John McCain and Neil Simon: The Death of Icons

Over the weekend we lost two icons of American culture. Eighty-One year old former US Navy Hero, Presidential candidate, and longtime Senator from Arizona, John McCain passed away surrounded by family and friends on Saturday. The very next day, American play, and screen, writer Neil Simon passed away at the age of ninety-one. Both men defined their professions, and their era. Both men leave a legacy that will be studied for generations. With the deaths of John McCain and Neil Simon, the eras they helped create are gone, they were their last champions. We can now only reflect on their lives.

It is easier to look at the life of Neil Simon with reverence. The man wrote plays that were not that controversial, yet they influenced us all. Simon wrote stories that were critical and financial successes. The man penned The Odd Couple, The Brighton Beach Trilogy, Barefoot in the Park, Chapter Two, and Lost In Yonkers, and those are just a few from the top of the head. Lost in Yonkers won the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Neil Simon won all the awards, broke all the box office records, and was the defining comedy playwright of the late twentieth century. Simon's name belongs on the Mount Rushmore of great American playwrights next to Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Eugene O'Neill. There is no denying the influence Neil Simon has had on the American theater. He is legendary.

(Ed Note: I also owe Neil Simon a debt of gratitude in that the film version of Biloxi Blues made me want to study theater and I was fortunate enough to play Arty in Lost in Yonkers during my senior year of college and then played the father, Eddie, seven years later. I went from looking sixteen to looking forty in less than one decade. Thanks Neil.)

The death of John McCain is not as easy to find automatic reverence. Many people may be mad once they read that sentence, but it is the truth. When someone spends as long as they did in elective office as Senator McCain, there is a long list of accomplishments, and shortcomings, that need to be part of their life story. 

Let's start with John McCain's military service. Anyone who questions what John McCain went through as a POW in Vietnam is a terrible kind of human being. No person, who holds any elected office in the United States of America, has any right to criticize John McCain's time as a POW. You are a coward, and not a patriot, if you use your platform to criticize a war hero. John McCain did not have to go to Vietnam, his father was a freaking US Admiral. John McCain was connected. He could have had multiple deferments and joined the Arizona National Guard, or claimed to be suffering from bone spurs, but he went to fight. He was captured, and he suffered. Navy John McCain is a goddamn hero. There is no debate.

Once out of the Navy, John McCain was a national hero. He was elected by the people of Arizona to serve in the US House of Representatives and then later to the US Senate. The early years of Congressman John McCain were not notable, except for one scandal. In 1989 Senator John McCain was one of five Us Senators accused of corruption in relation to Charles Keating, a chairman in a major savings and loans firm that was failing. Senator McCain was accused of being corrupt in trying to ease the government pressure on Keating. McCain was later cleared of doing anything illegal, but the Senate still said that the young senator exhibited "poor judgement". Those words would follow John McCain for the next decade.

The new millennium brought a new political narrative for Senator John McCain. The 2000 Republican presidential primary saw McCain challenge the establishment pick of George W Bush. The race started off well for McCain, who was using campaign finance as a center point of his campaign. The Arizona Senator won the first primary in New Hampshire, but the next step was South Carolina. McCain's ideas were not on the ballot, but his adopted Bangladeshi child was an issue. The George W Bush campaign never claimed to be involved, but many people loyal to the Texas Governor's campaign did spread rumors that McCain's adopted daughter was actually a blood relative that McCain had as a result of an affair with an African American prostitute. It will never be known if the lie worked, but Bush won South Carolina and marched his way to the Republican nomination. John McCain was destined to be back in his Senate seat.

Having lost the 2000 Republican presidential primary did not stop John McCain from pursuing his dream of campaign finance. The Republican from Arizona teamed up with John Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, to pass the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act in March of 2002 (the law is usually known as the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Law). McCain's embarrassment from the Keating Five scandal was now clean because he was the author of America's first campaign finance regulation.

It was a hollow victory.

