Country First: Why John McCain Must Dump Trump - By Joe Conason
“Country first.”
That was the patriotic slogan of John McCain’s presidential campaign eight years ago, uttered by the Arizona Republican to express a higher purpose than partisan, ideological, or career motivations. Behind that brief phrase was the primacy of the nation — not necessarily above family or religion, perhaps, but certainly above party.
It is not an easy ideal to uphold, especially in our polarized national politics. For years the former prisoner of war could claim, more plausibly than most American politicians, that he has tried to live by those words. Not any more.
At the moment, McCain remains among the craven Republican officials who have endorsed Donald Trump for president, even though they know he is unfit to fill that office — and especially the role of commander-in-chief. By now, nobody expects principle above partisanship from GOP leaders like Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan, but McCain was supposed to be different.
One of the earliest signs that Trump is unfit for command, ironically, was his slur of McCain, whom he disparaged for his captivity by the North Vietnamese, in a war that the real estate scion contrived to avoid because of “bone spurs.” When he said, more than a year ago, “I like people who weren’t captured,” he mocked the sacrifice of every soldier who ever suffered in a POW camp.
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http://www.nationalmemo.com/country-first-john-mccain-must-dump-trump/
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