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joeybee12

(56,177 posts) Fri Aug 12, 2016, 12:51 PM Aug 2016

John McCain, nobody's hero

Has anyone in our public life cultivated an image of personal heroism more meticulously than Arizona Sen. John McCain? Soldier's son. Prisoner of war. Torture victim. Ideological maverick. Proud patriot. Honest broker. Champion of the troops. Captain of the Straight Talk Express. Bipartisan truth teller. Advocate for the honor of service and the nobility of sacrifice for a cause greater than the self.

Like pretty much everyone not named Donald Trump, I've long been moved by stories of McCain's suffering in Vietnam and by his seeming candor and courage in politics over the years. But I've also grown weary of seeing him treated like some kind of secular saint when his record over the past decade has mostly been a profile in self-serving cowardice. Again and again, McCain has placed his ravenous personal ambition ahead of the good of the country. In the process, he's done as much as anyone in his party, and far more than most, to advance the cause of the venomous populism that's now taken hold of the GOP.

John McCain, hero? Hardly.

McCain has an admirable distaste for factions of the Republican coalition that peddle poisonous conspiracy theories and actively slander those on the opposite side of the partisan divide. I share that distaste. McCain's willingness to distance himself from those tendencies — calling Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance"; daring to describe Barack Obama as "a decent person" before a rabidly right-wing audience — has always been one of his best qualities.

But it turned out that McCain wasn't so opposed to this sordid way of doing politics that his 2008 presidential campaign swore off such tactics entirely. On the contrary, McCain simply sought to outsource it — to running mate Sarah Palin.

McCain has received far too little blame for single-handedly launching Palin's national political career. There would be no Donald Trump sitting at the head of the Republican Party in 2016 if McCain hadn't chosen Palin to serve as his prospective vice president. That choice placed a cultural populist in the national spotlight for the first time since the era of George Wallace and gave a restive faction of GOP voters a taste of something they would demand with ever-greater intensity over the next eight years: a tribune who would run a campaign fueled entirely on toxic rhetoric and resentment.

http://theweek.com/articles/642401/john-mccain-nobodys-hero

4 replies

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John McCain, nobody's hero (Original Post) joeybee12 Aug 2016 OP

Good article. The Velveteen Ocelot Aug 2016 #1

He withstood 5 years of torture and he's afraid of a narcissistic cheetoh Happyhippychick Aug 2016 #2

Will history look kindly upon him, on his record over not just the last 8 years but specificially OnDoutside Aug 2016 #3

Heros aren't necessarily devoid of fear. anamandujano Aug 2016 #4

The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,719 posts)

1. Good article.

Reply to joeybee12 (Original post)

Fri Aug 12, 2016, 12:58 PM

Aug 2016

McCain must be so addicted to the power and prestige of being a senator that he's willing to sell the last scraps of his integrity down the river in order to keep that job. He's 80 years old; he doesn't need money; he could do the honorable thing and denounce Trump, even if that costs him the election. How pathetic that a guy who claims to value honor won't practice that virtue himself, after all these years. He could do just this one more politically heroic thing, but he won't.

Happyhippychick

(8,379 posts)

2. He withstood 5 years of torture and he's afraid of a narcissistic cheetoh

Reply to joeybee12 (Original post)

Fri Aug 12, 2016, 01:02 PM

Aug 2016

OnDoutside

(19,960 posts)

3. Will history look kindly upon him, on his record over not just the last 8 years but specificially

Reply to joeybee12 (Original post)

Fri Aug 12, 2016, 01:16 PM

Aug 2016

the last year ? As much as we might all dislike Cruz, he had the balls to stick it to Trump. McCain was gallingly insulted by Trump yet crawled in the dirt to endorsed him. That says so much about him, even though most Reps would probably have backed him if he had told Trump where to go.

anamandujano

(7,004 posts)

4. Heros aren't necessarily devoid of fear.

Reply to joeybee12 (Original post)

Fri Aug 12, 2016, 04:15 PM

Aug 2016

As The Velveteen Ocelot mentioned, 80 yrs old, wants to keep his life as it is, being in familiar territory with familiar people in the Senate, with familiar power of course.

He has a lot to lose by breaking rank at this point. Although in the current climate, with people seeing Trump as a madman, not speaking out might work against him. His constituents are most likely very loyal so he can probably call it as he sees it. I don't know.

He's done enough for me to still consider him a hero.

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