The following dispatch is from Byron Dafoe, who is filling in this week...
Long since abandoned by the military, “Section 8” was the military designation for a soldier who’d gone a little further off the deep end than allowed. (See also: bat-shit crazy.)
Now, I’m not suggesting that John McCain is crazy, but he has been through some harrowing experiences while rightfully sympathizing with, may have just as rightfully caused him to suffer from PTSD or worse, a complete mental breakdown.
Before I go any further I want to make clear that this is not a hack job. In 2000 I supported John McCain’s bid for the White House and felt then (and every harrowing day since) that the wrong man won the nomination due to Rovian dirty tricks in South Carolina. Though I didn’t know a lot of about him then, it was especially important to me that McCain bucked the party line when logic and reason called for it. Since then he seems to have made a strategic pact with the devil in exchange for his “rightful slot” at the Oval Office. He has lurched so far to the right that he’s even disavowed his own bills.
But this isn’t a question about yet another career politician’s flip flops and moral compromises in order to achieve greater power – that’s to be expected. What no one seems to be asking is far more important: Is John McCain mentally fit to serve as Commander in Chief?
Let’s look at the facts:
1. Captain Jack. Both his grandfather and his father were career Admirals in the Navy. Despite the fact that McCain was a hotshot playboy in the academy who graduated near the bottom of his class, family lineage among naval officers is as common as gunmetal grey on a battle ship. McCain was still on track to follow in the patent leather footsteps of his fathers. Instead he only made the relatively humble rank of Captain before quietly retiring in the early 1980’s.
Long before then, as we all know, McCain was shot down in Vietnam and spent the next five years “tied up,” as he likes to remind us, in a Vietnamese prison camp. He even heroically denied early release, as it would be “out of turn” and ahead of his fellow prisoners.
This courageous decision did not come without cost, however. He was tortured, beaten and literally broken. To this day he suffers from his horrifying physical wounds.
To what extent has he suffered psychological wounds? Close your eyes and try to imagine five long, hard years of torture and isolation. Isn’t it more fantastical to suggest that he didn't suffer psychological scars? The question should be: how deep do these scars run?
2. “Fightin’ John McCain. Second only to his POW experience, John McCain is also famous for his temper. In fact, an Arizona colleague who has worked with him for decades recalls the common joke that McCain has “signed more letters of apology than bills.” The frightening part is that he flips out over and over again. Could this be evidence of a mind that has simply (and perhaps rightfully under the circumstances) short-circuited under so much duress as a prisoner of war?
A Senator’s power is hemmed in by the nature of the office. What will happen when McCain is Commander in Chief and another Georgia unfolds? Will we get the “let’s work together to resolve this” rhetorical McCain or the “let’s kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out” losing-his-shit McCain?
3. Medical History. Past reports on McCain’s mental health have been given a cursory look. In 1999 McCain “released” his medical and psychological records but as ‘read only’ a select group of reporters who could not take pictures of the documents. These are not national security letters but the medical evaluations of a man asking to lead a nation. What is there to hide?
His doctors have repeatedly given him a clean bill of health. This is not to be dismissed lightly, but these doctors are also lifelong personal and professional friends. It is too much to ask to request an objective evaluation?
Again – I’m not trying to pull a shafty move on John McCain or question the value of his service to our country. I’m not talking about his patriotism or his age. Both of which should be commended, for it is that patriotism and obvious dedication to America which have led to both his trauma and his triumphant lifetime of public service.
I’m asking only a single, legitimate question: is John McCain of sound mind and body to lead our country?
-Byron Dafoe