Allison Kugel Speaks with Meghan McCain for PR.com Interview

Political Animal

Last month I spoke with political pundit and bestselling author, Meghan McCain. The majority of Americans know Meghan McCain as past Republican presidential nominee and legendary senator, John McCain’s, outspoken daughter.

My interview with Meghan McCain centered around her latest published effort, America You Sexy Bitch… A Love Letter to Freedom, which was co-written by comedian and actor, Michael Ian Black. The conservative McCain and the liberal Black traveled around the USA in an RV to speak with people of all walks of life to determine what it means to be an American.

As Meghan McCain told me, the unlikely duo were also on a mission to try to de-mystify why the United States has become so polarized in the 21 century.  And, as Meghan explained to me, one side bar aspect of their roadtrip was an attempt for Meghan McCain and Michael Ian Black to begin to build a bridge and understand one another’s political and social ideologies. Little was accomplished there, although McCain insists that a mutual respect and lifelong bond of friendship was forged.

My conversation with Meghan McCain was a bit marred by her press tour fatigue, and as I spoke with her she was driving over the Brooklyn Bridge after a long day of book promotions. She explained that she had been asked a lot of irritating questions. There was one question she called me out on as being one of that said crop of irritating questions, and that was when I challenged her identity as a Republican and as a true conservative, for that matter.  As she explained to me, one can have one or two more liberal ideals and still feel an overall identification with conversative values. Fair enough.

Here are a few excerpts from my Meghan McCain interview:

 PR.com (Allison Kugel): Another writer declared you, “What’s annoying about politics.” What is it that people are threatened by when it comes to your political philosophies? Or I should say, what is the Republican base so threatened by?

Meghan McCain: Anything that is not completely 100% of the Republican orthodoxy seems to threaten people. America is changing, especially when it comes to gay rights; there’s a lot of resistance and I think that for whatever reason it threatens a certain group of people. I’m a strong, young woman with a strong voice, and I’m still in touch with my femininity. I have found that the combination of being a Republican and a strong woman, and being in touch with your femininity and your sexuality, for whatever reason, makes some people kind of explode.

PR.com (Allison Kugel): I do know what you mean. In your latest book (America, You Sexy Bitch) you say that you’ve only smoked marijuana a handful of times. I certainly wouldn’t call you a regular smoker by any means. Yet, you’ve felt the need to come out and identify yourself as somebody who has smoked marijuana. I’m surprised that you did that, only because of how aware you are of how the media operates. Now they are trying to make you a poster child for somebody in the public eye who’s political, who’s part of the Republican Party and who is saying that they have smoked marijuana. I’m curious why you chose to be outspoken about this particular issue.

Meghan McCain: When I was living in Los Angeles I had already started having my mind changed on the issue. I started doing a lot of research on the economic benefits of decriminalizing marijuana. I felt compelled to speak out on the issue and I have almost no fear in my life at all. There is very little that scares me anymore, and I just go on television and I say what I mean and mean what I say. I have this incredible platform that I have helped to build. I think I speak for young people. I don’t speak for all young people. I know young Republicans hate when I say that, but I’m just being honest about the kind of world I think we should live in. We smoked pot in the book and it was a discussion whether to take it out of the chapter. I thought it would be a great way to get attention and then change the focus to why we’re not proactively trying to decriminalize and tax marijuana in this country.

Read more about Meghan McCain .

This story is beought to you by Allison Dawn PR