The Other McCain

Ace of Spades called attention to this memorable pearl of wisdom folly by the notorious embarassment to the Republican Party:

This purposeful and conscious disparagement of knowledge is rather breathtaking, coming as it does from someone whose grandfather and great-grandfather were both four-star admirals in the U.S Navy and who, one supposes, could not have graduated from Annapolis without demonstrating some ability in regard to the spouting of facts.

Yet brief investigation discovers that great-grandfather John S. McCain Sr. was 79th in a class of 116, while grandfather John S. McCain Jr. was 423rd in a class of 441, and her “Maverick” father, JSM III, was 894th in a class of 899. Thus a steady decline in scholastic achievement can be perceived and we may state with tremendous certainty that, if not for her family’s wealth and influence, young Meghan never would have qualified for admission to Columbia University.

Just hours before Meghan wrote that Tweet, I had been discussing the false dilemma fallacy, and we see how the spoiled bimbo falls into it, supposing that humankind neatly bifurcates into:

• Those with “personality and swagger” and
• Those who “spout boring facts on command.”

The dichotomy between these two qualities — which for the sake of clarity we might call vivaciousness and studiousness — is perhaps not wholly imaginary, but Meghan fosters a prejudicial stereotype by derogating erudition.

It takes all kinds to make the world go ’round, and I do not for a moment think that my own excellence in the area of “personality and swagger” relieves me of obligation to those whose specialty is “boring facts.” Indeed, I’m pretty handy in the “boring facts” department myself, but in matters of technology am compelled to rely on Smitty’s expertise in (and remarkable patience with the tedium of) all things IT-ish.

Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, Meghan. And while the very name of this blog reflects a desire to distinguish myself from the disgraces which your branch of the family has brought upon our shared patrimony — which diverged in the early 19th century with the brothers Alexander and Hugh McCain — I do wish you were capable of learning from your own folly, and perhaps also from your father’s folly.

Governed by the Cast of ‘Jersey Shore’?

What hope is there for recovery of our Republic, if we cannot benefit from the study of the past, critically examining both the virtues and vices of our forebears, sriving to emulate the former and avoid the latter? Can’t Meghan see how her father’s arrogant “Maverick” attitude undermined his better qualities? Doesn’t she understand that her father’s contempt for the Republican Party’s conservative rank-and-file hurt both himself and his party? And is Meghan incapable of recognizing that, in abusing her unearned celebrity as she has so conspicuously done, she brings her family name into even greater disrepute, making herself a complete laughingstock whom no honest or intelligent person respects?

Democracy can be a force for good or evil, in culture as in government.

On the one hand, as Ann Coulter observes in Demonic, we behold democracy as “mob rule,” which forces everything down to the level of the lowest common denominator and panders to the basest appetites of humanity, as evidenced in such diverse phenomena as the “Occupy” movement and Jersey Shore. Continue reading Meghan McCain: An Essay on Decadence →