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The Pathological Narcissism of the NeoCon Right Broadcast June 22, 2009 - Posted June 23, 2009 .
TRANSCRIPT SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM ®, SOUTH CAROLINA: The president of the United States is supposed to lead the free world not follow it. He‘s been timid and passive more than I would like. SEN. KIT BOND ®, MISSOURI: The president should be speaking out much more clearly on behalf of the Iranian people. SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY ®, IOWA: I believe that we could be more forceful than we have. FRED THOMPSON ®, FMR. U.S. SENATOR: I think he was very slow off the mark. SEN. JOHN MCCAIN ®, ARIZONA: I‘d like to see the president be stronger than he has been. We should lead. And I also think he should point out that this is not just an Iranian issue. This is an American issue. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: “This is an American issue,” says Arizona Senator John McCain. And it is true that this is an American issue to the extent that Iran is where Republicans appear to be working out their issues with each other. On one side, as we just saw there, we got Senator John McCain, whose best friend forever, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Chuck Grassley, and also, that guy from “Law & Order.” On the other side, they‘ve got a whole bunch of opposition from among other Republicans. We could start with former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, who writes, quote, “To insist the American, in the first days of the rebellion, insert the American government into the drama was shortsighted and mischievous. The ayatollahs were only too eager to demonize the demonstrations as mindless lackeys of the ‘Great Satan‘ cowboy Uncle Sam, or whatever they call us this week. John McCain and others went quite crazy insisting President Obama declare whose side America was on, as if the world doesn‘t know whose side America is on. This was aggressive political solipsism at work: always exploit events to show you love freedom more than the other guy, always make someone else‘s delicate drama your excuse for a thumping curtain speech.” The Republican opposition to itself also includes figures like the first man you‘ll here in this group of clips. It‘s Nicholas Burns - he was the man who oversaw Iran issues at the State Department for George W. Bush. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NICHOLAS BURNS, BUSH ADMINISTRATION‘S UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS: President Ahmadinejad would like nothing better than to see a very aggressive series of statements by the United States that would try to put the U.S. in the center of this. And I think President Obama is avoiding that quite rightly. It is a balancing act. I think the president has been very effective in maintaining that. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president is being roundly criticized for insufficient rhetorical support for what‘s going on over there. It seems to me foolish criticism. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the president has handled this well. I think it‘s the proper position to take. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For us to become heavily involved in the election at this point is to give the clergy an opportunity an enemy and to use, really, to retain their power. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: The Republican lost the last election, and therefore isn‘t in any position to wage actual war on anyone else right now. They are, however, definitely winning the war on themselves. Joining us now is Chris Hayes, Washington editor of “The Nation” magazine. Chris, thanks very much for your time tonight. CHRIS HAYES, WASHINGTON EDITOR, “THE NATION” MAGAZINE: Thank you, Rachel. MADDOW: I want to make sure I understand both sides in this Republican fight. What is it that John McCain and Lindsey Graham and all those guys actually want the White House to do? HAYES: You know, that‘s a really good question. I mean, I think in the long mythology of neoconservativism, there is this notion that, you know, Reagan single-handedly brought down the entire Soviet empire because he said, “Tear down this wall,” and that somehow if you are like really willful and chest-thumping that the world will sort of bend to your will. So I imagine they want, you know, sterner rhetoric. They want some kind of escalation. Ward(ph) hopes that they don‘t want some kind of military action although you never because people have been advocating all sorts of crazy things vis a vis Iran for a long time. So I don‘t know. MADDOW: I‘ve always - I‘ve just found myself thinking if they got what they wanted, if they got like, pure bellicosity from the president, would they think that the Iranian people would then take to the streets in protest of their government? They‘re sort of doing that already on their own. And it seems like it shouldn‘t be totally immaterial that the opposition in Iran is not actually asking for America to wade into this. HAYES: Yes, it‘s a really good point. I mean, if you look at Shirin Ebadi, who is the Nobel Prize - Peace Prize winner, human rights lawyer. She said she thought Obama‘s comments were appropriate. She thought it was important for the U.S. not to insert itself too fully. Akbar Ganji who is another dissident, a human rights activist inside Iran said the same thing in an interview. So, I mean, that‘s really where you want to be taking your clues from at a moral solidaritistic(ph) level from the actual people working inside the system. And there is a tremendous pathological narcissism on behalf of people like McCain and Graham that everything revolves around the U.S. and revolves around our own kind of preening moral self-satisfaction. And it‘s actually - it‘s really destructive. I mean, if the president were doing what they want him to do, we would see things get worse in Iran, worse for the dissidents and protestors. It‘s very hard to excuse. MADDOW: I think it‘s one thing to understand the impact or the potential impact of what they‘re asking for on the situation in Iran. It‘s another thing to understand what the Republican Party is now, and whether there is a credible alternative to Barack Obama‘s foreign policy vision in Washington right now, coming from the right, if not the left. And on the right, well, Steve Benin at “Washington Monthly” put it this way and I thought this was smart. He said, “We‘re not dealing with the dynamic that pits the left versus the right or Dems against Republicans. Rather, this is a situation featuring neocons versus everyone else. Do you think that‘s right? Do you think this is sort of a resurgence of the neocon ideology? HAYES: Yes. You know, I read that post and I thought it was very smart also and I agree. I mean, I think that there is this very virulent strain of neocon ideology that has kind of manifested itself. I think John McCain, in some ways, is the most intense of true believers in terms of elected officials in American life in which every battle is a battle between the righteous U.S. which is a beacon of freedom and the evil forces of oppression, tyranny, wherever they may be and whatever kind of regime they might be occupying, and that everything kind of in this the solar system way, the U.S. is the sun and all foreign policy revolves around us and the freedom that we cast out into the world. And that‘s exactly the world view that you‘re seeing represented in the comments that are being made by people like John McCain. And I don‘t think it‘s long for this world. I mean, I really want to hope that this is kind of a dead-ender, last gasp of this sort of thinking about American foreign policy because the actual real world results have been so disastrous. MADDOW: And one sign of its “short-lived-ness,” even though it‘s not a word or even a phrase, may be the opposition to - the most vociferous opposition to it is coming from within Sen. McCain‘s own party. Chris Hayes, Washington editor of “The Nation” magazine - always great to have you on the show. Thanks for your time. HAYES: Always my pleasure, Rachel. |
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