The Passing

A lot has been written on the passing of John McCain.  I think the Washington Post editors perhaps did it best.  They note things in his past that are troublesome - his reluctance to vote to make MLK Day a holiday, his admitted craven stance on the Confederate flag in South Carolina - while noting that what made McCain almost unique among politicians was his frank assessment when he had screwed up.  Politicians are salesmen, and McCain was no exception.  But he also refused to shy away from expressing his disappointment in his own political calculations.

I don't think, for instance, that John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin led to Donald Trump.  The GOP was headed in that direction anyway.  His selection of Palin was representative of that change rather than a driving factor.  His vote against MLK Day is less understandable, beyond the sort of footsie that the GOP has played with racism since Nixon's day.  What's interesting, is that McCain would've likely agreed with that, especially late in his career.

As I wrote on Facebook and Twitter last night, my father and I argued about politics for 30 years, and rarely more heatedly over whether John McCain was really a "maverick" or not.  I don't think I'm wrong in saying that "maverick" was a carefully cultivated media personage, pinned to a few instance when McCain bucked his own party, notably on campaign finance reform.  Just as often, he would fall in line, as he did with MLK Day, the Confederate Flag and regressive tax cuts.

But the week of my father's funeral, McCain strode into the well of the Senate and killed ACA repeal.  I don't know to what degree that was because it violated regular rule of order or because he realized that the ACA was a net positive for Americans.  Regardless, he was one of the few Senators in the GOP who put the welfare of his fellow citizens above party loyalty. 

McCain has been described as a patriot over and over again.  That really is his best epitaph.  I probably disagreed with him 90% of the time, but unlike most Republican politicians, he would act on that 10%.  Unlike the profiles of cowardice like Jeff Flake, Ben Sasse and Bob Corker, McCain put his country first.  His vision and mine differed, but I rarely had cause to think that he would sacrifice his principles to political expediency, and if he did, he sincerely regretted it.

Regret.  What a rare commodity in a powerful man.  How commendable.