Kind, humorous, plain spoken, courageous, principled, all these are on display in this little vid clip from Late Night with Seth Myers. But McCain himself would have been the first to point out his own flaws--a failed first marriage, infidelities, quick temper, the Keating Five scandal, etc.
Progressives must concede that, despite McCain's hawkishness and general conservatism, there is no doubt that he saved Obamacare from total ruination. And he opposed Gina Haspel's nomination to the CIA because he deeply opposed our nation's embracing torture on general principles.
But I was disappointed when McCain, raised an Episcopalian, took a step toward courting the religious right in his presidential campaign by visiting Jerry Falwell. And McCain was disappointed in himself when he waffled on the Confederate flag and monuments issue more recently. He said in his final memoir that he believed that it was time for the monuments to go and wished he'd said so.
And then there was Sarah Palin.
The subtext of the praise for McCain, I think, comes largely from who he is not (i.e., Donald Trump) and of whom he has been vocally critical (i.e., Donald Trump). At a time when the president refuses to pay attention to facts, to articulate clear policies, or accept any responsibility for the results of his actions, McCain's comparative transparency was a breath of fresh air. McCain also grounded the Senate Republicans in a way that Mitch McConnell, who seems stymied about how best to deal with Trump, has failed to do.
With McCain gone, who will save us now?
I think Americans are deeply entrenched in "savior" thinking to the detriment of the nation. Certainly, that 30 percent hard core group of Trump voters believes he is their savior from immigrants, de-whitening of America, regulations, or globalism. Millennials thought Bernie was their savior from the godawful wage stagnation and high education costs they face, and many of them turned away from their momentary interest in national politics when Hillary won the primary.
I'm pretty sure that McCain's response to this kind of "savior" thinking would be to tell us to get off our asses and save ourselves by working together, paying attention, and thinking critically. I think that is a legacy worth supporting.
The NYTimes today is full of McCain. I blame Trump. If he weren't president, we'd have less McCain hagiography and more "straight talk."
ReplyDeleteDitto the WaPo yesterday. Yes, my point is that we would have less hagiography were the president a more normal human being. I hear Trump has declined/was not invited to attend the funeral. Obama and Bush II are speaking. So, I hear, is Uncle Joe Biden. That should lengthen the services considerably ...
DeleteSarah Palin was what prevented me from voting for McCain.
ReplyDeleteBut I would trade him in a heartbeat for Trump, if he were alive and well.
I respect him for at least trying to be bipartisan, part of the time. And I liked his response to the woman who was repeating nonsense about Obama being a Kenyan Muslim.
And Jean, I agree 100% with this: "I'm pretty sure that McCain's response to this kind of "savior" thinking would be to tell us to get off our asses and save ourselves by working together, paying attention, and thinking critically. I think that is a legacy worth supporting."
DeleteMcCain wasn't perfect. If all he had done was give a platform to the Babbling Alaskan, he'd rank alongside Aaron Burr and G. Gordon Liddy. But he was greater than his imperfections because he respected the country, its Navy, its Senate and its traditions.
ReplyDeleteThat he will be succeeded as Armed Forces chairman (barring Democratic Senate success beyond anyone's fondest dreams) by James Inhofe -- a true believer in more oil, more gas and no climate change and a full-throated opponent of same-sex marriage and the kind of immigrants we've been getting -- is just a sign of how far we have fallen. With no bottom in sight.
There is a theory that the more extreme members of the House and Senate rise to leadership positions, largely through seniority. The idea is that House districts (and some entire states like OKC) that are ideologically homogeneous will spawn representatives who think like the voters; and since there is no ideological competition to force them toward the center, they stay left or right of center and keep getting re-elected, cycle after cycle after cycle. Chicago basically works that way: it is a one-party town, so once a Democrat from Chicago gets elected to Congress, s/he can easily be in Congress for the next 20-30 years. His/her only job is to watch her left flank (cf Crowley/Ocasio for how that works); and the best way to watch a left flank is to not leave any room on the left.
DeleteAccording to the theory, the same thing happens in OK but in the opposite direction: it all tends toward the right rather than the left.
Well, at least he was a solid man with mass, weight and innards unlike a lot of holographic images that pass for politicians. Yes, he supported the second Iraq war but so did the Democrats, like the Whigs and the War on Mexico. McCain reminds me of a phrase by radical composer Charles Ives: "a great dissonance like a man".
ReplyDeleteMcCain was a significant political figure, but he wasn't actually highly loved by a lot of conservatives - they found him too much of a maverick. In some ways, I think he was more appreciated by the members of the media.
ReplyDeleteI found him admirable, for his military service and his service to the country as a senator and, I guess we could say, a statesman.
When he was the Republican nominee in 2008, that campaign was a crucible: the economy was melting down, Democrats were motivated as I had never seen during my lifetime, and Republicans were dispirited after eight years of Bush II. Before the financial crisis, which as I recall hit in August or maybe early September, McCain had closed what had started as a significant gap in the polls and had nearly, or perhaps even entirely, pulled even with then-Senator Obama. But once the crisis hit, the trajectories of the two candidates went in different directions. The young and inexperienced Obama seemed to somehow grow in stature in the face of the crisis, while the grizzled war hero McCain somehow shrank. In retrospect, his campaign was marked by bad decisions, from Sarah Palin to "suspending his campaign" to focus on the financial crisis. My conclusion was that McCain belonged in the Senate.
