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Death, Decency, Humanity, and Politics
Senator John McCain, after suffering a long battle with a brain tumor, finally passed away on August 25, at the age of 81. The Senator was one of the more influential members of the Congress during my lifetime. For both better and worse, his opinion on the policy issues of the day have driven much of the debate in this country for over the last two decades.
This, of course, doesn’t even to begin to describe his sacrifice during the Vietnam War, where he suffered years of torture at the hands of his Vietnamese captors. This was a true American: imperfect, with lots of friends and enemies, but he certainly sacrificed much for the great cause of his nation.
And yet, like everything else in America today, his passing brought up terrible responses of hate, anger, and downright ugliness.
What is unique about McCain, unlike most of the other examples we have seen in recent years, is how bipartisan that hatred truly is. The hate from the far Left mostly originates from anger toward McCain’s aggressive foreign policy stances, which have promoted intervention and war. The hate from the Right originates from several areas, starting with his “disputed” record in Vietnam (from some corners), to his very mixed record as a Republican and conservative, where his “Maverick” status often let to McCain undercutting base conservatives in an attempt to move to the theoretical political middle. The fact that he killed one of Trump’s promised goals, the repeal and replacement of Obamacare, only hardened those feelings.
Both extremes have been very vocal in their giddiness over the news of McCain’s passing. It is unlike anything else we have seen in recent years. Sure, hatred toward Reagan and Thatcher was quite vocal when they passed, but that came from one side of the aisle. McCain’s haters are ironically bipartisan and enthusiastic on both extremes of the political divide.
To compound matters, President Donald Trump isn’t exactly a paragon of virtue on these matters. As always, in his small, petty, thin-skinned way, he did everything possible even in death to belittle McCain. First, he refused to make a sufficient statement on learning of McCain’s passing. After several hours (where can one imagine his staffers pleading with him to put something out publicly) … he expressed condolences to the McCain family, without ever praising McCain himself. This was compounded by the fact that Trump raised the flag over the White House from half-staff, only a day after McCain’s death, which angered many, especially those in the military community. It was only three days later that Trump could bring himself to put out a satisfactory White House statement on the Senator’s passing.
Now, we can write this off as “Trump being Trump.” And frankly, at this late stage, getting angry at Trump’s petty theatrics is probably a waste of time. He is better ignored than focused upon.
But Trump is a mirror on which we might be able to understand the state of the social climate in America as a whole. Many refuse to admit this, but Trump’s actions echo much of our public’s reflexive responses to political disputes these days. And McCain’s death isn’t the only recent example.
The Mollie Tibbetts case comes to mind.
Tibbetts, a University of Iowa student, was kidnapped and murdered a month ago. Her case made national news, as the frantic search for the young woman continued. After finding her body, it was quickly discovered a young local man had committed the crime. The fact that this young man was in the country illegally, however, set off the expected political chain reaction one might expect.
The political Right quickly made Mollie the newest in a line of poster children for the risks of open borders. This, for obvious reasons, had a poor reaction from the media, who quickly attacked conservatives for “politicizing a tragedy.”
To be frank, there is absolutely no question the Right was politicizing a tragedy. The irony is that for the last several years, we’ve been told that politicizing tragedies was precisely what the country needed to fix policy failures at the federal level. Every time a mass shooting has occurred, we’ve heard this refrain … just from the Left instead of the Right.
Clearly, there are political issues involved. These days, when isn’t politics involved? For me, however, this goes back to my concern about the fundamental shattering of basic civility and common decency in American society.
Both McCain’s death and the Tibbetts tragedy highlight how vicious our daily rancor has become, even with the simplest of human interactions. Common decency once dictated that we would, for the briefest of moments, express sympathy to the families who had lost a loved one, and that our personal animosities and political ambitions would be brushed aside, for the greater good.
That commonality of humanity is lacking today.
Politicization of every single facet of life has had massive detrimental repercussions. Conservatives have warned about the ever-encroaching effect of government in our daily lives; we are now seeing some of the real-world effects of this seismic shift, and these reactions are an example of them. The inability to view our political “enemies” as fellow Americans, with some level of common purpose and beliefs, is undermining the very fabric of what it used to be to be an American.
Additionally, using these events as moments to advance political causes is not without some logic, but the tactic is not benign. Tibbetts’ family rightfully pleaded with the nation to avoid using their daughter’s death as a political tool. I fundamentally wish people had heeded that call. But in an era where both sides are adamant about winning the political battle, the feelings of the mourning family seems irrelevant for either political tribe.
There were moments in which we could unite as a country, regardless of party affiliation, policy differences, and general disagreements. The assassination of JFK. The moon landing. The 1980 USA Hockey Gold Medal team. The Challenger explosion. 9/11. We used to be able to come together at those moments and weep or celebrate together.
Smaller tragedies, like those described above, would bring us together for a few moments. Now, they are events that drive us further apart.
Sadly, I am not sure this trajectory can be reversed in the short run. We have become a more coarse, hard-edged society, unwilling to give even the smallest concession to our “enemies,” even at a moment of suffering and weakness. Some hyperpartisans believe showing such empathy at moments of tragedy shows our weakness; the irony is, the lack of showing such emotion is what is undermining our country in the long run.
Eventually, we must ask ourselves: if we are not a society that can come together in any way, even in moments of greatness, sadness, and heartache … what kind of country are we?
Published in Immigration, Politics
This is manifestly untrue.
