be decided by judicial fiat.
However, the reversal of Roe v. Wade represents only one step in the long path toward ending abortion. Once the question is returned to the states, the fight for life will be one of courage and compassion - the courage of a pregnant mother to bring her child into the world and the compassion of civil society to meet her needs and those of her newborn baby. The pro-life movement has done tremendous work in building and reinforcing the infrastructure of civil society by strengthening faith-based, community, and neighborhood organizations that provide critical services to pregnant mothers in need. This work must continue and government must find new ways to empower and strengthen these armies of compassion. These important groups can help build the consensus necessary to end abortion at the state level. As John McCain has publicly noted, “At its core, abortion is a human tragedy. To effect meaningful change, we must engage the debate at a human level.”
So he does want to overturn Roe vs. Wade, but as far as prohibiting on the federal level he will, at the most, try to “build consensus” to end the practice in every state. And condoms? Well they are nowhere to be found, except in the writers imagination, apparently.
The sad part is that such gross exageration is unneccesary. People who are pro-choice and were given an accurate portrayal of McCain’s position will come away very clear that he intends to work against them. But maybe they’d come out disagreeing but not hating, and we can’t have that, can we?
So I’m confused. Isn’t this article in support of McCain, and if so how is that a manifestation of McBS?
Umh. Somehow I doubt that an article at AMERICAblog is in support of John McCain Chris (that’s where Claudia links to).
Claudia is defending McCain, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t call her own post "McDS." She was referring to the article she links to.
Ah no Michael, Chris is right, because I wrote McBS and not McDS, which is what I wanted to write. It has been corrected and I apologize. You are allowed to laugh at me, however, I’ll understand completely.
McDS is alive and well in the far right wing and nutwing brigades, especially among Huckabee and Romney supporters who thought THEIR guys were squishy-soft and too fr to the left.
"McDS is alive and well in the far right wing and nutwing brigades, especially among Huckabee and Romney supporters who thought THEIR guys were squishy-soft and too fr to the left."
Well, that is actually predictable, but they are actually angry at the man for not being on par with their principles - insane though their principles may be. To suffer from derangement in this context you need self-delusion and cognitive dissonance to "qualify".
I find it hard to believe that you’ll find much evidence of "McDS" on the Right. Regardless of how disappointed conservative supporters of other candidates are, they still share more in common with McCain than those on the Left.
For the record, I was a Huckabee supporter and I’m not really happy with McCain. But I still think he’s a better bet than Obama.
I agree that some folks are simplifying McCain’s positions, just as they do Obama’s. A sound-byte is much easier to digest.
Just curious, though: On what grounds do you think McCain sees Roe v Wade overthrown? Simply saying that such issues should be decided at a lower level? Or on the constitutionality of the decision?
Mostly I think he wants to see it overturned because he plainly says so on his website (check the link in my post):
Well yes — I see that is his stated position. He’s not saying how he thinks it’s flawed though. I was just curious whether you had some feel for how, or why.