Dirty Sexy Politics - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

FuglyStick · 09-01-2010, 11:45 AM

This could go in Entertainment, but the conversation will inevitably take a political tone--

Quote:

Review of "Dirty Sexy Politics," by Meghan McCain
By Steven Levingston
Wednesday, September 1, 2010; B06

DIRTY SEXY POLITICS

By Meghan McCain

Hyperion. 194 pp. $23.99

First, let's get past the risqué cover of Meghan McCain's campaign memoir, "Dirty Sexy Politics." In front and back photos, the daughter of Sen. John McCain is, shall we say, fully engaged with an elephant. On the book's front, the blue-jeaned, barefoot author sits on the pachyderm's trunk as it curls up and locks around her thighs. The photo raises the question: Who's in charge here? That brute symbol of the Republican Party or the free-thinking college grad who brought scandal to her father's 2008 presidential campaign? Flip the book over and you get your answer. On the back, daughter McCain is free of the trunk; now she's dressed in tight black pants and knee-high boots, looking like a seductive animal tamer who has just had the wrestle of her life. The elephant, for his part, is slumped on his belly, staring straight ahead dazed and defeated. Feisty young McCain, apparently, has taught the party a thing or two.

And that's just the way she'd like it. Her memoir is as much a scathing critique of the Republican Party as it is a passionate tale of life on the campaign trail. McCain takes repeated jabs at the intolerant ethos of today's Republicans. She rails at feeling left out: The party, she says, has been hijacked by the right wing and has rejected -- to its detriment -- the moderate politics that she and millions of other young conservatives espouse. While she admires the ideas of Barry Goldwater and has her father's Republican pedigree, she feels she is never viewed as conservative enough by the far-right standards of angry radio and TV hosts. Complicating her acceptance among those who control the "groupthink," as she calls it, is that she loves to wear over-the-top clothes, drops the F-bomb with ease and has gay friends. Not only that, but she is both "passionately pro-life" and "passionately pro-contraception," and chastises conservatives for their narrowness of vision on the issue. "They go on and on about how evil and wrong abortion is, but don't like to talk about how easy it is to not get pregnant."

McCain leaped aboard her father's Pirate Ship, as the campaign was called, in July 2007, shortly before her 23rd birthday, after graduating from Columbia University with a degree in art history. She began blogging -- to the consternation of some campaign heavies -- and made some regrettable statements in a GQ article, such as her quips that Obama was "sexy" and that she was a fan of the burlesque stripper Dita Von Teese. She was relegated to a back bus on the campaign trail, the prospect of her introducing her mother at the Republican National Convention vanished, and even the Secret Service kept mistaking her for another blonde. All the tears she spilled and the slights she felt pour out here in this youthful narrative -- made all the more enjoyable by its healthy sense of humor.

When McCain met Sarah Palin, she "felt shaken and troubled," worrying like many others that the Alaska governor was not prepared for the national stage. As a running mate she preferred Sen. Joe Lieberman, "a brilliant politician . . . one of the kindest, friendliest, and funniest people I have ever met," and feared the slot would go to Mitt Romney, "the politician I most loved to watch and ridicule." She blames the choice of Palin on a secret cabal of campaign advisers and particularly excoriates Steve Schmidt, whom she describes as "our bullying campaign manager."

Once the Palin clan climbed aboard, the Pirate Ship started to sink. "From the minute Sarah arrived," McCain writes, "the campaign began splitting apart. And rather than joining us, and our campaign, she seemed only to begin her own." Palin's arrival -- this "sudden, freakishly huge, full-fledged phenomenon" -- was jarring for the potential first daughter, who found herself shoved into the background. Soon, she was misbehaving, becoming a distraction, and finally was effectively banished from the campaign. "The irony wasn't lost on me," she recalls. "Here I'd been ruminating about how the Palins weren't 'ready for prime time' when, in fact, it was me all along."

McCain writes movingly of election day, when her father pulled the family into a huddle and delivered the bad news that was already evident in the campaign's own polls. She couldn't believe it was over -- at 5 p.m. "Election nights are supposed to go on and on. . . . The sun wasn't even down. My dad hadn't even eaten dinner." She ended the campaign feeling alienated from her party and worried about its domination by the Christian right. Calling herself a passionate Christian, McCain fears the party will shrink and possibly become irrelevant if it narrows its agenda to "accommodate only one moral code." On the night of her father's defeat, she felt gloomy enough to imagine the worst for the party. "That night," she writes, "I was standing at its funeral and saying good-bye."

Review of "Dirty Sexy Politics," by Meghan McCain
There's something refreshing about this review. I suppose some would argue whether she is actually a conservative, with her stands on abortion and homosexuality, but she considers herself conservative. I wonder what percentage of the Republican party feels the same way she does, that the party has abandoned her in favor of hardliners? She's not the "average" voter, of course, being the daughter of a former presidential candidate and Washington heavyweight; nor is she particularly qualified to offer a political opinion of any consequence or substance. But you get the feeling that if she represents the majority of conservatives, there might still be hope that extremely polarizing partisanship could be overcome, and that government could find its way back to productivity rather than gridlock.

