McCain blasting Obama on "citizen of the world" is like McCain blasting FOUNDERS of USA (quotes)

[2 Much Tribulation]

(posted for Land Shark -- the actual author -- who's having computer issues)

William Pitt posted that McCain blasted Obama for saying he was a "citizen of the world." Funny thing was, as Pitt aptly noted, John F. Kennedy used the same phrase while in his inaugural addresss starting his term of office. For Pitt's excellent OP, see http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3672935

To recap Pitt's points and the facts:

Obama on July 24 said, prior to making a policy speech:

"...I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world."
- Barack Obama, July 24 2008 (emphasis added)

McCain jumped on the phrase "citizen of the world" -- as pointed out in Pitt's post:

"While Barack Obama took a premature victory lap today in the heart of Berlin, proclaiming himself a "citizen of the world," John McCain continued to make his case to the American citizens who will decide this election."
- McCain campaign statement, July 24 2008 (emphasis added)

Pitt also showed, to nice effect, Ronald Reagan and JFK using the phrase. But let's take this one all the way and hammer it down.

McCain's ridicule of the phrase "citizen of the world" is perhaps best responded to by holding up imaginary cue cards next to McCain's head. THese cue cards would contain the quotes below, that are all from Founders of this country and US Presidents. In attacking "citizen of the world" or positive references to identification with "humanity" generally, McCain attacks the core values of this country and the expressions of our most beloved national leaders through the centuries.

It would be easy to find Bush administration quotes that are at least perilously close, perhaps even spot on, to the terms McCain chose to attack. But I really want people to know what it is that McCain is ridiculing: The philosophy, rights and principles of America, established for centuries.

There are many other quotes to be had from a database I've developed or many other sources, but this is a nice sampling below. I hope you enjoy recalling and reinforcing what America's truly about. It ain't a "Con" world.

You can skip to the quotes that show MCcain's out of touch with America's core principles (hope you don't) below, or alternatively read a short preface here that I think is critical as the proper orientation and attitude to have about 1776 and what it was about. It shows why some conservatives strain so hard to call 1776 a conservative revolution, if such an oxymoron can exist!

Preface: Because America was essentially the first country founded on an IDEA or set of IDEAS, Ideas naturally HAVE NO BORDERS. (think: world citizenship, on the way....)

What the quotes below establish (and I assert there is more support to be had but this should be sufficient for these purposes) is this

The American Revolution was consciously intended to be a fight not just for us, but for the Liberty of all Mankind, and moreover not just a fight "for now", but for all of future Posterity as well (i.e.,for all time. See Benjamin Franklin's quote below, saying this is a "common" belief among colonists.).

Jefferson's Declaration of Inalienable rights, {sic} declared (effectively) that kings and queens no longer had any 'divine right' to rule. In fact, it declares that Consent of the governed, consent of the people, is essential, instead.

BUT THE KEY IS THAT The Declaration's substitution for divine rights of "inalienable" rights and "self evident" rights must, by their very nature and definition, apply to ALL PEOPLE and FOR ALL TIME.

Instead of God literally (in theory) blessing the King or Queen with the right to exercise power over others, that instead of just a one-sided divine blessing, the Creator envisioned by Jefferson and the Continental Congress in fact blessed ALL OF the ones who have SOULS (all of the human beings, in other words).

FROM NOW ON, the Declaration of Independence basically declared, We the People are in charge. This is inalienable (we can't never lose this right for any reason whatsoever) and this is SELF-EVIDENT (we won't and don't have to prove this up to anybody, it's so freaking obvious!)

It makes me swell more with awe and wonder than pride (though with pride, too) to contemplate that, with the distant and foreign exceptions of Greece and some ancient tribes, there was literally no precedent, record, or memory of any non-monarchical government in the entire memory of BRITISH Mankind.

And yet, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine and all the rest of the Founders and patriot colonists, women and men, had the "Audacity of Hope" to not only throw off tyrannical rule by divine right, but to specifically say, and have it be believed and accepted commonly through the Colonies,(see the Ben Franklin Quote below) that the Colonies were not fighting for just themselves, but for all of Humanity, and for all of Posterity. IN other words, with the ATlantic Ocean as a buffer, they seized the opportunity not just to get their own freedom, but to fight on behalf of ALL OF HUMANITY and FOR ALL TIME.

