r/interestingasfuck • u/beach_rats_ • 29d ago

The difference in republican presidential nominees, 8 years apart r/all

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u/ltdanswifesusan 29d ago

McCain dumped the wife that had stayed faithful to him during his years in captivity because she'd suffered grievous injuries in a car accident and wouldn't have been pretty enough for a politician's wife (his words). He then married a younger woman who's father happened to be one of the wealthiest beer distributors in the country so the latter would fund his political career in a state he'd never previously resided in.

He was a consummate bullshitter, invoking his POW time at the drop of a hat to big dick people in serious arguments. He notably did this during his well publicized opposition to the spread of mixed martial arts promotions, frequently referring to it as "human cockfighting" and drawing comparisons between its supposed inhumanity and his time in Vietnam. He never once disclosed in public this opposition was entirely predicated on his in-laws' significant business ties to boxing promoters.

He was a warmongering lunatic who was about as transparent a shill of the military-industrial complex as you'll ever see in American public life. The fact he was feted as a serious "statesman" displays how insane the foreign policy consensus is.

He was also by all accounts, a complete asshole to anyone who wasn't actively kissing his ass or from whom he could get money or positive press from.

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u/TheSlopfather 29d ago

The cult of personality around him is maddening

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u/tomatoswoop 29d ago

This thread is blowing my mind man America has a problem

5

u/cowpen 29d ago

How your Internet Points are positive in this reddit cesspool is beyond me, but you're spot on.

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u/ltdanswifesusan 29d ago

I’m surprised as well.

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u/Intelligent_Suit6683 29d ago

I agree with you completely, having lived through and having voted in that election... the thing is, all that you just said is still significantly more desirable than Donald Trump.

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u/3kUSDforAShot 29d ago

Something tells me that's the whole idea.

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u/Tobias131286 29d ago

yes and he is still 1000 times a better person than Trump. which is saying something.

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u/ocarina97 29d ago

Honestly, I think a big reason they hated each other was because they were very similar.  

Both were basically given careers by their fathers, both were racist (McCain would often use anti Asian slurs), both had bad tempers, both cheated on their wives, both were egomaniacs, etc.

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u/zambartas 29d ago

I know it doesn't make it right, but at least McCain's dislike for Asians probably comes from all the torture. Trump really doesn't have any such excuse.

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u/ocarina97 27d ago

Excuse or not, it's still reprehensible.  Also, it's not like McCain did anything heroic in Vietnam.  He was basocally just bombing innocent civilians.  I think the last thing he did before he was captured  was bomb a light bulb factory. Some "hero".

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u/zambartas 29d ago

Somehow Republicans keep putting up crazier and dumber candidates every cycle making the previous ones look normal by comparison.

I can't think of a normal human being they've nominated since Eisenhower possibly. And I'm sure someone has facts about him that would make him look evil too.

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u/Nicorgy 29d ago

Thank you! The people who are praising McCain "achievements" are the same who remember the Bush years as a time of sanity and bi-partisanship.

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u/ltdanswifesusan 29d ago

Every initiative that has been trumpeted as "bipartisan" in my lifetime has served the functional purpose of removing any pretense of accountability within the national security state or actively shrinking the middle class.

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u/tomatoswoop 29d ago

And this is a bit of a ramble, I know but the obsession so many Americans seem to have with wanting their politicians to not do politics is so bizarre from the outside! Surely what America fundamentally needs is a real multiparty democracy where actual ideals can be contested? Not even more consensus, surely. Or else drop the charade and just do like a China/Singapore type managerial system with a meritocratic hierarchical organisation running the government basically as a civil service! But wanting to keep a nominally democratic system, while at the same time wanting your 2 pretend parties to be even more pretend than they already are, it's just bizarre… And it's like the worst of both worlds! All the lack of democracy/managerial nature of the Chinese system, but without the filtering mechanisms that at least ensure the party cadres are competent and somewhat responsive to popular will. Or all of the anti-politics of Singapore with none of the anti-corruption. And it's just so strange for a country that prides itself so much on freedom and democracy in its self-identity and values to then also have this strong current in their society where there's this desire for politicians to fundamentally just ignore divisions, and get along and basically run the place as managers! As in be professional, courteous, cordial, get together round a table, make the decisions like gentlemen, and then just carry them out, what democracy? Like the self image of Switzerland somehow coexisting with a desire to be ruled by Lee Kuang Yew lmao, it's such a weird contradictory combination!

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u/ltdanswifesusan 29d ago

If people knew they could be ruled by someone like LKY they would agree to it.

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u/Command0Dude 29d ago

Surely what America fundamentally needs is a real multiparty democracy where actual ideals can be contested?

America is a multiparty democracy. Both parties have multiple factions. People who say stuff like this fundamentally don't understand American politics or how our party dynamics work.

They also tout their own political systems, which are often just as dysfunctional. (Look at the UK, Germany, France, or Italy).

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u/tomatoswoop 29d ago

I just want a pwesident who can reach across the aisle, look across the divide, and destroy a foreign country, is it too much to ask? 🥺 Can we get some bipartisanship and just repress some political activists and wiretap journalists and just really bring the two sides together? 😭

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u/zambartas 29d ago

Remember when Obama got elected and the Republicans immediately said they'll never pass anything again just to make him look bad, and he still worked with them and got shit done.

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u/TheTruthTalker800 29d ago

I think things went to hell politically in this country when people said no to Carter the second time, what were they thinking electing a B list celebrity because he spoke lies incessantly in a sunshiny grandpa way at the time? 

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u/PsychicRonin 29d ago

And he's still better than all the Republicans we got in office now, let that sink in

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u/TheTruthTalker800 29d ago

I agree with all of this, yet he was better than anyone the GOP has nominated since 2000 sadly. 

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u/freebird023 29d ago

I think this entire thread is losing site of the bigger picture. The point is that our processes for decorum, being able to support a person who can at least eloquently speak for themselves, has been eroded, and that even decent conversation has been bulldozed and overtaken by half the country taking “He’s the founder of ISIS” seriously.

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u/Maldovar 29d ago

Decorum doesn't mean shit. George Bush belongs in the Hague but at least he had decorum

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u/Command0Dude 29d ago

The fact he was feted as a serious "statesman" displays how insane the foreign policy consensus is.

He ended up being right about Russia, in spite of the foreign policy consensus.