Martyr McCain

by digby

SteveAudio responds to tristero’s observation that McCain’s problem with Hagee is that it reveals a craven side to McCain’s character — for seeking out his endorsement and then equivocating when his bigotry was revealed for all to see.

Steve writes:

Here’s the point Tristero misses, which is the idiot-savant genius of McCain’s campaign: No one on the right, NO ONE, cares about Hagee, with the possible exception of a few moderate genuine conservatives, that is. All 3 of them.

But the far-right Evangelical end-times Christians, for whom Hagee is a dog whistle the size of a Marshall stack, will still support McCain, even more now than before. Not only is he a “true believer” by courting and wedding Hagee, but now he’s been bloodied by the secular humanists that threaten the Christian way of life. His rejection of Hagee’s support isn’t a betrayal of Hagee’s prophecy, but a tactical retreat in the face of the abortionists, school desegregationists and gay-marriage supporters whose defeat his administration will hopefully bring about. And thus is a stronger hero born.

I hadn’t actually thought of it that way, but McCain being “forced” to repudiate Hagee actually reinforces the Christian Right’s feelings of victimization at the hands of the secular majority. It’s entirely possible that this will strengthen McCain among some of the Christian Right. They live for that stuff.

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