Talk about playing for all the marbles!

THink of the Founders the next time somebody pipes up and mentions that certain bad things, like voting machines or some forms of US "imperialism", have in fact been around for a few decades ore more in a few places. It's not like it's new, they say. THe inference is that time somehow blesses something with rights, or that there's something INHERENT in America's character that causes these bad things.

But America's ultimately not a geography, not a race, but a set of IDEAS. It's not possible to show that the ideals of the Declaration inherently require domination, when the document instead says all are created equal and you can't never ever change that, no how, no way.

The Founders had to deal with that "tradition" objection, BIG TIME. (there being NO memory of anything but monarchy and some reforms for nobles (the magna carta, and House of COmmons) but no recognition of power in the people and always the right of the king to veto or control actions in the colonies...

James Otis said, I paraphrase but the proper names are correct here:

"Even if every prince since NIMROD {love that biblical reference} had been a tyrant, it would not prove a general right to tyrannize."

It's "people" that have rights, that's why so much US history is about fighting over the definition of who "the people" include (women, blacks). But many a historian, and Jefferson himself, recognized that the revolutionary logic of the Declaration guaranteed, if its principles were only remembered and followed, growing equality and rights for all, simply because it says the Creator blesses all...

Finally, the GRAND scope and incredible bravery of this historical moment around 1776, and the sweeping potential of especially the Declaration, NECESSARILY MEANS that the ideals of the Declaration were not achieved or ACHIEVABLE in THE LIFETIMES of the FOUNDERS simply because they wanted to set out ideals that would last, literally, for all humanity and for all time. Such ideals , as we use them to guide our direction like a guidestar, we must necessarily Fall short of -- but without those ideals to guide us, we would most certainly be lost.

This is why I have such a profoundly sad disagreement with both hardline Leftists (who claim American historical Hypocrisy discredits the founders together with their own, in some cases, slave ownership, etc.), some branches of feminism (women's rights, culturally, were barely on the radar screen in 1776), and JOHN MCCAIN's implicit criticism of the worldwide spirit of the Founders of this country.

Some say the Constitution cut back a little on the Declaration, but even they forget that the Declaration of independence prevails in the people's hearts, and even more importantly that even the Constitution can never modify inalienable rights because NOTHING can.

To prove that point, see the quote from the very most conservative FOunder, Alexander Hamilton, on the importance of natural/inherent/inalienable rights (synonyms) near the very end of the quotes below:

THE QUOTES

NOTE WELL: On ALL OF THE NEWER U.S.A. PASSPORTS, on pp. 26-27 one finds the following quote:

“The {American} cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class, it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.” –Anna Julia Cooper

Thomas Paine, acknowledged happily by Jefferson and grudgingly by John Adams as the architect of the American Revolution wrote:

“I speak an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but that of humanity. {…} Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.. –Thomas Paine, from “The Rights of Man”

Thomas Paine was perhaps the original “do-gooder” so despised by a few these days?

Benjamin Franklin, considered at the time in both Europe and America as the world’s smartest man, and of course a very influential Founder, said:

"It is a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own. "Benjamin Franklin

We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom and that belief has always strengthened us in our progress. President Jimmy Carter

We are fighting for the dignity and happiness of human nature. Glorious is it for the American to be called by Providence to this post of honor. -- Benjamin Franklin

Max Lucado in “America Looks Up” describing America’s vision using the male pronoun: “He placed his hand on the shoulder of humanity and said "You're something special."

“Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore (individual citizens) have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring. –Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, Following World War II, 1950

President Eisenhower:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from an iron cross. -- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, “The Chance for Peace,” address delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., April 16, 1953

President George Washington in his Farewell Address:

“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. {...} It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. {...} In the execution of such a plan nothing is more essential than that permanent inveterate antipathies against particular nations and passionate attachments for others should be excluded, and that in place of them just and amicable feelings toward all should be cultivated...”

