John McCain continues on his run of political courage in the wake of his brain cancer diagnosis.
While our neutered president refuses to call out a good percentage of his base — the alt-right, white supremacists, David Duke’s Klan, Vanguard America, and neo-nazi’s of every stripe — John McCain released a powerful statement to Americans where he lets us know exactly where he stands.
While Trump receives his praise from these groups for not calling them out directly while casting additional blame on people protesting racism, McCain directly and unapologetically defines these dangerous Friday casual racists as in opposition to American patriotism.
He demarcates a clear line that Trump tried to blur, and forces the rest of Capitol Hill to wrestle with their fear of standing up against this present danger.
McCain the Maverick is fighting both the cancer threatening his life and the cancer threatening America.
Here is his August 12 statement regarding the white supremacist convergence in Charlottesville, Virginia —
“Our Founders fought a revolution for the idea that all men are created equal. The heirs of that revolution fought a Civil War to save our nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to that revolutionary proposition.
Nothing less is at stake on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, where a violent attack has taken at least one American life and injured many others in a confrontation between our better angels and our worst demons.
White supremacists and neo-Nazis are, by definition, opposed to American patriotism and the ideals that define us as a people and make our nation special.
As we mourn the tragedy that has occurred in Charlottesville, American patriots of all colors and creeds must come together to defy those who raise the flag of hatred and bigotry.”