Oregon's true maverick

John McCain calls himself a maverick politician. Commentators say his shocking choice of VP re-establishes this "brand." I believe it demonstrates something else entirely: poor judgment and erratic behavior. How can he put a woman he barely knows only a heartbeat away from the Presidency? This is the "brand" of decision-making that will fill his cabinet and appoint judges, probably some to the Supreme Court. This is frightening.

The late Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon was a genuine political maverick. He got elected to the Senate first as a Republican, later as an Independent, and finally as a Democrat. While an Independent, he refused to sit with either party in the Senate and so sat in a folding chair in the aisle. He was the earliest opponent of the Vietnam war and one of only two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that gave Pres. Johnson authority to escalate the war.

I wrote a one-man show about Morse that ends this way. In today's context, the words ring like the speech in a tragedy:

MORSE

So if you asked me, Wayne Morse, name
the one thing in our country that you
think will do more to strengthen
American foreign policy in the next
half century, you might be surprised
at my reply. I would say, Do something
to protect the educational standard of
American boys and girls. Do something
to protect American brain power.
Because the only sure and lasting
defense of peace is a highly educated
and enlightened citizenry.

Do we have "a highly educated and enlightened citizenry"? Far from it. We have major political candidates who don't believe in science, backed by an astonishing number of supporters. We are at the top of no international measure of "brain power." Far from it. The deterioration of our once excellent (and a model for the world) educational system is monumental.

I'm not an historian of educational policy but I get the sense as observer that much of the blame must be put to liberals in the sixties who moved away from the notions of a classic education as being too "white and male". While there is clear truth about this is some disciplines, such as literature, to decide that mathematics and science are too "white and male" is absolutely ridiculous -- of course, with regard to institutional employment policies there is a serious issue here but to extend this inequality to matters of scientific theory, to a relegation of a subject's importance, results in the very tragedy that has occurred. 60s liberals recognized a problem but then threw the baby out with the bath water. Somewhere along the way, it was decided that an education in science and mathematics, in logic and clear thinking, in how we know what we think we know, didn't matter as much as giving children opportunities to "express themselves."

We don't have significant American "brain power" any more and what we do have as often as not is represented by our immigrant cultures that have adhered to more classic notions of the importance of education in what used to be called the "hard subjects". We've made quite a mess of things. Wayne Morse is rolling over in his grave.

Finally, a message to Thornton Wilder: are we still going to get by by "the skin of our teeth"?