“{Dear Lord} Bless us with thy wisdom in our counsels, success in battle, and let our victories be tempered with humanity. Endow, also, our enemies with enlightened minds, {…} nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done."

War is a defeat for humanity. -- Pope John Paul II

And also the supposed nemesis of Catholics, Martin Luther, identified with humanity as a whole and wrote:

“War is the greatest plague that can affect humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.”

Our system of government is, EVEN ABOVE THE CONSTITUTION in TERMS OF POWER, based on inherent or inalienable rights, specifically recognized as being perpetual and self-evident (no need to prove them in any way). (just read paragraph 2 of the Declaration of Independence closely).

As Frederick Douglass said, the principles of the Declaration are “saving principles”, i.e., principles to fall back on when we’ve lost control of our government or our rights are not recognized. In that light, regarding the suffragist movement, it was said:

“Our political system is based upon the doctrine that the right of self-government is inherent in the people … Women are a portion of the people, and possess all the inherent rights which belong to humanity. They, therefore, have the right to participate in the government. Mr. Sears, arguing in favor of the 19th Amendment for women’s suffrage.

{A belief such as the American belief in equality means that} it is not possible to separate self-respect from respect for the lives of others that are worthy of the same for the same reasons as your own life. Therefore, we can not act to harm or deny the dignity of another human being without harming or insulting our own dignity. As Immanuel Kant put it, respect for our own lives as such means respect for humanity. – Legal Philosopher Ronald Dworkin

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Recommended!!!

Once we recognize each other as HUMANS, we can get past the labels.:thumbsup:

[2 Much Tribulation]

2. Thanks, on behalf of Land Shark and all the citizens of the world! :) nt

[Christa]

3. Obama thinks out of the box

all of us are citizens of the world.

I doubt if the world wants McGeezer though.

[Land Shark]

4. I think he does too, but in "citizen of the world" he's in the mainstream of American thought

But this "mainstream", importantly, has principles that have always been the key whenever America has made historic progress. The Declaration of Independence was the key assertion in

A. Abolition of Slavery
B. Women's Suffrage (the Seneca Falls convention, kicking off the movement, just edited the declaration to make sure the male pronouns included the female, though at the time of its writing, the Declaration's use of seemingly male terms like "mankind" was ambiguous and could and did include room for arguing that it MUST provide for women, just as women would later, successfully, argue that it did. It is CULTURAL forces that had to be fought for women to get the right to vote, or "patriarchal" forces, not the heritage of 1776.
C. Modern Civil Rights: Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech expressly invokes the language of the Declaration of INdependence at many of its more powerful moments.

Thanks 2 Much Trib for posting this for me!

[Joe Chi Minh]

16. What tickles me about all this, Paul, is that God did not want the Hebrews of

ancient Israel to have a king! Because they kept whingeing for one, he had Saul anointed, but he had warned them that they were building up a whole heap of trouble for themselves. Their young men would be dragooned into fighting wars, and the people would have service and, I think, land, required of them. They would be treated punitively. Ironically, it is no longer the people who want a sovereign to rule over them, but the most pushy sociopaths of politics who want to rule the people and reduce the democratic dimension of government as much as possible.

In the UK, we are very fortunate in that, under a parliamentary democracy, we have a royal family who, while having failings like the rest of us, seem to be really nice people; much less fortunately, we have a polity whose most pushy right-wing members, notably, Blair, Thatcher and Brown, who have sought to deprive the people of as much of the democratic dimension of government as they can get away, in favour of what we call a "presidential-style" premiership, i.e. that of the most undemocratic and autocratic right-wing US Presidents.

The days of Republican leaders such as Ike are long gone, of course. What an incredible leader he was in WWII, as well as in peace time. He had a mind subtle enough for dealing with the realities represented by the Russians, while harmonising our war effort, where possible, denying the more loony and contemptibly ambitious generals of our countries the green light for their most egotistic plans.

