One Man's Hope Is Another Man's Millenarianism

This is pretty funny:

though I think it misses the point. There is a massive population to whom this sort of language is fundamentally appealing. Many, many people respond to this category of talk about blood sacrifice, endless war, greatest generations, cultural decline, and neverending occupation. It's a weird marriage between American exceptionalism and conservative defeatism that causes some people to shake their heads, more in sadness than in anger (but also in anger) at the sorry state of America and these kids today, etc., while advocating for U.S. presences across the globe and planetary hegemony in general. Maybe that isn't exactly what McCain is selling—he seems to lack the religious component, although his candidacy will have that if he tacks on Mike Huckabee. What McCain is selling is very close to the cultural conservatism I'm thinking of. Relatedly, Yglesias: "[John McCain] appears to regard the self-sacrifice of the military man not as admirable because it helps protect and sustain a liberal society at home, but because it's actually preferable to have people's lives organized around regimentation, comformity, and sacrifice."