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.
We’re Even, Senator McCain
Photo credit: Krista Kennell / Shutterstock.com
First off, I generally agree with Senator John McCain on foreign policy, even the aspects thereof that have fallen out of favor. That said, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much respect and restraint is due John McCain in his dying days and in the days immediately following his death. Here’s what I’ve concluded: not much. This post is not about denigrating him. It’s about declaring a debt paid. It’s about the Right’s freedom from any further obligation to a senator who has been justly compensated over a lifetime. Please tell me if we can stipulate the following assertions:
- John McCain leveraged his heroism and sacrifice into decades of fame, power, adulation, and fortune.
- John McCain, for decades, has made a regular practice of going out of his way to smite his enemies, primarily in his own party (i.e., people who Ricochetti generally agree with, respect, and/or like).
- McCain has continued that regular practice in his dying days, even going so far as to settle scores with his enemies in his own party. We get it, sir, you don’t like us very much. Point taken.
- McCain generally held his fire against then-Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 general election campaign, even going so far as to denounce Republicans who ran ads about Obama’s extreme anti-American pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
- McCain voted against the Bush tax cut; co-sponsored the unconstitutional campaign finance reform bill; supported immigration amnesty; and killed Republicans’ last chance at Obamacare repeal.
To the extent that we can stipulate these assertions as facts, I hereby free the Right from the obligation to praise John McCain. I further free the Right from their vow of silence over McCain’s history of abusing anyone and everyone on the Right who disagrees with him. John McCain has been amply compensated for his honorable military service during the Vietnam War. The Right has paid its debt to him. We’re even.
Published in General
I’d be more sympathetic and understanding if the latest news from Camp McCain didn’t revolve around score settling under the guise of a final dollop of Straight Talk.
@max, are there still things like Insta-lanches or has server technology and bandwidth improved to the point where a large influx of traffic isn’t noticed?
Oh, so that’s what happened yesterday. No, just kidding. I’m sure smaller sites crash when Instapundit links to them, but we only crash when the raccoon in @ejhill‘s chimney blows up the server rack. That coon is a maniac.
There is something to be said for leaving the dead in dignity. John McCain is not dead. There is something to be said for allowing a dignified, peaceful retirement. McCain is neither retired, peaceful nor dignified. There is nothing to be said for giving an attacker the freedom to attack with impunity.
Torture, and I won’t get into the legal weeds of how it’s defined because I’m not a lawyer and don’t play one on the internet, is illegal and has been for quite some time. McCain used his well earned credibility to defame interrogators who used legal techniques. And to demand that interrogation of illegal combatants be conducted using tactics and procedures outlined in Army field manuals, written to comply with the Geneva accords for the interrogation of enemy prisoners of war.
Waterboarding is the “torture” so safe, untrained lefties can do it to each other and not get hurt.
It is so legal, they can do it in public and not be arrested.
It is so safe than Tim Kennedy just added it to his workout routine.
Don’t forget the Keating scandal, during which the party did not throw him to the wolves.
I watched my father die of lung cancer that spread to his brain. My family, including me, knew what he sometimes said at the end was influenced by the ongoing damage to his brain. We still told him when he was being an (self-redacted, but starts with a vowel) and did so up to the point he was no longer conscious. I hold Sen. McCain in no greater esteem than my father. So yes, I reserve the right to call him an (self-redacted), up to the point of death.
Hitler earned an Iron Cross in the trenches of WWI. I believe that qualifies him as a “war hero”.
So, “regardless of their political positions…”
What a terribly snarky post. I hope the author got it out of his system before John McCain passed away.
Past-tense? He’s not dead yet. (You should try to keep up on the news from America.)
Nor has he resigned. He is still a Senator, and while he continues to have an effect on our nation politically, he can be criticized politically.
I thank him for his Naval service 50 years ago, and his heroic endurance of the terrible treatment the Godless communists doled out to their prisoners.
As for his service in the US Senate, it’s an unremarkable political career marked by serial betrayals of his own party and voter base. For this service he doesn’t get a thank you from me. As elsewhere stated, he is a picture perfect example of the need for term limits.
To be fair, unremarkable isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s when things get remarked on that the trouble starts, such as McCain-Feingold.
Really fine summation.
Just so.
I’ve also recently started thinking it’s appropriate to consider the debt paid.
Your wish is granted. Be Happy!
Maybe somebody could in turn write an equally snarky post about someone else. Donald Trump, perhaps.
Definitely scratches the surface of the odd politics of McCain.
It is unfortunate that he has very little idealogy, just seems to like to act the “maverick”, regardless of which people and party he is rebelling against.
In a word, he’s unprincipled on many important issues. He’s problematic on more. He’s good on a few.
It was always the sanctimony and entitlement that bothered me: as an AZ citizen, why else does he remain and office and make a difficult Senate race twice as difficult? He wants the history book to not “he died in office”? It’s simply selfish and frankly ridiculous.
I hope, and I believe it will come to pass, that his place in history will be the valor of his service, and the last decade or two of his life will not be mentioned much. That is the best case scenario for everybody.
Part of the issue is also that Senator McCain chose to become a life long politician. He chose to be in the public eye; he relished his role as “the maverick”. That those of us who take issue with his actions should now be restrained because of his past honorable acts (and they are way in the past – over 40 years ago) is pretty faulty reasoning.
I’m sorry that he has to suffer a painful ending but he sure isn’t going softly into that good night.
I would volunteer, but it was pointed out that my last post on Trump got two likes and 193 comments! Still doesn’t stop me.
Well, this is true to form. Mc Cain and his friends have always taken umbrage at criticism by baiting their opponents into the hero/victim trap.
But Mc Cain is portrayed as more than a hero, he suffered for his country, making him a kind of untouchable victim. Now he’s suffering from a brain tumor and will die soon ( can I say that?). It’s a neat trick. Can’t criticize him because he suffered in war, now we can’t criticize him because he’s sick, and soon we won’t be able to criticize him because he’s dead.
And no one has ever suffered at the political actions ( and non-actions) of John McCain. There can be only one victim in this relationship and it’s McCain.
If I were an angel, I’d grant McCain immortality in exchange for his retirement. But I’m no angel.
McCain is a buffoon.
I’ve been thinking about this comment whenever I see something about McCain, which seems to happen a couple of times a day. What level of deference is owed him?
.
I think his heroism while in uniform needs to be respected. It’s never acceptable for someone to disparage his service, but that doesn’t mean you can’t attack his behavior as a politician. I think that ordinarily if a politician is old and not long for the world, it’s best to try to be charitable and emphasize their history of accomplishments and it’s unseemly to attack them rather than merely citing areas of disagreement.
.
However, it’s usually the case that those people are no longer actively engaged in politics. McCain is still throwing punches, so I don’t think that that applies. Until he withdraws from the scrum, I think that anything that was acceptable to say about him two years ago is still acceptable now. I wish things were otherwise, but I feel like he’s made a choice and instead of focusing on his legacy he’s decided to remain contentious until the very end.
For accuracy’s sake, I would change that one word to contemptuous. Otherwise, a very likable comment.
WE know. Too bad.
John McCain did a great thing in his youth, but he seems to be taking his bitter pettiness to the grave.
The Trump hater scolds people about their opinions of McCain.
For a different point of view I suggest that you read this article:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/28/john-mccains-long-fight
McCain has shown more guts in standing up to Trump than the rest of the Republican Senators combined. He gets more done by twitter than most senators get done by showing up at the Senate. He will be terribly missed.
Just like the guts he showed in standing up to the Tea Party whacko birds