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John McCain: Hawkish Voice of Military-Industrial Complex, Paved Way for Trump - YouTube
Channel: The Real News Network
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BEN NORTON: Longtime Republican Senator John
McCain passed away on the 25th of August.
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McCain was a vociferous representative of
the military-industrial complex on Capitol
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Hill.
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He will be remembered as one of the most hawkish
politicians in Washington, one who publicly
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condemned peace activists as âlow-life scumâ
and joked about bombing Iran.
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PROTESTERS: Arrest Henry Kissinger for war
crimes!
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MEDEA BENJAMIN: In the name of the people
of Chile.
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In the name of the people of Vietnam!
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JOHN MCCAIN: I have never seen anything as
disgraceful and outrageous and despicable
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as the last demonstration that just took place,
about â You know, you're going to have to
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shut up or I'm going to have you arrested.
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If we can't get the capitol police in here,
immediately.
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Get out of here, you low-life scum.
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AUDIENCE MEMBER: When do we send an air-mail
message to Tehran?
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JOHN MCCAIN: You know that old Beach Boys
song, "Bomb Iran"?
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"Bomb bomb bomb..."
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BEN NORTON: McCain played a key role in numerous
wars, and lobbied for US military intervention
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in dozens of countries, all across the planet.
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From Ukraine to Syria to Central America,
the neoconservative Arizona lawmaker at times
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stood in alliance with fascist extremists,
such as Eastern European neo-Nazis, Salafi-jihadist
[109]
rebels, and Contra death squads.
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As chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
McCain constantly lobbied for more and more
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military spending and more and more arms,
including nuclear weapons.
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In fact, McCain was so known for his militarism
that the US Congress honored him just before
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his death in the name of the 2019 National
Defense Authorization Act, which apportioned
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a record-breaking $717 billion in military
spending.
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Appropriately then, the United Statesâ top
weapons corporations returned the favor.
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Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon publicly
mourned McCainâs passing.
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And yet, despite his leading role in the neoconservative
right, McCain became something of a bipartisan
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hero in his final years, due largely to his
critiques of and clashes with far-right President
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Donald Trump.
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In the wake of his death, corporate media
outlets â both conservative and liberal
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alike â almost uniformly praised McCain,
depicting him as a supposed champion of human
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rights and democracy.
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Many politicians and pundits lionized McCain
as a supposed moderate who resisted the Trumpification
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of America.
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And while it is true that McCain did have
some real political differences with Trump,
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these contrasts have been exaggerated.
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The reality is that McCain and Trump agreed
on a lot.
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Economically, their politics were virtually
identical; both worked to help large corporations
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and the billionaire capitalist class maintain
their iron grip on government.
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On social and cultural issues, they also had
much in common.
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Both were very conservative.
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McCain supported the so-called war on drugs
and mandatory prison time for people selling
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drugs.
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He opposed abortion and called for overturning
Roe v. Wade.
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The Arizona senator also campaigned to end
affirmative action, and even voted against
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making Martin Luther King Jr.
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Day a federal holiday.
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In fact, in many ways, it was McCain himself
who helped pave the pathway to Donald Trump.
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By choosing Alaskaâs ultra-right-wing Governor
Sarah Palin as his running mate in his 2008
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campaign for president, McCain opened the
door to Trumpism, legitimizing Palin as a
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figure in national US politics and normalizing
the Tea Party, which Trump rode to power.
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McCain and Trump can best be understood as
leaders of conflicting but allied factions
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within the Republican Party.
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John McCain was a key figure in the GOP old
guard, alongside the Bush family.
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This faction of more traditional conservatives
supported immigration, unlike todayâs Trumpists.
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McCain backed legislation that would provide
a pathway to citizenship for undocumented
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immigrants.
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But this was not an act of kindness.
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Rather, McCain supported immigration, like
others on the more libertarian right, because
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it provided workers who would fill underpaid,
labor-intensive jobs, in agriculture and other
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sectors.
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JOHN MCCAIN: I'll offer anybody here $50 an
hour if you'll go pick lettuce in Yuma this
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season, and pick for the whole season.
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So ok, sign up.
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Ok, now you sign up.
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You sign up, and you'll be there for the whole
season.
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The whole season, not just one day.
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Because you can't do it, my friends.
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BEN NORTON: These ideological differences
are also reflective of who specifically funds
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the Republican Partyâs different factions.
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During their presidential campaigns, McCain
and Trump did share a lot of common donors,
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those that form the traditional corporate
base of the party: banks, real estate companies,
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conservative legal groups, and weapons contractors,
among others.
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They also both enjoyed support from billionaire
mega-donors like Sheldon Adelson.
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But Donald Trump had specific far-right angel
investors, primarily the billionaire Robert
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Mercer, who bankrolled the Trump campaign
along with the alt-right website Breitbart.