As a man of honor and service, he provided a strong contrast to the current occupant of the White House.
Amy Walter on the NewsHour pointed out that McCain was not much of a maverick. For the bulk of his career, he voted with his party close to 90 percent of the time. In recent years, he split with the party more often because the party had changed. Like a good Goldwater Republican, McCain was concerned about the ascendance of the religious right and their influence on the GOP.
DeleteHere's a fun interview with Goldwater from 1994 in which McCain is mentioned: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/may98/goldwater072894.htm
Jean - I'm sure that's true about McCain voting frequently with the party. I remember in 2008, conservatives with an axe to grind against McCain had a whole laundry list of alleged McCain betrayals. Most of them struck me as small potatoes - in some cases, microscopic.
DeleteFrom the conservative point of view, his final maverick act, rising from his sickbed to vote against the party line on the Obamacare "skinny reform" a few months ago, was not small potatoes.
No, it wasn't. Obama and McCain are the reason I have health insurance today.
DeleteI always thought McCain would have made a much better GOP leader than Mitch McConnell, who strikes me as bloodless and opaque. Sort of the opposite of McCain, who could get emotional and was fairly transparent.
Maybe next year's reading project will be political memoirs. McConnell has one entitled "The Long Game."
Jean, Your buddy, the world's lowest profile right-wing nutso, will become the first senator to give his name to a Supreme Court. There was the Roosevelt Court, the Warren Court, the Rehnquist Court and now the McConnell Court. Or, to put it in bronze: The Addison Mitchell McConnell Court of the Deliberately Disunited States.
DeleteSeems that the court appointments are one reason McConnell puts up with Trump. But, like I say, I really don't get that guy. I guess he doesn't mind tromping through muck to achieve his "Long Game," whatever it is.
DeleteI think "game" is the operative word with McConnell. It's all a big chess board to him. I still think he reminds me of Corsis, the guy with the lizard tail in my son's sci fi novel who is a master manipulator.
DeleteMcCain needs to be given lots of points for recognizing climate change as a serious problem. Especially when the other elected of his party has gone delusional on the subject. His approach was more capitalistic but I'll take anything I can get.
ReplyDeleteDelusional. That's because the Republicans have all caved in to the fundamentalist Christians. Our foreign policy is affected by their insane apocalyptic prophecies. Our environmental policies are weakened by their insistence that God will destroy the world, not people. Our public health policies are affected by their notions that the HPV vaccine will make girls want to have sex all the time and that AIDS is God's punishment on gays.
DeleteYou can reason with somebody who is concerned about unnecessary government intervention and the free market.
You can't reason with someone who claims to have an inside track with the Lord.
They are no doubt useful to the principalities and powers. The P&P's like the Brothers Koch have little regard for evangelical beliefs but could care less if they can reduce taxes and regulation while ridding the country of Medicare and Social Security.
DeleteI dunno. I know a lot of conservatives who say that the religious issue voters are reliably Republican only so long as the party caters to their agenda. If the GOP starts looking soft on their issues, they'll just stay home on election day. It's an interesting question who pushed the party more: The fundamentalist culture warriors or the moneyed minority. There's an uneasy symbiosis there. The money floats a viable campaign while the culture warriors add bulk to the voter turnout.
DeleteHaving some of them stay home on election day wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing...
DeleteYeah, Jean, I'll go for symbiosis between the 1% and the evangelicals. Kind of like Pazuzu and Regan.
DeletePazuzu! There's a name I haven't heard since I saw Max Von Sydow movie-exorcising somebody. I still think clowns are scarier.
DeleteI am really puzzled by some of the comments I am seeing from some people on Facebook. They're figuratively spitting on his casket and calling him a traitor, and saying good riddance. All because he broke with his party maybe 10% of the time? Oh, and he didn't bow down and worship Trump. I actually think that ticked them off worse.
ReplyDeleteThese are largely ill-mannered Trumpistas, not real Republicans. They alike picking fights and being angry.
DeleteMcCain's 106yo mother got to experience one of the blessings of extreme old age. Watching her aged child die. Shame he couldn't have held on for a few years.
ReplyDeleteIf I were Mrs. McCain, I would take.comfort that my son died in his own bed surrounded by children and family, and not in the Hanoi Hilton in the prime of life.
DeleteBut, yeah, old age is not what it's cracked up to be. I cannot count the times my brother or I had some health problem or one of the kids was getting divorced, and the conversation started with, "DON'T TELL MOM, BUT ..."
The stuff my mother died not knowing ...
That's sad. Though sometimes very elderly people take the view that their separation from loved ones who have passed on won't be a long one. I hope she doesn't get on Twitter or Facebook.
DeleteYes. At least it seemed to be what they call "a good death". Makes me think of the scene near the end of "Interstellar". McConaghy's astronaut character, only in his 40's due to a period spent near a black hole, visits his now elderly daughter's deathbed surrounded by generations of descendants. I guess it's not so bad if the life is complete.
DeleteWhen I said I hoped Mrs. McCain doesn't get on Twitter or Facebook, I should clarify that I mean I hope she doesn't read something nasty that someone else posted.
Delete