Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Appreciating John McCain
For many years, conservatives were ideological zealots. Like Spanish inquisitors, they were on guard for the slightest indications of heresy. Talk radio gurus in particular were punctilious keepers of the flame. If a Republican figure was thought to be “squishy” on any matter – guns, spending, immigration, or anything else – he or she was reviled. Jim DeMint, the former South Carolina senator who headed the Heritage Foundation for a time, said in 2009 that he’d rather have 30 conservative purists in the senate than 60 Republicans of varying hues.
Now the Republican Party is led by a man who donated to Democrats, promised never to reform entitlements, insisted more than once that we should “take the oil” from the Middle East, and spewed more apostasy in five minutes than most Republicans could manage in a lifetime. Accordingly, we are told that personality is more important than substance.
I still care a great deal about substance, but character more. Before too long, many Americans may conclude that we need dull competence in public life and particularly in government. The spirit of President Calvin Coolidge would be salutary. He was laconic even by the standards of the early 20th century, but when he spoke or wrote, it was after thinking. He observed about politicians that:
The political mind is the product of men in public life who have been twice spoiled. They have been spoiled with praise and they have been spoiled with abuse. With them nothing is natural, everything is artificial. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation, which sooner or later impairs their judgment.
He was wry. “What I have ever been able to do has been the result of first learning how to do it. I am not gifted with intuition. I need not only hard work but experience to be ready to solve problems.” Quaint, right?
On the subject of character, this seems a good time to praise John McCain. McCain is one of those Republican Party squishes whose lily liver — or something – supposedly drove heaps of disgusted voters to choose a reality TV star. Being human, McCain isn’t perfect. Being a politician, he has compromised and trimmed many times. But his courage and dignity are magnificent things to behold.
I have no idea how McCain will vote on the latest Obamacare modification bill. But when it comes to human rights, the Arizona senator has always been stalwart. When Bill Browder knocked on his door looking for justice for the murdered Sergei Magnitsky, McCain didn’t hesitate. He became one of the first sponsors of the Magnitsky Act. When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson intimated that human rights were all very well, but henceforth America’s foreign policy would be based on hard-headed self-interest and realism, McCain fired off a passionate defense of human rights, denying that they are in conflict with our interests.
I consider myself a realist. What I’ve learned is that it is foolish to view realism and idealism as incompatible. In the real world, as lived and experienced by real people, the demand for human rights and dignity, the longing for liberty and justice and opportunity, the hatred of oppression and corruption and cruelty is reality. By denying this experience, we deny the aspirations of billions of people, and invite their enduring resentment.
McCain, who has already survived melanoma, is now undergoing treatment for an aggressive brain tumor. Within days of receiving the devastating diagnosis, he was thanking well-wishers and quipping that “Even those that want me to die don’t want me to die right away, so that’s good.” Who is that droll in the face of such news?
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, McCain demonstrated that same spirit – a blend of grace and impishness all his own. There were two ways of dealing with challenges like this, he reflected, and one was “to celebrate” (he didn’t say what the other was). “I am able to celebrate a wonderful life and I will be grateful for whatever additional time I have.” He quoted a playwright who said he knew that no one was immortal but always hoped there would be one exception. He was optimistic about his treatment so far, pausing to praise the doctors, nurses, and others who had, he winked, “inflicted so much pain on me,” but acknowledged that he was facing a “vicious form of cancer.” He would do everything possible to fight it, but “every life has to end one way or another.” How did he wish to be remembered? “He served his country.”
Did he ever. He flew combat missions, endured years of torture and refused early release that would have placed him ahead of others captured before him, spoke up for prisoners, refugees, freedom fighters, the American military, and American values. He does us proud to this day. This is American greatness.
Published in Politics
I was a huge Mona fan back in the Capital Gang days. I met her at the 1993 NRI summit in Washington in January 1993, and she probably put me on the “potential stalker” list, I was so tongue-tied when I was speaking with her in the hallway.
But I haven’t been able to listen to her podcast or read her stuff in a couple years.
There’s no way to know that. I’ve never read an account of him that said he wasn’t a good pilot. Even the best pilots can get shot down.
Except that he could’ve come home five years early, but chose to stay with his compatriots.
So let’s not get carried away here. It isn’t necessary to denigrate his true heroism in order to deplore his record as a Senator.
Oh come on. McCain actively campaigned to be elected as President. He just refused to go along with rabid people who claimed that Obama was a Muslim.
I used to listen regularly to NTK and read her columns, all prior to Trump’s arrival. Ever since that bull charged into her china shop and started breaking things, I’ve found her unbearable.
Gary, whatever your feelings, you have to admit McCain didn’t seem to really want to win very much did he?
There sure is a bunch of McCain hatred going on in these comments.
Would the commentators be willing to acknowledge that during the surge, McCain helped save Iraq by being the strongest supporter of the surge? (Only to have Obama throw it all away…) How about his service as the Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee?
McCain has his weaknesses. And I am proud that he is my Arizona Senator.
Sure, one would think that he would use this position of power to fix the VA.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/02/09/vets-continue-to-die-phoenix-hospital-at-center-va-scandal-ranked-among-nations-worst.html
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/va-only-filling-half-of-its-medical-appointments-while-veterans-wait-for-weeks/article/2634652
As a Veteran who has power in the Senate you would think he would want to help Veterans. I do blame McCain and Graham for not force a fix to these problems.