The loopholes left in the McCain-Feingold law helped to give rise to "dark money" and "Super PACS". The terribleness of the 2016 election is directly related to what was possible because of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act. McCain-Feingold just put a band aid on a gaping wound.

Yet John McCain's reputation as a rebel in his party, a maverick one may say, was just starting to grow. The media loved Maverick McCain. He is the most frequent guest ever on Meet the Press. Once it was obvious that John McCain would be the 2008 Republican nominee for President, Fox News opened their doors to glowing coverage of the Arizona Senator. Senator John McCain became the goto guy for the Washington DC media. The maverick even landed in political hot water when he had to defend his opponent in the 2008 election from the seemingly slanderous notion of being an Arab. His defense did not work, Barrack Obama easily won the 2008 election for President and John McCain was once again heading back to the US Senate.

It also a very important part of John McCain's political career to point out the fact that he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008. The rumor is that the maverick wanted to bring in former democrat Joe Lieberman, but the Republican party wanted the Governor of Alaska. The maverick lost, and the party won, and America now had to deal with the Palin part of American politics. The Republican Party has been forever altered because of the ascension of Sarah Palin, and John McCain is responsible for that. 

Since 2008 Senator McCain tried to hold onto to his branding as a maverick. He opposed any policy that allowed for the US to use torture on captured enemy combatants, yet he continually supported the "wars" in Afghanistan and Iraq. It should be noted that McCain did express regret for these military actions in the last few months of his life. He sided with his party in trying to defeat the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), yet just a few months ago he was the deciding vote in keeping the law alive. McCain endorsed, and campaigned for Mitt Romney in 2012, yet he would not support Donald Trump in 2016. There was never a clear partisan path for McCain, that is why the Washington media loved him. That is why he was always on the television.  

All the way up to last Saturday, John McCain was called a maverick by some circles, and a politically craven opportunist by other circles. Both are right. That is why looking back at the career of John McCain is so difficult. We all (well almost all) can agree with his heroism as a US Navy pilot, but his second act, his political career, is filled with opportunity and missteps. We must celebrate the man for his service, but we cannot excuse his shortcomings. The hero that is John McCain would not have accepted that.

Neil Simon and John McCain are now gone. They will never do another interview, they will never be in attendance for a standing ovation, they will never offer us another word of wisdom, they are gone. Both men were icons of their era, and they are now confined to being a part of the history of their eras. Society will move on, a new voice of the American theater will be crowned, a new maverick will arise in Washington DC. We can only hope that these new voices can be as influential as Neil Simon and John McCain. For better or worse.

RD

Ryan David Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

The Legacy of Barack Obama

Legacy demands a great building

Late into the night on Tuesday November 4th, 2008 history was made. For the first time in over two-hundred years of Presidential contests, the American people elected the first non-white man to be President of the United States. The election of 2008 had it’s moments of racism and sexism, but they were mild. The candidates who fought it out to gain their parties nominations played politics in a manner that Americans had become accustomed to. There were the typical smear campaigns, but most of America did not care. The Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin, was downright civilized compared to the person she would become. The GOP’s Presidential candidate, John McCain, was out on the campaign trail corrected voters who believed that Barack Obama was a secret Muslim trying to usurp our nation. It was a different era. The feeling was that America had matured beyond the damage of things like the Swift Boats and the Southern Strategy. Barrack Obama won the 2008 election, by a large margin, because American voters believed in his vision of hope for the nation. The first non-white man to win the Presidency happened because Americans believed that we could all do better, and Barrack Obama was the leader who was going to bring the best out of us.

Within minutes of Obama being inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States, the Republican thought leaders worked to make the new Executive’s job a living hell. Glenn Beck would go out of his way to paint Obama as a dangerous communist, and a racist. The half-wits at Fox News went into their old “Bill Clinton” mode and amplified any minor story out there that would embarrass the White House. The fringes of the Republican party constantly questioned the President's place of birth, and therefore his legitimacy to be President. The morons who pushed the birther issue were given more news coverage than the people trying to restore hope back to America. From the very beginning, President Obama faced a temper tantrum throwing right wing media, and a ratings starved mainstream media, who refused to let his vision of hope to take hold.