(Also, it's true, it doesn't hurt that she's a cute blond with a nice rack [/perv])

SecretMethod70 · 09-01-2010, 11:57 AM

I like Meghan McCain. I don't always agree with her, but I wish there were more Republicans like her.

FuglyStick · 09-01-2010, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecretMethod70

I like Meghan McCain. I don't always agree with her, but I wish there were more Republicans like her.

Me too. She seems levelheaded and independent. And who's to say that most Republicans aren't like her?

Things get testy here on TFP at times when the subject is politics. But maybe it doesn't have to be that way.

Wes Mantooth · 09-01-2010, 12:20 PM

It is refreshing. I think I saw her for the first time on Bill Mahers show last spring and remember being impressed, he did his best to savage her and she held her own...all with a smile.

I think the conservative world needs more Meghan McCain and less Glenn Beck. I think we'd be surprised how many people actually respond to her brand of Republicanism and want more of it.

SecretMethod70 · 09-01-2010, 12:25 PM

Watch C-Span sometime. There are a few good Republicans, but many of them have been hijacked by rhetoric and special interests. (That's not to say that the same doesn't apply to the Democrats, I just don't think it's quite as bad on the whole.)

As for the voters who identify themselves as Republicans, I wish I could say that most of them were like Meghan McCain. I spend a lot of my time talking to voters on a daily basis, and they are just as susceptible to the rhetoric as the elected officials. You don't get 18% of the country believing Obama is a Muslim if most Republicans are like Meghan McCain. And again, it's not to say these issues don't exist among Democrats - it annoys the hell out of me when I'm talking to a volunteer and they tell me that all they listen to is the local progressive talk radio station - but I don't think the level of misinformation is quite the same.

---------- Post added at 03:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:24 PM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wes Mantooth

I think the conservative world needs more Meghan McCain and less Glenn Beck. I think we'd be surprised how many people actually respond to her brand of Republicanism and want more of it.

We might even get two parties that work together and - *gasp* - compromise!

Wes Mantooth · 09-01-2010, 12:34 PM

Gasp!!!! The horror! We can't compromise or find common ground and try to build the best country for all of us! 'swrong with you? The other side is the enemy and must remain as such until they disappear and we have a firm one party rule.

Seriously though if more people got to know the every day Joe's on the "other side" I think people would find a lot more in common with the "enemy" then they think.

EDIT: I do wonder if more visible people like her could go a long way in bringing the Republican party back down to from the fringe circus it finds itself in. The problem is there is virtually nobody in the public/entertainment realm working on doing that its ALL about the controversy these days and level headed, every mans politics just don't sell. I really hope she has some success with this.

Xazy · 09-01-2010, 12:41 PM

It is ironic when I read this, and hear a few good republicans, I think similar about democrats. The truth is I generally just dislike all of them.

FuglyStick · 09-01-2010, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xazy

It is ironic when I read this, and hear a few good republicans, I think similar about democrats. The truth is I generally just dislike all of them.

Well, there is the "fuck them all" position, but I don't believe that's realistic.

Wes Mantooth · 09-01-2010, 12:57 PM

Well at the end of the day we have to vote for somebody, its just too bad that more often then not the bad outweighs the good with most candidates.

Lesser of two evils and all that

09-01-2010, 11:57 AM	#2 (permalink)
SecretMethod70 Human Administrator Location: Chicago	I like Meghan McCain. I don't always agree with her, but I wish there were more Republicans like her. __________________ Le temps détruit tout "Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

09-01-2010, 12:20 PM	#4 (permalink)
Wes Mantooth Junkie Location: Tennessee	It is refreshing. I think I saw her for the first time on Bill Mahers show last spring and remember being impressed, he did his best to savage her and she held her own...all with a smile. I think the conservative world needs more Meghan McCain and less Glenn Beck. I think we'd be surprised how many people actually respond to her brand of Republicanism and want more of it. __________________ “My god I must have missed it...its hell down here!”

09-01-2010, 12:34 PM	#6 (permalink)
Wes Mantooth Junkie Location: Tennessee	Gasp!!!! The horror! We can't compromise or find common ground and try to build the best country for all of us! 'swrong with you? The other side is the enemy and must remain as such until they disappear and we have a firm one party rule. Seriously though if more people got to know the every day Joe's on the "other side" I think people would find a lot more in common with the "enemy" then they think. EDIT: I do wonder if more visible people like her could go a long way in bringing the Republican party back down to from the fringe circus it finds itself in. The problem is there is virtually nobody in the public/entertainment realm working on doing that its ALL about the controversy these days and level headed, every mans politics just don't sell. I really hope she has some success with this. __________________ “My god I must have missed it...its hell down here!” Last edited by Wes Mantooth; 09-01-2010 at 12:44 PM..

09-01-2010, 12:57 PM	#9 (permalink)
Wes Mantooth Junkie Location: Tennessee	Well at the end of the day we have to vote for somebody, its just too bad that more often then not the bad outweighs the good with most candidates. Lesser of two evils and all that __________________ “My god I must have missed it...its hell down here!”

09-01-2010, 12:41 PM	#7 (permalink)
Xazy People in masks cannot be trusted Location: NYC	It is ironic when I read this, and hear a few good republicans, I think similar about democrats. The truth is I generally just dislike all of them.