Tribute to Senator John McCain

Tribute to John McCain

A principled conservative largely in the tradition of Barry Goldwater, Senator John McCain was also a foreign policy hawk who took a strong stance in the war against Islamic extremism.  He made a sharp distinction between that subculture, which he viewed as a small, but influential minority within Islam, and the much larger numbers of moderate Muslims within the U.S., in the Mid-East and throughout the world.  He supported George W. Bush’s request to Congress in the fall of 2002 to authorize the president to use force against Iraq at his discretion.  His backing was mirrored by notable Democrats such as John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, a position I opposed at the time because I interpreted Bush’s Iraqi policy as provocatively focused on either going to war without actual provocation or forcing Hussein’s abdication of power for reasons that I discerned as largely false.  I viewed his selection of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential candidate in 2008 a singularly irresponsible move that would have placed the underprepared Governor of Alaska one heartbeat away from the presidency.  While I had no intention of voting for him based on my own political affiliation, his impulsive decision to put Palin on the ticket sealed for me any thought that McCain was prepared to assume the presidency.  It is notable that the Senator viewed his decision to pander to the GOP’s right wing in selecting her a mistake and regrets not putting on his ticket the immeasurably more qualified—though in my view, policy flawed—Sen. Joseph Lieberman.

As one politically rooted in the liberal political culture that gave shape to the New Deal, the Great Society, and the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War Movements, I took issue with most of Sen. McCain’s policies. I supported the imperfect, but important, multi-national agreement with Iran to drastically curtail that nation’s nuclear weapon capability initiated by President Obama, which the Senator opposed, and his one-sided support of Israel that gave short shrift to authentic Palestinian interests. Notwithstanding sharp differences with him on many facets of policy, I viewed him as a person of high moral character as exemplified during the 2008 presidential campaign when he gently rebuked one of his supporter for characterizing then Senator, Barack Obama as “an Arab.”  Taking the high ground, the Senator referred to his opponent as a decent man, one with whom he simply disagreed on matters of policy.  At his gracious concession speech at end of the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator McCain gave high praise to president-elect Obama.

Senator McCain’s service in Vietnam with high distinction, particularly his five-and one-half year captivity in Hotel Hanoi, as the notorious POW prison was called, which elevated him to the category of hero of the first order even if he did nothing else in life. Thanks to his fortunate survival when his plane being shot down, the lack of proper medical care that left him permanently crippled, we learned of the choice he made for which he will be forever hailed. Knowing that Captain McCain was the son of a navy admiral, the prison authorities offered him release after a year in captivity. Duty prevented him from exercising that option if it meant that those who were captured earlier would remain imprisoned.  He manifested political greatness in working with Senator John Kerry, another Vietnamese war veteran of high distinction, and President Clinton in bringing about US-Vietnamese reconciliation in the effort to heal the many wounds, both domestic and foreign, caused by the war.  For those who knew him best, it would come as no surprise that one of his captors offered his heartfelt condolences to the McCain family for their painful loss at the senator’s death.

While John McCain’s efforts to pass bi-partisanship legislation on campaign reform and comprehensive immigration reform did not rise to the level of the heroic, these bi-partisan policies reflected a temperament: one where compromise is needed to solve important problems.  Without compromise only combative polarization remains. McCain found a like-minded soul in Joe Lieberman and they joined forces in a bi-partisan effort on several issues.  Such teamwork unfortunately failed politically, as efforts to pass meaningful legislation to address the threat of climate change failed due largely to the political fundamentalism of the Republican right wing. Whether met with success or failure, Senator McCain continued his bi-partisan initiatives with Senators Kerry, Feingold, Lieberman, and Kennedy, as well as his long-held friendship with Vice President Biden that exemplified a type of political statesmanship sorely missing in the current congress and clearly lacking in the current administration.

In this current era, McCain’s call for regular order, referring to the procedures and processes that have traditionally governed the Senate, including well-structured committee meetings and the search for bi-partisan support, was a breath of fresh air sadly absent under the myopic direction of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.  As stated in an NPR article by Ron Elvin, regular order “is not only a process, it is also a state of mind. It implies not only procedures but also a presumption of at least some degree of bipartisanship.” 

In a 2017 speech, McCain entreated Senate members to “trust each other.” In calling for a return to regular order, the Senator noted, “we’ve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle.”  The result is constant bickering, further polarization, and failure to establish stable legislation needed to realize long-term national objectives such as comprehensive immigration reform that McCain, George W. Bush, and moderate Republicans have pursued with Democrats that have gotten derailed mostly by ideological congressional zealots of the political right.

Well done Senator McCain. You have lived a most exemplary life. You have fought the good fight in life and in death.  May your legacy of service, honor, and commitment to this nation’s highest values endure in these most troubling times.

2018


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