Although the world may be mourning the death of Sen. John McCain, somewhere in the heavens the man known as ‘The Maverick’ is looking down and smiling at the thought: “I did it MY way!”
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John McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, and the senior US Senator from Arizona, passed away on Saturday after surviving an astounding 13 months with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Sen. McCain had been undergoing regular cancer therapies to extend his life, however, he decided on Friday to cease all treatment and to accept the inevitable. He passed away only 24 hours after that courageous decision while surrounded by his wife and family at his home in Sedona, Arizona.
Following his release as a POW in 1973, John McCain dedicated his life to public service and quickly earned a reputation as a powerful and independent voice in the Republican Party. A staunch, old-guard conservative, McCain believed in putting country above party and engaging in political compromise for the greater good. He went on to live his life with that same accommodating approach.
At a 2008 rally during McCain’s run for president, an elderly white woman stood up in the crowd and said: “I can’t trust Obama. I have read about him, and he’s not, he’s not — he’s an Arab.”
A visibly shaken McCain squelched the (pre) Trump-style racism and immediately corrected the woman.
“No ma’am,” McCain said. “He’s a decent family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign is all about.”
During a separate incident on July 28, 2017, Sen. McCain rose out of his sick-bed in Arizona and traveled to Washington to cast the deciding vote NOT to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Because Donald Trump had based his entire candidacy on erasing Obamacare and any and everything President Obama ever did or accomplished, the McCain vote set up a bitter battle between Maverick McCain and “I-Think-I’m-King” Donald Trump.
“He’s a war hero because he was captured,” Trump once said in a war of words with John McCain. “I like people who weren’t captured.”
In his latest book “The Restless Wave,” McCain wrote: “I’m freer than colleagues who will face the voters again. I can speak my mind without fearing the consequences much. And I can vote my conscience without worry.”
Prior to his death, John McCain made all of his own final arrangements his way. In what some may see as a last “dig” at Donald Trump, Maverick McCain refused to resign and lived long enough to force Arizona to replace him via a special election decided by the people — and not with some semi-permanent flunkie chosen by Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey at the influence of Donald Trump.
John Sidney McCain — war hero, Maverick senator, beloved husband and father — lived life his way and left this life only days before his birthday. He was 81.
“We are Americans first, Americans last, Americans always. Let us argue our differences. But remember we are not enemies, but comrades in a war against a real enemy, and take courage from the knowledge that our military superiority is matched only by the superiority of our ideals, and our unconquerable love for them.” – John McCain, during his 2004 Republican National Convention speech
“I hope we can again rely on humility, on our need to cooperate, on our dependence on each other to learn how to trust each other again and by so doing better serve the people who elected us. Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and television and the Internet. To hell with them. They don’t want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood.” – John McCain after voting against the repeal of Obamacare
“To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain ‘the last best hope of earth’ for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.” – John McCain in response to Donald Trump’s world view
Your post is spot on DJ. Well done.
Though I vehemently disagreed with him on foreign policies, John McCain was indeed a true American hero and proud patriot. A real man of integrity and an “imperfect” servant, he absolutely LOVED his country and was willing to sacrifice his ALL for that great love. America.
John McCain, the man and his voice, will surely be missed.
May he Rest in Peace.