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I Hope Senator McCain Acts Heroically One More Time
George Washington stepped down after two terms as president. He was healthy, but thought it important that he demonstrate that America’s greatness came not from its leaders, but from its citizens and its underlying philosophies. Many of his colleagues wanted him to become king, but he wanted to prove that his presence was not as important as many made it out to be. He was just another citizen.
He was George Washington. John McCain, as I’ve said before, is a great man. But he is not George Washington. If this country can survive without Washington, it can survive without McCain.
In positions of power, it is easy to view oneself as indispensable. But one of the beauties of our system is that no one is that important. We survived Andrew Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Woodrow Wilson, Barrack Obama, etc. Our leaders do not determine the greatness of this country.
When Kim Jong Il is no longer in charge of North Korea, that country will probably change drastically. When John McCain steps down, the United States will continue on, largely unchanged. He will have done his duty, served his country, and will have been honorably discharged from his duty. Things will carry on as before. I can’t think of a downside to his stepping down now. His retirement will appropriately be praised as yet another act of selfless heroism — a capstone on a life well lived.
I can think of lots of downsides to him staying on too long. Check out that video of him in the comments of Docjay’s recent post, if you haven’t seen it. Goodness. Is that how he wants to be remembered? Does he want to be remembered as a courageous hero who served his country selflessly, or a babbling man too desperate for attention to leave the stage honorably?
There are very few reasons that I can think of that might make him decide to stay in office. None of them are good.
I don’t envy his situation. He’s in a tough spot. But he’s been in tough spots before. I’m rooting for him to step down as a hero. He’s earned the right to do whatever he wants. And I have no standing to advise someone of his stature.
But I hope he chooses wisely here…
Published in General
This post started out as a comment on Docjay’s recent thread. He suggested I post it separately. My bourbon and I thought, what the heck. I look forward to your comments. Well, most of them…
He was George Freakin’ Washington.
FIFY.
I appreciate your editorial assistance.
And you’re exactly right. One of the great men of the past 1,000 years or so…
Except that all those who don’t like him already think him a babbling fool and now they can cover their contempt in false concern for the man they scorn as insufficiently Republican. It’s true if he retires the country goes on just fine. But it is also equally true if he doesn’t it will also be equally fine.
I hope McCain goes on to serve another full term.
I doubt it.
I obviously take a different view. But I can’t argue with anything you just said. Very well said.
I said “probably” because that thought crossed my mind as well. I’m hoping he leaves office via a coup…
Petty pedanticism follows:
Kim Jong Il is no longer in charge of North Korea. It hasn’t changed significantly.
“The graveyards are full of indispensable men.”
–Charles de Gaulle
Sorry. I get them mixed up. Thanks for the correction.
George Freakin A Washington baby!
I’m glad you posted this. I like your thoughts quite a bit and this needs to be a continued topic.
I can argue, and I will. The man, no matter how you define him as a hero, has brain cancer and it will soon affect his brain, if it hasn’t already. I believe it has, as he has appeared to be having trouble thinking well, and as an octogenarian, that is a very bad thing. I want to remember him as he was, not as a drooling idiot babbling incoherently.
The citizens of Arizona should stand up for what is right and demand his resignation. We don’t need sick people making decisions about America.
The one great thing about a terminal diagnosis (as my mother, diagnosed with ALS, testifies) is that it is very clarifying. Lots of things that seemed so important are suddenly…meh.
We all die. We don’t all get the (strange) blessing of predictability.
My hope is that McCain is having the same sorts of conversations with his family that Mom is having with ours, namely “what do you want to do with the relatively good time you’ve got left?” and “What does a good death look like to you?”
Mom has chosen to be grateful for not being obliged to “fight” —too often a euphemism for acquiescence in ever more heroic and immiserating experimental treatments. Instead, she is enjoying now, right this minute, the only time she knows she has.
I’ve admired John McCain since I was a little kid. I hope he accepts this strange gift the way Mom has.
I think this describes what my reaction would be:
http://www.theonion.com/article/loved-ones-recall-local-mans-cowardly-battle-with–772
I’m watching Fox eulogize the Senator. Unfortunately Juan Williams sited McCain Feingold and his work with Kennedy on immigration reform. McCain Feingold was his most serious mistake with long term damage to the Republic. He always means well and has real clout but simply lacks understanding why these and other policies where he reached across the aisle were very bad ideas.