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And this is where Trumpâs extreme-right-wing
former strategist Steve Bannon comes in.
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Bannon was Mercerâs pet project, and the
reclusive billionaire funded Bannonâs far-right
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insurgency against more traditional conservatives
like McCain.
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And while both the Trump-Bannon wing of the
Republican Party and the McCain-Bush wing
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seek to preserve the US empire, where their
politics most diverge is on the question of
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how to preserve the US empire.
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McCain was a lifelong Cold Warrior, who effectively
continued the Cold War for decades after it
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ended.
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Even after the Soviet Union collapsed and
the Russiaâs right-wing government restored
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capitalism, McCain and the neoconservative
wing of the Republicans continued to see Russia
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as an implacable enemy of the United States
and a frustrating bulwark against NATOâs
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uncontested political and economic domination.
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Trumpâs faction, on the other hand, believes
that Russia can become an ally of the US,
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in what Bannon and the far right characterize
as a kind of global civilizational war, pitting
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Western so-called Judeo-Christian civilization
against the amorphous East.
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Trump and Bannon, therefore, see China, not
Russia, as the US empireâs primary enemy
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in the 21st century.
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STEVE BANNON: I believe the world, and particularly
the Judeo-Christian West, is in a crisis.
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And we're starting now in the 21st century,
which I believe, strongly, is a crisis both
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of our church, a crisis of our faith, a crisis
of the West, and a crisis of capitalism.
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And we're at the very beginning stages of
a very brutal and bloody conflict, of which
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if the people in this room, the people in
the Church, do not bind together and really
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form what I feel is an aspect of the Church
militant, to really be able to not just stand
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with our beliefs, but to fight for our beliefs
against this new barbarity that's starting,
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that we will completely eradicate everything
that we've been bequeathed over the last 2,000,
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2,500 years.
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BEN NORTON: McCain continued to the end echoing
the dogma of the Cold War, justifying US imperialism
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by arguing that global hegemony through constant
military intervention was necessary to defend
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capitalism, democracy, and human rights.
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Trump and Bannon, on the other hand, preach
the fascistic claim that there is an ongoing
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global clash of civilization.
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They frame these political and economic conflicts
in cultural and social terms.
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How this manifests itself in US policy is
indeed significant.
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And their disagreement over Russia underscores
this.
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But ultimately, the McCain and Trump factions
still have maintained a similar foreign policy.
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It is true that, during his presidential campaign,
Trump criticized the neoconservative interventionism
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of Republicans like McCain.
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However, once he entered in office, Trump
for the most part continued these policies,
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expanding the war in Afghanistan, selling
huge quantities of weapons to Saudi Arabia,
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waging war throughout the Middle East, and
pursuing regime change against leftist governments
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in Latin America.
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Moreover, both McCain and Trump shared an
obsessive fixation on Iran, and did both everything
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in their power to try to destabilize and ultimately
topple the government in Tehran.
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China and Iran are some of the shared links.
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And the figure who has tried to use these
links to unite the two factions of the Republican
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Party is Trumpâs national security adviser,
John Bolton.
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Bolton is a notorious neoconservative, like
McCain.
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But he also has the ear of the president.
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Although Bolton had for years been an anti-Russia
hawk, after he entered Trumpâs administration,
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he toned down his criticism of Moscow and
instead ramped up even further the US governmentâs
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aggression against China.
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JOHN BOLTON: I think the issue for the United
States in the 21st century is how to deal
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with rising China.
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And on the military side, I think itâs important
as we look at this question that we send China
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a single short clear message: You will never
prevail over the United States.
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BEN NORTON: Bolton has emphasized points of
commonality to try to bring together the Trump
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and McCain wings of the Republican Party.
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These include opposition to China and Iran,
along with diehard support for Israel and
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Saudi Arabia.
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Likewise, Bolton has emphasized their shared
antipathy toward international institutions
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like the United Nations, which both McCain
and Trump have actively sought to defund and
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undermine.
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What this strategy underscores is that, while
there are some important differences between
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these factions, they are not irreconcilable,
and still share most of their politics in
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common.
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Ultimately, McCain and Trump simply represent
different factions of what is still the same
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political party.
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Most of their corporate funders who bankroll
the party are the same, and they are operationally
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allied.
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And while, after McCainâs death, many corporate
media outlets and politicians tried to portray
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him as a foil to Trump, the increasingly far-right
base of the Republican Party suggests otherwise.
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With the Arizona senatorâs passing and Trumpâs
growing influence, the Republican Party may
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soon see an even closer political and ideological
unity.
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And it is not just Donald Trump, but also
John McCain who bears the responsibility for
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this.
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Reporting for The Real News, Iâm Ben Norton.
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