The Sad End of John McCain

In our nation's dodgy past, historians tell us, ignorant mobs cheered the burning of innocent women deemed by the powers of the day to be "witches." Other mobs of ignorants cheered the lynching of humans assessed as three-fifths human in our Constitution, simply due to the color of their skin.

More recently, prominent men espoused a virulent Anti-Semitism and urged our government to side with Adolf Hitler in WW2. During my own lifetime, especially in the early years in Michigan, I heard countless slurs issued by friends and family against all of these groups -- women, blacks, Jews.

Being a black Jewish woman (in disguise), of course I stayed silent, but their slurs ripped bloody stripes across my body that, upon close examination, are visible to this day.

In the back alleys and underground tunnels of WASP culture, these three biases still exist, though it is no longer socially acceptable to say anything that might be overheard.

Against this entrenched culture of hatred and mistrust comes the 2008 Presidential election. As I consume each day's flow of political news as only a news junkie can appreciate, I'm struck by how many old sores are being reopened on the other side of the WASP piece of America.

* Women voters, so energized by Hillary Clinton's candidacy, exhibit bitterness that their candidate fell short of attracting enough support to be the Democratic Party nominee.

* Black elders, like Jesse Jackson, denigrate the first realistic Presidential candidate their party will ever have nominated, come late August.

* American Jews maintain skepticism about supporting Obama. Is he really pro-Israel enough?

Honestly, I find all of these debates laughable. History, when you are in the middle of it, has a way of blinding people just as much as San Francisco's summer fogs prevent those of us who live here from seeing much further than our own navels.

If I was in a McCain-bashing mood tonight, which I am not, I would lift from YouTube the video of his embarrassing inability to answer a question about whether allowing insurance companies to pay men to obtain Viagra is fair when we don't allow women to get coverage for abortion. (When Obama needs to gain the trust of women voters.)

Or, the video of his idiot adviser, Phil Graham, denouncing working-class Americans as "whiners" for faking their pain during the present recession. (When Obama needs to gain the trust of white working class voters.)

But, you know what? I don't have the heart to do that to this old man. My own sense is he might be in serious health trouble, given the way he kept covering his face today. That left cheek of his is swollen again, which I find scary.

The political fact is that McCain just seems sadly out of touch. He says he doesn't really know how to use a computer! That is why my prediction a long time ago, here, that Obama would be our next President, seems pretty safe tonight.

That, dear reader, is an understatement.

Finally, close readers should ask, what was I really referring to regarding group #3, you know, the Jews? Well, all that happened is that archeologists and historians have been able to decode the writing on a stone tablet from Jordan that appears to confirm that at least some Jewish sects had the reincarnation myth (die on Friday, get resurrected on Sunday) firmly in place before Jesus ever showed up. In fact, it is starting to look like a guy called Simon was the main character in this ancient myth.

Now, none of this has anything to do with politics, but it is interesting evidence that the religion so many Americans and Europeans consider to be central in their lives apparently is nothing more than one more sect of a far older religion -- Judaism.

That is our punchline: We are all Jews! Don't even bring up Mohammed, his Jewishness has long since been confirmed, not to mention the fact that it was other Jews who saved him from the early Jihadists who chased him around as if he were Salmon Rushdie!

Good old Salmon Rushdie. Not one to let a fatwa prevent him from writing many more books and living to a ripe old age, he's back on the book tour circuit once again.

It all just goes to show that any publicity is good publicity in this over-mediated world we live in. Plus this: Thank God, whoever she may turn out to be, for writers!

-30-