Today it was in Newsweek, but starting with the GOP convention in New York, I have seen it all over – Senator John McCain, we are informed, is a moderate.
Did we need more evidence that the news business is dense? No, but there it is.
I respect John McCain, despite his recent embrace of George Bush. And despite his political views. They are, incidentally, sometimes conservative, sometimes further right.
For example, McCain opposes the Supreme Court ruling governing abortion. And he favors the preemptive war on Iraq.
So where do the news folks get the idea that he is a "moderate"? Well, he championed campaign finance reform legislation, hoping to end the ongoing domination of the executive and legislative branches by corporate and other big donors.
And he frequently opposes the agenda of corporate America.
Neither view resounds in Washington, not with Republicans or Democrats. So the new numbskulls, desperate for a tag, have a problem. Their limited minds, you see, visualize the political world in only one way - a horizontal line running from right to left, with labels like "conservative" and "liberal" and "centrist."
Given that he’s not with his fellow Republicans and some Democrats admire him, they reason, he must closer to the center. "Let’s call him a moderate!" So what if his voting record isn’t.
Of course, McCain is not a typical Republican and his books – I have read two – explain why. His military background, time as a Vietnam prisoner-of-war and experience as one of the Keating 5 have produced an unusual politician, one who comes at issues from outside the (horizontal) box.
For simplicity’s sake, I will call his starting point a sense of honor. Some might prefer to call him an idealist. There's a case for Jeffersonian, too. Or the anti-Coolidge - he sure doesn’t think the business of America is business.
But guess what – on the horizontal line, there’s no place for honor, idealism or any of the other terms. Thus, John McCain must be a "moderate."
Where is George Orwell when we need him?