Taki Magazine

Roughed Up by McCain

by Evan McLaren on March 07, 2009

I thought I could get away with a rant earlier. But Robert Stacy McCain was feeling big and butch today. Now anytime anyone puts my full name in a search engine, they’ll come up with this.

Thanks, McCain. By the way, do you recall meeting briefly at CPAC? Probably not. You were in a rush, perhaps to the bar. Not that I’m criticizing. Live and let live, I say.

At this point no matter what I write I’ll be acting to type (“Young Turk,” was it?). But let’s get a few things out of the way. First of all, there’s this institution called financial aid. Certainly some of the fellas who went through Lawrenceville, Bowdoin, and Kenyon were spoiled, and certainly some were rich beyond belief. And plenty were both. But my arrogance, it turns out, is purely a function of my nature, not my economic class. “Twenty years of schoolin’ and they put you on the day shift,” Bob Dylan sang. After my twenty years I landed on the nightshift, where I drove my forklift. Hey, McCain—are we still keeping score in this crappy status war you’re waging? Your call.

And yes, M. Stanton Evans was there at CPAC. So were a significant number of people young and old who do honorable work. I spent good part of my day loitering around the radio jockey tables with Mr. Spencer and the Brimelows. Don’t tell me I can’t locate worthwhile individuals and pay them their due, pal. I would have been thrilled to be introduced to Evans if you could have spared me a moment of your time instead of rushing off to wherever it was you were going.

(I happened to get my first bit of air time that day, too, telling some conservative host about Taki’s Magazine. I remember talking up this piece he had in his hands, something called “Do the Rich Have Better Sex?” This was before I knew McCain and I can’t be pals.)

The point is that, to borrow from McCain’s own language, the conference was typified by “hordes of callow punks,” who haven’t read any of Evans’ books, never will, and generally don’t give a damn. They wanted face time with Huckabee and a picture with Romney and not a whole heck of a lot else.

That’s enough petty bucking and kicking. I’ll take my piece of humble pie, even if it is from a guy who’s almost as unaccomplished in relation to M. Stanton Evans as I am. I’ll be starting a job in DC soon that will have me in the same circles as McCain. And if he’ll have me, I’ll be his coffee girl as long as it takes me to accomplish something and get somewhere in the conservative movement. On the other hand, if this McCain geezer wants it his way—rough—we can arrange a meeting on a Judo mat somewhere. It’s all the same to me.

• Print Article
• Email Article
• Email the Editor