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A Wellstone Moment
Eleven days before the 2002 general election, Sen. Paul Wellstone (D–MN), his wife and daughter and five others, were killed in a plane crash while campaigning for re-election. The memorial service held four days later in Williams Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota was a debacle.
First, the Wellstone family demanded that Vice President Dick Cheney not attend. Then the Senate Minority Leader, Trent Lott (R–MS) was met with scattered boos when he entered the arena. After some relatively bland tributes, Wellstone’s campaign treasurer, Rick Kahn, took to the stage. He turned the service into a political rally. He implored everyone to use the tragedy for political gain, especially calling out Rep. Jim Ramstad, a moderate Republican and friend to Wellstone, to ensure a Democratic victory over Norm Coleman.
By the end, there were beach balls being tossed in the crowd (Yes, someone brought a beach ball to a funeral) and thousands of people started chanting “Fritz! Fritz! Fritz!” when Wellstone’s replacement on the ballot, former Vice President Walter Mondale, was shown on the JumboTron. Freed from the constraints by Kahn, Sen. Tom Harkin (D–IA) continued the rally mood. Before it was over, Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura (I) felt compelled to just walk out.
It was, said future Senator Al Franken, the fault of the Republicans. While admitting that “reasonable people of good will were genuinely offended” it was the “manufactured outrage” of the Republicans that made it worse than it was. And perhaps he had a point. The attendees were, in their grief, being honest. There was nothing said the night of Oct. 29 that they didn’t say and believe on the night of October 24th.
Which brings us to the events of this past weekend and the death of Sen. John McCain. On both the left and the right, people who had no use for the man in life have stumbled over themselves to praise him because they believe that in doing so, they can inflict damage on the current occupant of the White House. Unlike the Wellstone incident, this grief-cum-political-statement carries with it the crackle of Confederate currency. A date-filtered Google search confined to the period between the 2008 GOP Convention and the election of Barack Obama shows that both the media and many of his Republican colleagues carried a very different view of the late Senator from Arizona.
In the aftermath of McCain’s passing, I was determined to stay out of it, adhering to the adage of not speaking ill of the dead. But inevitably someone went “there” — that is offering praise to the Senator as a means of going after Mr. Trump. I was excoriated for pointing that out. And I did retreat from the conversation, not due to anything that was said to me, but because it was a work/travel day that kept me offline. But there was nothing I said on Saturday night that I would not have said publicly on the previous Thursday.
Because in the end, John McCain III and Donald Trump are more similar than not: both loutish, both thin-skinned, both convenient with the truth, and both centered on themselves. His life stands a very imperfect vessel to use as a cudgel against another very imperfect man currently on the political stage.
The member that praised one to damn another was undoubtedly sincere and honest in both sentiments, which is more than can be said for the news media. Ten years ago, the same people that were worshiping him over the weekend were savaging McCain as a Nazi. Many on the right are gobbling it up, retweeting, reposting, and generally ignoring the hypocrisy.
In the end, what is more destructive? A brutal and honest “incivility” or false, disingenuous platitudes of the dead crafted to be yielded as a political weapon in the heat of the present moment?
Published in General
Well said, EJ.
I think this is very true. And it shows that in liking one man or the other is not based on reason but on emotion. Personally, I have no issue with that. Emotion is what motivates us all, not reason. What gets us into trouble is when we take an emotional response, cloak it in reason, and then view anyone who disagrees as being irrational.
McCain was a nasty man. I knew that when I voted for him. I voted for him because I thought he was better than the alternative. He lost. I did not then spend time trying to oust, or thinking about ousting the guy who won. I believe in a peaceful transfer of power, and that elections need to follow the rules laid out ahead of time. I am most passionate about that.
I choose civility.
This is dead-on and it is killing this country.
Excellent post, and right on the money.
The shame is that such men are elected and re-elected.
It’s a by-product of the immense and unfettered power of the federal government that “louts” are elected and made our only choices for governing.