While the network news, and the jv squad that is cable news, were incompetent and unamerican in their activities, the Republicans in the US Congress were historic in their dealings with President Obama. Then Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner would use every arcane rule in the history of the United States Congress to stop President Obama’s agenda. When McConnell and Boehner would not get their way, the two would run to the media and complain about the President trying to do his job. There was little hope to found on Capitol Hill.

Once the Republicans took over the House, and eventually the Senate, the Republican obstructionism went from outrageous to downright dangerous. McConnell proudly declared that his number one job was to make Obama a one term President. The Republican leader failed miserably at this number one job since Barack Obama was easily reelected in 2012. Since McConnell could not accomplish any tasks, he worked to make sure the President could not govern. The “highlight” of Mitch McConnell’s tenure has to be the Un-Constitutional act to not allow the President’s Supreme Court nominee to have a hearing or vote. Never in the history of the United States has a politician spit on the ideals set forth by the US Constitution like Mitch McConnell has.

Eventual Speaker of the House John Boehner, and his replacement Paul Ryan, used their power to tie up the legislative authority of the US House of Representatives with meaningless show votes, and expensive politically motivated subcommittee hearings. The endless votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act were taking up time that should have been devoted to combat the rise in gun violence, and the price gouging being conducted by unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies. Elementary kids being killed with legal guns, and other kids being denied lifesaving medicines because of personal greed, was of no importance to John Boehner’s caucus. Along with Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Paul Ryan assured their place in history as the most ineffective, and immoral, Congress in the history of the United States.

How did President Barrack Obama deal with a historically terrible Congress and a media that was ineffectual? With little choice, President Obama seemed to present his vision through the pulpit of the White House, and not get in the way when history started to move forward. The President is an incredible communicator, and was be artful in presenting his message. On the campaign trail in 2012, Obama was able to dull the right wing noise, and make people believe in hope again. Once the next group of people were killed by a bad man with a bad gun, the President would share the heartbreak of the American people. With historic movements in rights for the LGBTQ community, the President communicated his joy and compassion towards all Americans. When the GOP Congress would spout off Tea Party talking points, the President would counter them head on, and present a better view of the nation. President Barack Obama will go down as one of the greatest communicators who has ever occupied the Oval Office.

Much like Ronald Reagan before him, Barrack Obama has been given credit for many things that happened because he was in the White House when history happened. In the 2008 campaign, then Senator Obama was not fully onboard with gay rights. In fact, no major viable political candidate was embracing basic human rights for the LGBTQ community. Generations of hard work by people on the ground led to the landmark decisions made by the courts to give all Americans equal rights. Obama did not create this culture, but he did not impede it either.

The death of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is also listed as a high point in the Obama Presidency. Many people give credit to Ronald Reagan for the release of hostages from the Iranian government, not thinking about how the Carter government really did all of the work. The killing of Bin Laden happened because President Obama gave the order, but any person in his position would have done the same. Like it or not, the George W Bush administration created much of the ground work to finding Bin Laden We were going to find the al-Qaeda leader no matter what, it was just a matter of time.

When it comes to actually policy, the Obama legacy is a little thin. The last eight years have not been as impactful as what Lyndon Johnson, Theodore or Franklin Roosevelt accomplished. Some things like the Lilly Ledbetter act should have been done decades ago. The stimulus was a necessary program started under Republican President George W Bush. The booming stock market has been great for very few. The growth in the economy has been slow, but has moved in the right direction after the disaster of the previous administration. All of these actions occurred mainly because President Obama did not get in the way and allowed them to happen on their own.

The one signature law championed by the President and passed by Congress is the Affordable Care Act. Once again the do-nothing Republicans, assisted by the media, painted the law as something extremely terrible. The fact is the Affordable Care Act is not that great. It has been responsible for the rise in healthcare costs, mainly because there is no incentive for the self serving health care companies to lower costs. The bill was loaded with so many corporate handouts not just because of Republicans, but also because of Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. The congressional democrats wanted to make sure their corporate donors were rewarded in this massive government program. In a place where President Obama could have led, he instead stayed out of the way as the Pelosi/Reid Congress passed a flawed law. Even the President’s incredible communication skills could not hide the problems behind the Affordable Care Act.

