John McCain at Twilight

1937-2018
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"I’ve tried to serve our country honorably. I’ve made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them. I’ve often observed that I am the luckiest person on Earth. I feel that way even now, as I prepare for the end of my life. I’ve loved my life, all of it. I’ve had experiences, adventures, friendships, enough for 10 satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life in good or bad times for the best day of anybody else’s."

 

John McCain, from his final message to the American people

 

I have to tell you, I always liked John McCain for this reason: you never were really sure which way the man would tilt on any given vote in the senate. His was not a knee that jerked. And although, yes, the man was perfectly capable of making me tear my hair out on most days. He always had a sense of profound decency about him that was more-than-likely purified by the unimaginable suffering he encountered between the five long years of 1968 and 1973 when he was a prisoner of war at the infamous Hanoi Hilton. Then there was the wit. The Arizona senator was one of the microscopic few Republicans in Washington whose comedy was truly intentional. And he could laugh heartily at himself  - a trait that is truly rare among conservative and liberal politicians alike. He would go on some CBS News program and tell the moderator how nice it was to be back on the "Communist Broadcasting System" and no one at the network would be offended. How could anyone not like John McCain? Seriously!

I didn't agree with John McCain on a heck of a lot of things with regard to domestic and international affairs, but the term that was applied to him by the media, "maverick" was well-earned. He wasn't the last Republican for whom the term "right wing crazy" could not be applied, but - my goodness - they're fewer and further between than they used to be, that's for sure. Moderate Republicans used to be a dime a dozen. When I was a teenager, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a few. Now they are rarer than 8-Track tape players. Susan Collins of Maine comes to mind; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is another - both women. Give me an hour and I might be able to name for you one or two others. That he was disappointed in the direction his party had taken in the last quarter century there can be no doubt. 

Ike

He once said that one of the biggest thrills of his young life was when President Eisenhower addressed his graduating class at Annapolis Naval College in the fifties. I haven't any doubt that old Ike would have been just as appalled as McCain was at where the GOP has gone in the twenty-first century. I'm just as certain that Franklin Roosevelt would be deeply disappointed at the modern-day Democrats.

When McCain first sought the presidency in 2000, he beat George W. Bush early on in the New Hampshire primaries. Next on the trail was South Carolina. The Bush Mob went into that state with a nicely revamped version of the so-called "Southern Strategy" used so effectively by Dick Nixon during the campaign of 1968. In a series of "robo-calls" that bombarded that state, a recorded voice asked potential voters a series of questions. One of those questions was "How would you react if you were to learn that Senator John McCain had fathered a child with a black prostitute?" A few years earlier, John and his wife, Cindy, had adopted a dark-skinned baby, orphaned in South Asia. Bush and his henchmen knew damned well that South Carolinians would see campaign photographs of the McCain family and put two-and-two together. It was the most despicable political dirty trick in modern times: exploiting the love that this couple offered a homeless little girl in order to bring into existence the most corrupt administration in the history of this republic - up to that time.

I would not have voted for John McCain in 2000. Like so many of us who leaned leftward in that period, my heart belonged to Ralph Nader. I lived in New York and I knew for certain that Al Gore would carry it easily. What I hadn't counted on was the corruption of Governor Jeb Bush's Florida. The Nader vote allowed them to easily steal the election in that state. Had John McCain won the 2000 South Carolina primaries and, subsequently, the presidency, I would have been disappointed for sure, but I know I would not have lost a minute of sleep (as I did during the Bush years) knowing that he was at the helm of the ship of state.

The MEGGA-DOWNER for John McCain came eight years later. He was able to win the 2008 GOP primaries quite handily as I recall. At the convention he had wanted Joe Lieberman (the most conservative Northeastern politician as could be contrived in fiction) to run second on the ticket. The maniacs and halfwits who now controlled the Republican Party would have none of it. Lieberman had two things going against him as far as these clowns were concerned: he was a former Democrat - and a Jew.  HEAVENS TO BETSY!  

Instead they shoved down his throat Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, a woman so shockingly uninformed and incurious, she doomed the campaign from the get-go. Still, McCain campaigned honorably. When a woman at a rally somewhere in the Midwest accused Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, of being "an Arab", McCain gently grabbed the microphone from her hand and explained that, no, Obama was a good and decent family man with whom he had some major disagreements on policy. Class act, that McCain. Donald Trump would have egged the old biddy on I'm sure.

McCain's last class act as a statesman was recently when he gave a very public thumbs down to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

I thought it predictable how Donald Trump behaved yesterday in the hours following McCain's passing. You can't expect dignity from this president and he didn't disappoint. Instead of a statement in the White House pressroom, he "tweeted" his curt condolences to the family. That's what he does. He tweets. As a final insult to the man he had openly despised ("I like heroes who weren't captured") he raised the flag above the White House from half mast after only one day. The howl of public outrage was so shrill, he was forced to raise it back up. Knowing John McCain's love of dark comedy, I'm sure he would have been mightily amused.

George W. Bush and Barack Obama, his two past political rivals, will be delivering the eulogies at the funeral. Donald Trump has been asked to stay away. It's that kind of time in the United States.

McCain's reputation will be mixed. That's okay. Even the best of them are only allotted mixed reputations in the end. His passing is almost perfectly timed. The party he represented for nearly forty years will soon be going away as well. They won't have John McCain around anymore to give them that little bit of desperately-needed substance.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED READING:

Here's a link to read John McCain's final message to the American people:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/john-mccains-final-letter-to-america/568669/

"I lived and died a proud American".

 

John McCain