McCain: ‘Spurious Nationalism’ Is Unpatriotic

In a speech in Philadelphia on Monday night, Sen. John McCain accused U.S. leadership of promoting “spurious nationalism” over international obligations. “To refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain ‘the last best hope of earth’ for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems,” McCain, who delivered the speech while accepting the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal, “is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.” McCain also condemned a neo-Nazi rallying cry, stating that “we live in a land made of ideals, not blood and soil.”