Things move pretty quickly on the internet, so it’s no surpise that I’ve been beaten to the punch so far as McCain debunking goes. Here’s a pretty definitive account of his life.
It’s not surprising that we’re being treated to waves of adulation by the mainstream press. He self branded himself a “maverick” in 2000, and the press went with that until the day he died. To this day, it’s hard to see anything very mavericky in his career. He sponsored a reasonably good campaign finance bill until it became politically inconvenient for him, at which point he changed his position. He voted to preserve Obamacare, but that wasn’t out of any principle; he did it because he hated Trump. That’s laudable, I suppose, but he helped pave the way for Trump by introducing Sarah Palin to a wider world. Oh, and he never heard of a war that he didn’t want to fight.
The press loved him because they could use him to support their “both sides” narrative, though their own use of him belied that narrative completely. He was on the Sunday shows almost every week, a courtesy extended to exactly no Democrats. Despite massive evidence to the contrary, he was constantly cited as an independent minded Republican motivated by high principles.
It’s nice that he detested Trump, but that’s not so very hard to do, and like exactly all the other Senate Republicans (other than his Obamacare vote) he did exactly nothing to really oppose him. His myth endured to the last. As late as last week (not knowing his death was so imminent) there were those on the left who were spinning scenarios in which McCain would help prevent Kavanaugh’s confirmation. When push came to shove, McCain had only slightly more gutsy independence than Susan Collins.
Still, it’s nice that one of his last acts was an insult to Donald Trump. Perhaps we can say of him, what was said of Macbeth’s predecessor Thane, that “ Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it.”
Post a Comment