He doesn’t have to make decisions he can simply abstain. Heck Senators miss half their votes any way. My point is it doesn’t matter what he does. The Senate works just fine with 99 or 100.
Thank you, Kate. My mother made the same decision, to be surrounded by people at home who love her, not a bunch of strangers at the hospital. Pancreatic cancer took her out in 9 weeks, from diagnosis to death, in 2006, but she was in her bedroom in her house. She insisted we have our yearly family Christmas party, and it is a memory that will never leave me. I choose not to imagine what it would have been like to visit her for Christmas, dying in a hospital.
John McCain needs to be with Cindy and Meghan and the rest of his loving family now. He does not need to be with Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin and Dianne Feinstein and Al Franken. I will consider him less of a man if he chooses them over his family.
Doctor, I agree with your post, but had to step in here. Kim Jong Il, of course, has been dead six years. The sad part is exactly that North Korea hasn’t changed. Except maybe it’s a little worse under Kim Jung Eun. And sadly, it probably won’t change much when he is gone.
Oh, definitely! I plan to have exactly that sort of obit —prewritten by me if necessary. “As soon as shse received the diagnoses of ________, Kate took to her bed and commenced whinging, eating english-muffins-with-butter-and-maple-cream, drinking beer and writing long, maudlin letters to her grandchildren which will really freak them out should Kate’s long-suffering husband obey her instructions and mail them on what would have been Kate’s ninetieth birthday if life was fair which it’s not.
After a cowardly, undignified and half-assed “fight,” Kate asked for and was given a whole lot of morphine so that she could die at home because she is weirded out by hospitals. Her final days were spent putting the finishing touches on her sixth book because God Forbid any moment of her life go un-memoired (working title: Obese, But Surrounded By Handsome Men In Uniform; one woman’s untimely demise) and apologizing for all her failures. The latter took considerable time, so she didn’t have time for any profound final words. “I think I left a pot on the sto…” was her last utterance and, as per her instructions, this will be inscribed on her gravestone.
If my memory is correct, Washington was delighted to step down as President so that he could return to his beloved Mt. Vernon, particularly since he was not in great health. But they urged him to return to be in charge of the military, and he consented. He believed, once again, that he was the only one who could do the job as it needed to be done.
No false concern from me. I don’t like to speak ill of the dead. I look forward to not speaking ill of him.
TFHJM is an opportunist, and a crook. I fully believe that the democrats have a lot of dirt on him, most noticeably from the Keating scandal, and they play him again and again and again to disrupt the republican agenda. I won’t miss him. I can’t believe anyone votes for him or believes he is at all heroic in anything he does.
How would we tell?
TFHJM is not motivated to do anything for his country and he doesn’t care what the country does without him. He only cares that he gets the attention he craves for the self-perception that whatever the country does is because he made it happen.
He is an attention seeking selfish man at times. My expectation is that he will want to stay in office and everyone around him, including doctors and family are advising him to step down. My expectation is also that he is insanely stubborn and may refuse to listen. I hope I’m wrong about that. I doubt his family wants him remembered as an embarrassment and a disgrace.
Re the Kims, I look forward to the day when the current North Korea is Un-done.
Beautiful! I want my kids to say, “All dad did was keep posting bull doo-doo on some right-wing blog until he died.” Then they have to become a member to find out what my last words were. Hell, I’ll post my Last Will & Testament here too, members only. Make ’em sign up at Thatcher level.
But Coolidge is just so much more American. :)
In 1974, Nixon resigned after meeting the the Republican Party leaders in the Senate, Hugh Scott, and House of Representatives, John Rhodes, and Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, a prior party nominee. Goldwater told Nixon that he would vote for impeachment.
John McCain was elected to Barry Goldwater’s seat in 1986.
In 2018, will Trump resign after being confronted by the Republican leaders in the Senate and House, and Arizona Senator John McCain, a prior party nominee?
Who can better speak truth to power than McCain?
Oh my lord. TFHJM has never done anything of the sort. He’s just another Trump hating, establishment protecting hack. If he were to say anything like that to Trump, and Trump were inclined to even listen to what he said, I think Trump would throw him out on his ear, like he deserved. TFHJM is interested only in extolling the virtues of TFHJM.