The Obama Presidency should also be judged by the state of his political party. The Democratic Party is currently in the worst condition it has been in for over a generation. Under Obama, the Democratic Party has lost a massive amount of elections at all levels of government. Terrible Governors like Chris Christie in New Jersey, Sam Brownback in Kansas, Bobby Jindal in New Orleans, Rick Scott in Florida, Rick Snyder in Michigan, and many many more have won reelection after awful first terms. They win because the Democratic Party spends no resources to launch any meaningful campaign against these terrible leaders. If the party spends no resources on Governor races, that means they spend no time working to get people elected to any levels of government.

This lack of resources is directly related to Barack Obama and his campaign machine. In 2008, and again in 2012, the Obama campaign would take all of the resources out of competitive states and leave nothing for the local candidates (what we like to call The Ohio Problem). When the President does not care about the down ticket races, the down ticket loses badly. This strategy extended to the Hillary Clinton campaign, and 2016 saw even more losses for the Democratic Party. Couple this with the fact that President Obama would defend ineffectual leaders like Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the Democratic National Committee, President Obama staying out of the way, and not intervening in down ticket races, has been detrimental to the majority of the country who support the ideals of the Democratic Party.

Does President Barack Obama leave with a historic legacy? Will his Presidency be notable, or just another one of insignificance? It is easy to look back at the end of one man’s Presidency and think about what has been, and what could have been. Anytime a new President takes office, we are filled with angst. Barack Obama’s legacy will not be truly known for many years. In the meantime we can have our immediate reactions dictate what impact the man has had on the nation, and the world. Will his great communication skills be studied? Will his laissez faire approach to the moment of history be admired by future leaders?

The fact remains that Obama’s election was a moment of great historical significance. He will be one of the most recognizable Presidents of students in the far future. The question is will he be remembered like the Roosevelts for being figures of profound change, or will he be remembered like John Quincy Adams for being someone of trivial curiosity.

RD

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Do have thoughts on legacy? Tell us all about it.

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Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump is the Least Important Choice on Your Ballot

Somehow we got to use this picture again.

Who is ready to do some voting?

At long last, the greatest election in American history is coming to an end. Jay Z has sung, Ted Nugent has grabbed his crotch, the most important voices have told you who to vote for. It is now the general public's turn. On election day, less than two thirds of eligible voters will make their choice. Hillary or Donald will emerge victorious in the days after the election, and America will enter a new era. The choice of the people will be ready to lead.

Unfortunately we are all already know what will come after the election. Trump will lose, and he will throw a temper tantrum. If in some weird way Trump does win, the Clinton supporters will lose their minds and accuse people of election fraud. The new President will be deligitimized immediately by the opponent's partisans in the media. The idea of respecting the outcome of an election is long gone. The new President will have an incompetent group of partisan hacks in the US Congress who will do everything in their power to stop any meaningful idea from the executive branch. The millions of people who vote for the loser between Clinton and Trump will feel left out of this new America, and they will react poorly.

The thing is, we have ourselves to blame for this dangerous division. The supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have made the election only about themselves. Clinton does not do rallies with down ticket Democrats, and Donald Trump has flat out refused to endorse some very powerful congressional GOPers. The media, national and local, spends 99% of its time on Trump and Clinton, and the other 1% on other races. The public is uninformed, and not curious, about any thing outside of the freakshow that has been the 2016 Presidential campaign. That attitude has created a broken America.

