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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
So McCain was a bad judge of character and chose his running mate poorly? Good thing he lost that election, I suppose. Can’t even choose a running mate.
But that running mate was the only thing that saved his campaign, so he ruined his campaign by quitting it just weeks before the election. A pox on him. How many horrible decisions and character flaws must a man do for people to see that he has no redeeming value? Oh, except maybe he likes his dog, and his child, and his wife, so long as she isn’t mangled.
But it does undercut the moral high ground people supporting McCain had for not inviting Trump to the funeral, since that was based on Trump’s demonstrability tactless comments about McCain and his time as a POW.
People on the right pleaded with Palin to come out against McCain when he said or did something that angered the right side of the Republican Party in the years since 2008, and she never did. So based on that, it’s not so much whether you were tactless and insulting towards the Senator, it was simply if you held a political position within the Republican Party that was at odds with the Senator that determined whether or not you were welcomed at the funeral (and while the Palin ban might be more due to the family than to McCain himself, the optics still undercut their position when Palin isn’t even invited while Obama is one of the speakers).
@davesussman should also try to snag Todd Starnes, if he can. Starnes keeps an eye on things affecting religion, and he might have some insights on this big leftist push to neuter Christianity.
I disagree. Sarah Palin is what we would call “homespun class”. She gave McCain the much-needed lead for his limp, campaign pencil . . .
So Cindy didn’t even read his love letter to the nation? Guess I am not alone then.
By violating the spirit and intent of his last message(s) to the nation.
O.K. I’m not very up on all of this. I thought she took some shots at him related to the campaign. I know someone took shots at somebody.
I wonder who could have beaten Obama.
Nicole Wallace sucks, BTW.
I agree with that completely, except she wasn’t classless about McCain; she was classless after the election by resigning and going for the dough. But whether it was Cindy or himself (I feel sure he was a-okay with letting her take the expected criticism), McCain had already voiced publicly his regret for having had Palin as his running mate. There was no need to do that except he wanted to be remembered as not a whack-o Republican even though he totally went there by choosing her (and think he would have gone absolutely nowhere with (the venerable Joe) Lieberman as his VP pick: can anyone say Gore-Lieberman?)
Edited after posting.
Again, I don’t remember the details of this stuff as well as I should. I defer to others, but it’s an issue.
Hi, Rufus. Please see how I edited my original post, above, which was written before your earlier comment.
They were $500,000 in debt from legal bills. George Soros ran an operation against her. She beat 14 out of 15 charges or whatever you want to call it. There was a $7 million book offer. I have no problem with what they did.
I see I didn’t have to talk about this at all.
A bunch of big shots in the GOP were going to cover it for them when she got out of office or something. In my opinion you have to take the no risk option, but I’m not an expert on any of this stuff.
Not wanting to argue with you and Instugator, but what legal bills? George Soros helped broadcast the critical meme about Palin’s wardrobe purchases, but I don’t know about any legal actions taken against her before or during the election, which was in November, and she resigned the following June. I know several reportedly frivolous suits were filed against her once she was back in Juneau. She said one reason for resigning was because she didn’t want state business to suffer from the sideshow. I like Sarah Palin, and I think in recent weeks, when he knew he was dying, McCain publicly treated her like someone he could simply dismiss. And I’m happy for her to make money from the election. But resigning went against her rep for being a fierce mama bear for her state, especially since her own media sideshow soon followed.
Yeah, that never felt right. Something else was going on. Perhaps it was her son’s needs?
The frivolous ethics investigations in Alaska did two things to her and her family. They caused her to run up legal bills to defend against them (Alaska did not permit the use of state funds to defend the Governor against these complaints) as well as detract from the business of running the state.
So she resigned to earn the money to pay the legal bills and to free up the executive to run the state.
They had a $500,000 personal tab. It was after the election. That is my understanding.
Disagree. There was no way she could get back into politics after what McCain and the MSM did to her. As governor, she was under constant attack for misusing her office. I’m sure as the attacks got more personal on herself and her family, she decided the best revenge is to do what everyone does – write a book, make public appearances, stay involved in politics but not as a candidate, “going for the dough”.
No, Sarah was all class, McCain was all crass . . .
I’m not sure anyone could have . . .
Trump would have.
I disagree with that decision. Palin should have been invited.
If Obama could have run for a third term, yes.
It was my understanding that while she was governor, the State of Alaska picked up the court costs for anyone filing suit against her. And there were suits. Note that the link to the AP list of suits generates a 404 error, due no doubt to the high cost of bits. Of the 18 that had been filed at the time of the writing of that article, 15 had been resolved, and somehow if she had lost one of them, I’m sure we would have heard all about it.
People Magazine, that bastion of decency and journalistic integrity, was somehow made aware that not only was Sarah not invited, she was asked to stay away. They asked her for her response:
Thus doth class vanquish crass.
Alaska did not permit state funds to be used for defense of those allegations. The legal form of a heckler’s veto