However, this is not to deny that the some of the weaker vessels in our upper class don't feel above the law, essentially for peasants in their view, most notably, when the latter presume to pass laws against crulety to animals, hunting hem to exhaustion, for the dogs to tear apart. Charles, while of this persuasion (easy when you grow up in the culture), does not appear to have tried to impress us with the "subjects of the sovereign" schtik, a formal technicality, evidently, under a parliamentary democracy ony partially true even then. Others have been less diffident - and, that only be extension.

So, I don't think we can infer too much from our situation, in which we are most of us, glad we don't have the likes of Blair or Brown, as our President (despite their best efforts). The persistence of our monarchy in the form of our particular royal family under a parliamentary democracy has just worked out well by "happenstance", I think. In fact, in the circumstances I wish they had the power to tell some of our vile right-wing politicians to take a hike, particularly when it comes to ennobling patent villains.

[central scrutinizer]

5. "how quaint, how September 10ish"

Don't underestimate the racism and xenophobia of the American voters - this attack is straight out of the Repug playbook - all of the code words are there. Although the Constitution got us through long protracted fights with Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, the USSR, etc., apparently a handful of fanatics living in caves can only be dealt with by shredding the Constitution and following whoever is the most bellicose. "I don't care if they hate us as long as they fear us", Caligula and George W. Bush.

[2 Much Tribulation]

7. whatever, even if september 11 changed everything, Katrina changed it right back.

I wouldn't OVER-estimate the racism or xenophobia of some americans either.

[Land Shark]

8. Exactly, and emphasizing racism plays the hand the wrong way....

If this is emphasized, the secretive computerized vote counts we're stuck with for November can be WIDELY adjusted and so folks like pundits, and perhaps you, will just shake their heads and write it all off as racism that's in the closet.

Though there IS a little racism in the closet to be sure, that can be stretched greatly, -- making the "margin of plausible cheating" bigger in this election than ever before. In this election, We've got old age, POW status, race, and perhaps gender all tossed into a volatile mix with no way to verify the veracity of a vote count.

We can all make a list dozens or even hundreds of excuses long, RIGHT NOW, to explain really GOOFY election numbers, instead of doing what we ought to be doing, changing the system and demanding a full election investigation.

[redsoxrudy]

6. This attack by McCain is so desperate its funny.

"I speak today as both a citizen of the United States and of the World."
Ronald Reagan June 17, 1982 at the U.N. General Assembly

[Cha]

10. Oh Oh..mcsurge's

fucking hero spoutin' the same thing.

[Cha]

9. And, it's only July..mcsurge

will get so low by November he won't be able to get up.

Who writes this shit for him..rove?

[2 Much Tribulation]

11. Land Shark could have added this one from Thomas Jefferson too

"My affections were first for my own country, and then generally for all mankind." --Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Thomas Law, 1/15/1811

[ismnotwasm]

12. Great post

Not only did McCain made a fool out of himself with that statement, but he also showed out of touch he really is for the reason for politics in the first place. The reason is certainly not some perverse sense of nationalism with war as the first solution for difficult circumstances. It's about finding commonalities and mutual benefit in human purpose, human interaction. We--all the we's-- share the human condition.

[bridgit]

13. k&r'd, 2 Much Tribulation, and thanks for the heads up...

:kick: :toast:

[Land Shark]

14. Sure, loved your signature line by Carl Jung nt

[kster]

15. K&R..nt

[Coexist]

17. knr

[Land Shark]

18. thanks, and I like the quote in your signature line! nt

[robinlynne]

19. Wonderful OP! Interestingly enough John Edwards was on NOW last night

speaking about his plan to end poverty, and the most important point he made is that we are all tied together, and to work to end the great divide in this country, you must look at poverty in the entire world. One of his "steps" was for American "leaders" to take a stance against poverty worldwide, because we are all connected.

[ooglymoogly]

20. KR...excellent post ....thanx Land Shark

this really needed to be said....shouted from the rooftops in fact.

[Land Shark]

21. Thank you so much ooglymoogly ... your amplification is greatly appreciated! nt

[understandinglife]

22. Agree. Most Excellent LS.

Peace,
Bob