Unsolicited advice for Meghan McCain

I have mixed feelings about Ms. McCain. On one hand, I’m glad she’s willing to take on the GOP dinosaurs who want to keep the party focused forever on wedge issues. I applauded when she told Laura Ingraham to kiss her “fat ass” and took on snarling harpy Ann Coulter on Rachel Maddow’s show.

On the other hand, would anyone give a shit what she had to say if she weren’t John McCain’s sorta cutesy, blogging daughter? Nope.

But even more irksome (to me, anyway) is Ms. McCain’s over-reliance on her youth—her tendency to pull this card, “Um, bitch? I wasn’t even, like, born then!” when challenged on any issue.

It’s perfectly legit in some situations: No person or group should be forced to grapple endlessly with the same issues. Sometimes it’s truly time to move on and tell the dinosaurs to march forward with you or lumber off to the tar pits. The GOP’s demonization of gays and immigrants are great examples.

But the “I wasn’t even born then” card is no excuse for ignorance and an inability to place current events in their historical context. As Paul Begala so deftly demonstrated here:

Begala is absolutely right. McCain arouses chivalrous instincts even in the hard-bitten Maher, which isn’t especially to either’s credit. And McCain’s reaction when her youth card is unceremoniously torn to pieces and tossed in her face is even worse: She pulls the “I’m just a silly blonde” ace. (sigh)

Note to Ms. McCain: As you are keenly aware, your chosen party is at a historically low ebb. Dead guys (Reagan), pugilistic has-beens (Cheney and Gingrich) and psychotic racist assholes (Limbaugh) are its current ugly face. If ever there was a party in search of a new face, GOP 2009 is it.

You seem to want the job. And hey, in this celebrity-driven culture, someone has to have it. Why not you? You don’t seem stupid. Your instincts seem mostly sound. And you have a famous name and vast wealth, which, though unfair advantages, are advantages nonetheless. Through the miracle of hydrogen peroxide, you may always be blonde, but you won’t always be young. Even if that were possible, you still need to be up to the job.

Use the copious leisure time your accidental access to giant piles of cash bestows to learn some history—not to stay forever mired in your party’s past but to enlighten yourself about its possible future. “All my friends get along—why can’t everyone?” is a question, not a solution.

Find out the answer, and then get back on my TV. You might say something worth hearing then, which will be a first for a GOP spokesperson since, like, way before you were born.

[Cross-posted at Betty Cracker]

Posted by Betty Cracker on 06/22/09 at 08:59 AM • Permalink

Categories: Politics • Polisnark • Our Stupid Media •

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Let’s see, an ingrained sense of false victimhood? (“I’m the only Republican here!”) Check!

Historical ignorance? Check!

False equivalency? (Does Bill Maher cut people’s mikes off, like O’Reilly does? Nope!) Double check!

Oh Megan honey, you’re the perfect face of the GOP!

Comment by Oblomova on 06/22/09 at 09:21 AM

My unsolicited advice to Meghan McCain?

You’re young, you’re rich, you don’t appear to have any serious physical problems - get out there from under your dad’s shadow and live a little.

If you really want to help make the world a better place, volunteer or figure out some other way to contribute. If you want to be a politician, well ...

Comment by YAFB on 06/22/09 at 11:40 AM

Her only “qualification” is her membership in the Lucky Sperm Club. Beyond that, she’s just as vapid as any other 20-something GOP staffer on the Hill.

Someone else needs to take up the cause of bringing moderates back into the party.

Comment by Tom65 on 06/22/09 at 11:42 AM

Meghan McCain’s emergence as one of the more sane Republican voices is just further evidence of the GOP’s slide into irrelevance. I say keep it comin’!

Comment by Judas Peckerwood on 06/22/09 at 12:41 PM

McCain arouses chivalrous instincts even in the hard-bitten Maher…

I think you’re giving Bill a little too much credit there, Betty. Bill has a history of defending his conservative guests from his audience, to a degree. Maher is also a lech with a fetish for conservative women—see his years of fawning over and defending the vile Coulter from his other guests. Aside from that, he’s very hit-or-miss comedically, often contrarian for no reason other than his own sense of self-aggrandizement as some sort of liberal iconoclast, and every bit as much of a True Believer as those he chooses to mock about religion (Bill Maher has never met a bit of woo that he didn’t like), and I say that as a militant atheist. Friggin’ yutz.

Um…kinda got off on a tangent there. Sorry folks!

Comment by OneMadClown on 06/22/09 at 01:15 PM

If this is the future of the Republican party, I say, let her keep talking. She likes to share her opinions, but when challenged, she mostly fails at any sort of real dialog on any real issue and is highly amusing as a result.

That being said, I love Bill Maher. I think he’s a creepy lech, but I love him anyway.

Comment by Jenny on 06/22/09 at 02:49 PM

She’s on my very short list of RILFs.

Missionary, that is.

And you don’t have to recover from the night of moonshine and Meth like with them Palin gurlz.

Just get some antibiotics and move on.

Jen:

I love Bill Maher. I think he’s a creepy lech, but I love him

Yeah his kook side is very headdesk as well, he’s an anti-vaxer among other superstitions, but he is a very quick wit and I find myself agreeing with him a lot