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Flawed Family Tree?

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By JOHN REINIERS

In My Own Words

Published: June 21, 2008

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, struck a responsive chord when he criticized John McCain's family background as the son and grandson of admirals, complaining that his view of the world was shaped by the military, "and he has a hard time thinking beyond that" as an adult.
There is no doubt, given his family tradition, that young John McCain grew up exposed to military culture. But to conclude that he will have "a hard time thinking beyond that" is over the top. Many thousands of young people have gotten military academy educations – steeped in tradition – and have been quite successful in the civilian world. General Dwight Eisenhower personified the military, yet thought beyond that to be a decent president.
Harkin went on to say, "I think he's trapped in that. Everything is looked at from his life's experiences, from always having been in the military, and I think that can be pretty dangerous."
Always having been in the military? McCain was in the service – including his POW time – 23 years. He has been in Congress for 27 years. If he's "dangerous" at all because of his "life's experiences," he's more dangerous because of his political experience. And Harkin can hardly be critical. He's been in political office for 34 years, making him even more "dangerous" than McCain.
Actually, Harkin didn't go far enough with McCain's family tree. His great-great-uncle, General Henry McCain, was the father of the selective service system in the Great War. Great-uncle General William McCain won the Distinguished Service Cross in both world wars! And this was before we get to Admiral John S. McCain, his grandfather, who was at the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo, and his dad, Admiral John S. McCain, who was the commander of all U.S. Forces in the Pacific during the Vietnam War.
Douglas MacArthur, a military icon, stressed in his farewell speech to West Point cadets, "duty, honor, country. What you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be." This is both patriotism to the bone and sound advice to give any graduate anywhere. And yet Harkin tells us that McCain is "trapped in that ... and I think that can be pretty dangerous."
Harkin brought up an interesting topic. There is an enormous body of work identifying the significance of early childhood experiences on later behavior as an adult. This is just common sense. My background is not in psychology, but as a parent. A majority of experts rightly believe that just the first six or seven years of a child's life are crucial; that early learning experiences are lasting. So here's young McCain surrounded by family lore rich in "duty, honor country." Children unconsciously adopt the moral standards of their parents and model their behavior from observing them.
On the other hand consider Barrack Obama's youth, or even Bill Clinton's, and I'm sure Harkin doesn't want to go there. Obama tells us his mother Stanley Ann (her father wanted a boy) was "the dominant figure in my formative years." The values she taught me continue to be my touchstone..." At the very least, her friends viewed her as an unconventional contrarian. This was an American woman who first married a non-practicing Muslim Kenyan (Obama's father) who turned out to be a bigamist and an alcoholic; and next married Lolo Soetoro, a not too pious Muslim Indonesian, who, according to his nephew "loved alcohol and women."
His mother's best friend in high school notes, "She touted herself as an atheist ... She was always challenging and arguing..." Another high school friend said, "She was a little bit ahead of her time in an off-center way." One writer said she had a "fledgling beatnik personality." Interestingly, the Seattle area high school she attended (1956-1960) had many radical pro- Marxist teachers. One of the school board members admitted to being a member of the Communist Party USA, and that her school had a number of Marxists on staff. As her friends say, she was left of center.
Here's the point. Obama lived in Djakarta, Indonesia, until he was 10 years old. If we agree that the first six or seven years of a child's life – the early learning experiences – are lasting, then what about a kid who lives in Indonesia with his unconventional mother and "naughty" (Soetoro's nephew said that too) stepfather until age 10?
If Democrats think McCain is doomed because as a kid his world view was shaped by the McCain family tradition of service, then what about Obama whose world view was shaped as an Indonesian, by his iconoclastic mother's values and his Indonesian stepfather, in Indonesia, a Muslim country. Is he "trapped in that and that can be pretty dangerous" as Harkin tells us?
I'm certain Obama's leftist supporters would rightly say he rose above the negative influence of his fathers, and adopted the positive socialist persona of his mother. After all, Obama himself refers to the "values" of his mother as his "touchstone." Sure. He was rated by the National Journal as the most liberal senator in 2007. (Hillary Clinton was 16th.)
This kind of thinking reminds us of Bill Clinton, who is still fighting left-over demons from his unfortunate childhood. His four times married mother's second husband, Bill's step-father, was a gambler and an alcoholic, and according to Clinton regularly abused his mother, his half-brother Roger, as well as himself. Roger took to drugs, and was pardoned by Clinton (understandable) for a cocaine conviction during the "pardon-gate" scandals – one of many different scandals and questionable pardons. Here's another brilliant achiever, who overcame poverty and other obstacles, but you have to wonder about the effect of his early childhood "experiences" on his later behavior as a husband and an adult – or as Harkin said about McCain, "That's just how you're steeped, how you've learned, how you've grown up."
I think he unwittingly gave McCain a plug by drawing attention to his normal childhood and legendary military family tradition.

John Reiniers, a regular columnist for Hernando Today, lives in Spring Hill.

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