I accept that McCain had failings. The trouble with the folk who hate McCain see only failings. I saw a man who loved his country, made mistakes, but, most of the times, tried to do the right and honorable thing. There were times he failed in that. He always admitted his failings. And, incidentally, his former wife loved him until the end. I admire that. I think his former wife is a wonderful human being. And I have contempt for those who think they are better people than this woman, and will not forgive what she has forgiven.
I am not sure what this means, Stad. But I try to live in hope. Sure, there are a lot of deplorable people walking around, who never do anything but gripe and complain, and who say terrible things about their fellow Man. But their are good people also, and I am not ready to just give up.
Hi @pradheep-shanker while my own thoughts are perfectly expressed by <span class="atwho-inserted" contenteditable="false" data-atwho-at-query="@chrisb“>@chrisb above, I think the best comment to move forward is this one by @jager. I am very interested to hear your thoughts on his points.
If someone is conservative, I don’t get how he politically netted out in your favor. I don’t see it.
I will expect that you will never speak again of Trump’s character since neither Ivana or Marla have deemed to say bad things about him. That’s a useful benchmark.
That’s right up there with “loved his dog.” Sure, there are people who don’t love their dog, but most do.
The issue is not whether he loved his country, but whether his vision of this country included protecting the individual freedoms of his constituency. By voting down the repeal of obamacare he showed that he favored government, and more precisely his back benching power to derail his personal foes, over the freedoms of the people to buy or not buy a product or service. That’s as thuggish as you can get. He and John Roberts and the other weasels that failed to overturn this abominable law I will curse as long as I live. I think our children will also.
Now extend that courtesy to the ex-wives of the current President.
I was thinking about this. We need leaders that can slow down the socialist impulse, communicate about slowing down the socialistic impulse, improve the fiscal trend, increase people’s choices / options and not (colloquialism) wars and foreign policy. I get why some GOP from some areas are forced to be RINOs but they have to be careful about not spreading it everywhere and inflicting it on everyone.
Exactly. He wasn’t in the same political bind as Merkowski and Collins.
I’m almost certain Obama hit him over the head in 2008 for saying the truth that we need to wipe out employer-based insurance. The fact is that’s what ACA does. They are just lying about it, while it gets a whole bunch of people hooked on Medicaid and other subsidies. We need to switch to an honest and transparent form of universal multiplayer. He was talking about it in 2008.
This is so nausea-inducing.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/28/politics/john-mccain-barack-obama-george-bush-memorial-service/index.html
PJ Media
I just want him to go away. His influence is no longer welcome. I’m so glad we now have a Republican President who will take his own side in a fight.
If it wasn’t for the ACA vote, I wouldn’t have been that sensitive, but libertarians and conservatives have a zillion other issues, obviously.
I understand that Ivana and Marla both have ironclad Non-Disclosure Agreements. They can’t say anything. By contrast, McCain’s first wife Cathy, speaks very highly of him and cares about him. (See “For Whom the Bell Tolls” at about the 1:40 point when it is replayed by CNN.)
And yet they do. Funny that. Maybe, as we have seen with Stephanie Clifford, this thing you call “ironclad” is anything but.
Good. They can move to the blue country if that suits them . . .
I see both good and bad in John McCain. IMHO, McCain’s failings as a politician by far outweigh his goodness as a soldier. I mourn the passing of the soldier . . .
It’s so weird. These people are really, really angry and judgmental, too.
The want propriety and they, in reality, love centralized power for various reasons.
I don’t get why the “conservative” supporters think they are being logical.
I’ll check him @RufusRJones. Thanks.
Both James Lileks and Pete Hegseth know him. He’s like David Horowitz.
Ahem, it’s “sailor.”
I certainly agree that Trump’s insult to McCain during the campaign was rude, and un-Presidential. John McCain had good reason not to like Donald Trump, and I dare say that Donald Trump had good reason to dislike John McCain.
So the two men disliked each other, quite publicly. McCain went so far as to explicitly request that Trump show him no honors in death, when it is customary for the President to do so. He most likely did this expecting that it would create a situation where no matter what Trump did it would create a media frenzy. If Trump honored him, there would have been articles and tweets and other wailing that Trump refused McCain’s dying wish. It was one last stab of enmity.
Trump’s White House showed McCain exactly the honors he was due, to the letter, and no more. To me this seems a reasonable gesture from the unwinnable position that McCain placed Trump in. He did not order anyone else to deny McCain special honors. He could have ordered that all flags across the country be raised to full staff on Monday, but did not. He offered his condolences to the family, without any false praise that everyone would know was anything but heart felt. He left the task of honoring Senator McCain up to McCain’s colleagues in Congress, the Governors of individual states, and the two former Presidents that McCain personally requested attend his funeral and eulogize him.
Apparently he also forbid his former running mate, Gov. Palin, from attending his funeral as well. He’s a petty man.
Ah, so the post death love letters to the country didn’t include his former running mate?
How remarkably small of him.
This alleged statement interested me, so I just looked it up, and came up with this article: https://people.com/politics/sarah-palin-not-invited-john-mccain-funeral/
It was apparently at the behest of Cindy, his widow. She also didn’t want some of his aides there. The article says she is very protective of the late Senator’s image. So, it was not McCain who did this. Why must some people chase this man even past his grave, because they revile him so much? It speaks to what in their soul.
This is a better link to the article………
https://people.com/politics/sarah-palin-not-invited-john-mccain-funeral/
Palin had no business being there. They basically used each other. Palin was classless after McCain gave her the opportunity.