This is a huge problem. Barack Obama won in 2008 and 2012 by a wide margin. He is the first President since Eisenhower in 1956 to win over 51% of popular vote twice. What do we remember from Obama's eight years? We have the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare if your nasty. We also have a ton of Republican obstructionism. That is pretty much it. There was the increase in LGBTQ rights, but that came from the courts. Obamacare and Republican obstructionism is pretty much what we saw over eight years. There has been a record number of votes to overturn Obamacare, all failed. We have now long past the record for the most amount of time a Supreme Court appointment has gone without a hearing. If Obama is so popular, how can Congress keep being do nothing obstructionists and get away with it?

Obama, like Clinton and Trump today, never made their supporters care for the down ticket races. It takes a whole lot of money, and personpower, to run for President. The hording of resources is what we have called the Ohio Problem (you can read all about on this fine website). The general electorate, or less than two thirds of it, get excited to vote for President, and forget everything else. Midterm elections struggle to get half the amount of voters in Presidential elections. There is very rarely times where people are excited to vote for the Senator, or school board member. That lack of excitement has given us a popular President, and a Congress more concerned with partisanship than with doing actual work. The most important races, the people running who can actual affect your life, are being pushed to the side for the dog and pony show of modern Presidential campaigns. 

In 2000 many people thought George W Bush was way less qualified to be President than Al Gore. In 2008 Hillary Clinton and John McCain made the case that Barack Obama was a celebrity, not a seasoned politician. The press liked the camera friendly Bush, and the dynamic Obama. The people followed the press. The American people elected the popular kids over the hard working salutatorians. The idea of celebrity was overshadowing the solid resumes of the DC lifers. People wanted to be part of a movement, they wanted to join the cult of personality. The experienced workers were squares who most of the electorate ignored.

While these media friendly neophytes were winning, the public forgot about the people who actually make laws. In the last two decades, a freshman member of the US Congress has more power than the President. Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have stopped legislation supported by both parties. Members of the House of Representatives you have never heard of are currently blocking vital federal funds from solving the water crisis in Flint, Michigan and containing the Zika virus outbreak in Florida. The most powerful members of our government were being reelected with no competition from the opposing party. Even in the swing state of Ohio, the Democratic party has ceded the election to a man who was once the Budget Director and trade representative to George W Bush. Hillary Clinton is working hard to expand the Democratic Party's electoral college map, but her hording of state resources are allowing the GOP to keep a stranglehold on Capitol Hill. Her supporters believe electing Hillary will be enough. It won't be.

How the Democratic Party keeps missing the lessons of 2012 are baffling. Hillary will probably win, and the Republican party will still control Congress. Senators John McCain, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee have promised not to hold hearings for any Supreme Court appointments for the next four years. That is unconstitutional and anti-American. Nationwide, people running for office as Republicans have promised to waste more taxpayer money by have a thousand more showboat votes to defund Obamacare. By ignoring down ballot races, the Democratic Party is embracing gridlock and giving up any chance of change until the next election.

This needs to be the next election. We have made the case for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but their victory is unimportant. Many people have expressed their frustration that both candidates are terrible. Then don't vote for the President, or vote third party. Who cares? Trump will not have the power to do what he wants to, and he will act the child he has been his whole life. Clinton will not have a Congress that will work with her, and she will use the office to enrich her family and her donors. Ok, they stink, but there are other people on the ballot. The person you elect to the US House, the Senate, your state legislature, town council, school board, they have real power. Your taxes are decided by these people. The education your child receives is in these peoples hands. Feel like you do not know who these people are, check out your local ballot. Think you don't know these people, Google them. If you plan on going to vote for Hillary or Donald anyway, it doesn't hurt to take time and vote for the people who really matter.

We get our chance to end this nightmare tomorrow. Clinton V Trump will not be listed as one of the more inspiring Presidential campaigns in US history. The good thing is we have a moment to take power back. Sure there all third party candidates like Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Evan McMullin, and Cthulhu, but we should focus on the not as well known names lower on the ballot. When we focus on getting a working Congress, a school board who thinks of children over partisan interests, and judges who focus on the law over special interests, then we will have a government who has real hope and change. 

Go out and vote.

RD  

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Be a thought leader of tomorrow and write for SeedSing. 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.