When I heard John McCain had an aggressive brain tumor removed and was returning to Capital Hill to continue his service as a senator, I figured maybe things might be different.
There’s nothing like the potential death sentence of brain cancer to help refocus and prioritize your life.
I theorized that maybe McCain would reach way down into the same heroic and rebellious nature that has characterized his “maverick” reputation and bring it back to the surface.
He has always had tremendous respect, but the day he accepted Sarah Palin as his VP running mate, well, he lost much of that hard-earned credibility.
The GOP made a calculated move with that VP pick that signaled a loss of clarity and purpose that continues unabated to today, and John McCain willingly allowed his emasculation at the hands of a party that put it’s own desires above that of the people.
• • • • • • •
He began his campaign to regain his political sanity right after his surgery, publicly stating that the Republican attempts to repeal and replace the ACA were futile and misguided, strongly imploring that they consider going back to what real democracy is about and bringing in the Democrats to hammer out a bipartisan solution to the shortcomings of Obamacare.
In the early hours of this morning, the maverick McCain rode once again and defied the twisted will and logic of his party, siding with senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins who stuck to their guns and said no to Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Party of Destroy Obama’s Legacy time and again. He threw his lot in with the two courageous women who were being vilified and abused publicly by their fellow GOP leaders for not toeing the Party line.
McCain’s vote was the one that killed the madness that we have seen play out on the screen daily. His vote told America that there MUST be more important things going on in Washington than hollow victories which benefit no one and damage millions.
This is the American patriot John McCain, who while holding a rally during his presidential campaign, calmly corrected an ignorant woman who said “I don’t trust Obama, he’s an Arab”. He shook his head no, grabbed the mic and famously said “No, ma’am, he's a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with.”
He was roundly booed for standing up for Obama and respectful dialogue.
This is the American patriot John McCain who spent 5 1/2 years languishing in a Viet Cong prison as a fighter pilot POW, being tortured more times than he can remember. A man whom Donald Trump said was “no hero because heroes don’t get captured.”
A man who gave his all and more on behalf of our country and our freedoms.
Freedoms that our current draft-dodging, serial lying, Putin-loving, billionaire paranoiac in chief is quickly stripping away from those he was elected to serve.
The maverick John McCain is back and let’s pray he sticks around for a while longer.
Lord knows we need American patriots like him and senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins in Washington.