No. Iraq is a huge mistake beginning to end. The surge was a short term measure that would have had nothing to do with what was going to happen eventually – Iraq becoming an Iranian satellite. Bush and Obama have managed to turn the land from Iran to Lebanon into a Shia crescent.
Yep, his support of the surge was a good thing. But then there is most everything else. I mean, maybe he prevented another Babbitt or Udall from running, but that’s damning with faint praise.
This article isn’t about John McCain, it is about trashing President Trump. If only Evan McMullen would have been elected we would have been saved from all of this winning.
I think history will have to tell the full story on Iraq. Granted, the surge saved it at the time, but long term we still don’t know.
Thank you, Archie! This blind hatred is disgraceful. Anybody who resorts to denigrating someone who underwent such savage treatment should be ashamed. And all because the person doing these things doesn’t like some votes that were cast. Is this what conservatism has come to stand for: If you don’t cast the right votes, you are devil? It is, as I say, shameful!
He suspended his campaign because, not understanding any economic or financial matters he didn’t know what to say or do. He was afraid to point out that Obama was unqualified, without real experience had been a radical anti American leftist, and a race bater, pro abortion and close to corruption from the get go. He was intimidated by Obama’s race and like most mainstream Republicans didn’t know how to handle it and didn’t know enough of what we might call conservative rooted literature, history or economics to rise above his white guilt and, floundered from the beginning. It had nothing to do with the folks who called him a Muslim. McCain was picked by the mainstream media who also know how to intimidate the stupid party.
What would you call the conduct of a man who abandoned the wife who waited for him all those years in order to marry a younger woman who is heir to a fortune?
Oh and the wife had also suffered crippling auto accident. What would you call that?
I read the linked piece, I recall something about a prior wife but didn’t know the details. The article certainly doesn’t paint him in a very good light, not sure if The Daily Mail has built-in bias or not, but the facts don’t seem to be in dispute.
McCain finished near the bottom of his class at Annapolis. His skill as a pilot was not exceptional, causing the loss of one or more multimillion dollar aircraft. Did the fact he was the son of a famous Admiral give him a pass? His capture and torture in Vietnam Nam caused many of us to overlook his future failures. All public figures would prefer to be judged only by their attributes, not their failures. We have accepted his irrational positions/behavior as a virtue to our own peril. It’s time to hold him accountable for his failures as well as his sacrifice.
I don’t dislike him for one or two votes, I detest him for the Unconstitutional abomination that is McCain/Feingold.
Now, your reading minds?
If I said what I was thinking, I’d get into trouble with the Code of Conduct. But saying that McCain was picked for our party by the mainstream media is not very bright.
I don’t know anything about his personal life. And neither do you, really. And this not what the reckless and hateful diatribe was about anyway.
McCain/Feingold was all that. It was a silly and reckless thing to sponsor. But for that you detest the man? Shameful!
Gary, the blind haters should realize one thing: There is a Judgment Day. And I would hate to be them when it comes.
We can speculate. And I speculate that, were it not for Obama, Iraq would have gone down as a Bush Triumph.
And for this you don’t? Very strange.
I’m strange??! I don’t detest people for a lapse in judgement. For God’s sake, the man didn’t kill anyone! To spend your life hating someone on account of politics goes beyond strange. It speaks to the disgusting priorities of someone who has no idea what life is all about!
Lapse in judgment? Really? That’s what you attribute all his malfeasance to?
A lapse in judgment could be overlooked if something were done in the heat of a moment or with improper information. McCain/Feingold was deliberate and there was nothing rushed or uninformed about it. It was very intentional, he was warned of its ill effects, and all of history should lead a prudent person to realize that the warnings were justified. The same could be said of his entire career.
John McCain has spent his life trying to hobble my freedom. Yes, detest him. He was only better than Obama when running for president because the alternative was perceived as, and proven out to be, much worse, but I never kidded myself that John McCain isn’t an enemy of freedom.
An enemy of freedom? He fought for freedom, and not only had his liberty taken from him for years but was tortured and brutalized for years. He loves his country so much that he refused early relief. McCain is not the detestable one here!
“In the 2008 presidential primaries, exit polls prove John McCain failed to win a single race among registered Republican voters in open primaries up to Super Tuesday, yet during that same period he went from also-ran to front runner because most non-Republicans who crossed over voted for him. In New Hampshire, Romney won among registered Republicans, but McCain won overall. Likewise, in South Carolina, Huckabee won among registered Republicans, but McCain won the state.”
I am not sure you should really be saying other members are detestable.
McCain/Feingold was terrible. It is not just “one vote” but a bill he sponsored. Just one vote would be opposing the Bush tax cuts, or maintaining Obamacare.
He was labeled the Maverik because he was most likely to oppose his own party. He calls his opponents Waco birds and Hobbits (name calling quaint from McCain and uncouth from Trump?) There is reporting that he has physically assaulted people in disagreements. McCain himself admits to having a temper.
I respect him as a veteran. As a pilot he fought for freedom. As a Senator, he is at best a mixed bag.
A few things: