On John McCain

Let me start out by saying that, on some level, I can relate to John McCain. If it wasn’t for the whole ‘married to a multi-millionaire heiress’ thing and the fact that he’s a bonified member of the ruling class by virtue of his long tenure in the US Senate, he’d fit right in at one of my extended family’s get togethers’. In a lot of ways, he reminds me very strongly of at least one of my uncles.

Like McCain, I’m one of the millions of Americans of primarily Scots-Irish descent. Our ancestors were driven out of Scotland by poverty and English imperialism and landed in North Ireland where they unintentionally ended up becoming the buffer between the native Irish and the English ruling class before collectively saying “fuck this” and emigrating en masse to America. During the Revolutionary war, fully 1/2 of the continental army that won independence was Scots Irish – a contribution to the creation of America vastly disproportionate to our numbers. Since then we have been the backbone of the US military – I’ve personally had at least one ancestor fight in every war America has been involved in since before the Revolution. McCain’s military heritage fits the cultural profile perfectly. We are the single largest Celtic group in America and the second largest ethnic group period after Americans of German descent. We’re also the single poorest “white” ethnic group and Appalachia – the part of America with the highest concentration of Scots-Irish people – boasts poverty rates that are surpassed only by Native American reservations. Demographically, we trend towards social conservatism and are big on personal responsibility but also have a strong populist bent, and teeter somewhat unpredictably between progressivism and conservatism; often combining the two in ways that defy the standard Democrat/Republican split.

McCain’s politics are a perfect reflection of this, combining fiscal and social conservatism and calls for a strong military with support for action on global warming and rhetoric about opportunity for the working class. So, culturally speaking, I feel a certain affinity to McCain; despite our radically different outlooks on politics and the world. Not that I’ve forgotten which sides of the class war we’re each on, but that’s another article entirely.

The point being that when poor & working class white folks (particularly in the south and the rustbelt where the highest concentrations of scots irish folks live) say they feel more “comfortable” with John McCain it may very well be a covert way of saying they are uncomfortable with Obama’s name, color, and bearing (Obama handles himself like an Aristocrat, which is why he is constantly accused of being elitist. Bush & McCain, by contrast, actually are lifelong members of the elite but they go out of their way to present themselves as “regular folks” and so escape the charge). But it could also be the simple fact that culturally McCain is closer to them then Obama is.

Just something all you progressive types should keep in mind before assuming that race is the only factor in play here.

And, of course, my standard disclaimer is that I will not be voting for either candidate since neither comes even close to representing my views and beliefs. As per usual I will be checking “Other” and writing in “None” for all offices, and I heartily encourage you all to do the same.

Posted: August 1st, 2008 under culture war, politrix.
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