I hadn’t thought of the Wellstone Deathrally in years, and I agree wholly with EJ that it’s the kind of gross politicalization we should all avoid. No one looks good using a dead body to flog their opponents, regardless of whose side the body was on in life.
With that in mind, I’ve undone a few retweets I made over the weekend.
I was planning to wait until after the funeral to resume my McCain bashing.
But there is no reason I have to wait to bash those who exploit his death for partisan, political purposes.
Hear Hear – well said EJ
You can do that?
Moderator Note:
Personal attack. Do not call fellow members trolls.I add my kudos. You wrote exactly what I was thinking. The comparisons to the Wellstone fiasco were hard to ignore yesterday when this site was practically spammed with Odes to John McCain, [redacted] who gleefully tried to act like McCain was Marcus Aurelius all of a sudden. I nearly decided to delete my account. Still might. I have no stomach for any of it anymore.
I’m still interested in how anyone found McCain positive for their political objectives or however you want to put it.
The Dims were attacking Bush over Katrina while the storm was still raging. We need to recognize the nature of the Left.
Easy to do – especially when the presence of one person in your political sphere consumes 99.44% of your attention so you only have .56% or your attention left to discuss other things, for example the many problems connected with life of which some of the most popular are, “why are people born?”; “why do they die?”; and “why do they spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches?”
Or, as @garyrobbins has done to even continue to insist that John McCain was a check on the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave even though to do so required that McCain violate a campaign promise. Without having any intellectual capacity left to actually answer the question of what sort of check McCain actually provided.
I’m so relieved that no one has used this thread as occasion to bash fellow members.
You know what they say about talking about a no-hitter when the game is still going on?
Wait, you want this member to join this thread?
What did it say?? I can’t remember.
The redacted word is on the Moderator Note on your original comment.
I was at the airport yesterday and could not avoid the talking heads on airport CNN. They had a random left wing commentator on could not stop extolling the virtues of John McCain and how he so graciously conceded in 2008. She wasn’t even subtle about it — she was drawing a sharp contrast between the evil Donald Trump and the gracious John McCain. I’d love to go back in time to hear what she thought about McCain in 2008 — something tells me she didn’t have such a high opinion of him. I’m with you EJ – wartime hero, for sure. But politically, I had very little use for him. And I can’t tolerate all the commentary about McCain which is not really about McCain. You want to talk about McCain – fine, do it. You want to talk about Trump, or anyone else, go for it. But don’t pretend to be talking about McCain when you are really talking about someone else.
Oh haha duh. Thanks. I see it now.
Just being fair to him. I didn’t want to commit a sotto vocce violation of the Katie rule.
Nailed it EJ.
I’m waiting until Monday if I decide to give my two cents.
Until then we should honor the sacrifice John McCain gave us all with his military service (flying jets over North Vietnam, jet crashes, serious injuries, POW, etc.) and I would not wish a brain tumor on my worst enemy … so you have to give McCain credit for being one tough SOB considering the physical pain the man endured in his life.
Actually, McCain returned to the Senate to vote to proceed, but warned that if the case didn’t go to Committee under regular order, he would vote against the repeal.
However, if I had been in the Senate, I would have voted to repeal the ACA.
We want all members to join in threads! Especially those we disagree with because their sharpen the debate.
Returning to the OP, what Democrats did at the Wellstone Memorial was disgusting and rephrensible. I hope that we never act in such a terrible manner.
It wasn’t passed under regular order. There was no logic here. The ACA is simply a weapon–passed undemocratically with a parliamentary trick–to wipe out employment based insurance while it redistributes like nothing we have ever seen before. (That is from an expert, not me.) It’s never going to be improved or fixed. It has to be wiped out.
Like I said: no logic.
So, no check at all. Got it.
Exactly.
The next system was going to be a form of universal multiplayer, just set up more sensibly. We have no choice. There would be far less socialistic harm (or whatever you want to call it) by wiping out the ACA for some thing new.
McCain, more than any other Senator would have gone nuclear if Trump were to dismiss Mueller. You don’t like any answer, but my answer stands.