The John McCain Character Test
Author’s Note: Sen. John McCain passed away on August 25th, after the original posting of this article. He was 81.
Arizona Senator John McCain, after battling brain cancer for over a year and at age 81, has released a statement that he will no longer seek medical treatment for his illness.
“Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: he had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious,” McCain’s family said in a statement. “In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival.”
“But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict,” the family statement continued. “With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment. Our family is immensely grateful for the support and kindness of all his caregivers over the last year, and for the continuing outpouring of concern and affection from John’s many friends and associates, and the many thousands of people who are keeping him in their prayers. God bless and thank you all.”
From being the son and grandson of legendary naval admirals, to an officer and war hero in his own right, to three decades in the US Senate representing Arizona, John McCain’s bio is very full. There is also a long history of contentious politics, personality traits, personal issues, and very public moments. The Senator has spent more of his life in the public spotlight than not, and his daughter Meghan’s high-profile in media daily on The View continues such notice.
Especially in the social media age, John McCain has been a lightening rod of differing opinion. His very public battles with President Trump in recent memory, and his “maverick” habit of crossing the aisle and criticizing his own party frequently, cause many to have strong opinions. John McCain’s 60 years of public service will leave a long and complex legacy that historians, pundits, and people can pick over and interpret for years to come.
But today, and in what appears to be the decreasing number days left for John McCain, that shouldn’t matter all that much.
Before all the other descriptors and honorifics, John McCain is a man. Like all men, no matter those titles and accomplishments, death comes and is no regarder of person. He has a family that loves him, and is no doubt trying to cherish the small hours during this difficult time.
John McCain’s legacy, good, bad, and indifferent, is now set. His character is known by a long and very public life and established history.
What isn’t established is how we conduct ourselves about it on social media and elsewhere. There is a time and place for political and personal criticism, sometimes very harsh criticism, and John McCain was no shrinking violet over the course of his career. But today and the days to come are not time for that. We do not have to exaggerate or lie about the greatness of a dying man, nor do so at his funeral and memorials as is often the case. But we can show dignity and grace for a human being that is at the end, and honor a life of service to his country even if we don’t agree with every detail of that service. We can support the family with thoughts, prayers, and a bit of restraint and dignity online and elsewhere.
John McCain himself seems to be good with this level approach, as quoted by Jake Tapper:
TAPPER: I hope I don’t run this clip for another 50 years. But how do you want the American people to remember you?
MCCAIN: He served his country and not always right. Made a lot of mistakes. Made a lot of errors, but served his country. And I hope we could add honorably. https://t.co/l2knunQKzU
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 24, 2018
We can honor John McCain-the veteran, the senator, the man-on whatever level you like. But politically or personally motivated vitriol is a failure of character on the part of the one spewing it, and has no effect on John McCain one way or the other. Let history, and our opining, wait a while.
I was a big fan of McCain in his 2000 campaign and had my heart broken when he dropped out of the race. My relationship with him became more complicated when he ran in 2008 but I will still be sorry to see him go. We need more men like him in the government.Report
I’ve no need to wait until he’s gone, and on the trivially small chance that he reads these remarks they may do him some good while he’s still here.
Whatever disagreements I might have with him on a political level, whatever reputation for irascibility he may have acquired on The Hill, whatever his personal faults…
He’s earned my respect and admiration as a politician, a military man, and an American. Would that we had more like him, now and in the future.Report
Well saidReport
+100Report
Yeah, I thought he was a pretty good Senator, correcting for the fact that he played for the other team and had extremely bad ideas about FP. All in all, he was wrong within normal parameters, and less wrong than quite a few of his colleagues.
I was never quite sure whether he was genuinely principled, or just erratic and easily irritated… but for a Senator, that’s a rare puzzle, and one which in its own way, is to his credit.Report
Cosigned. If modern republicans bore even a remote resemblance to him things would have gone very differently.Report
I have respect for McCain for the 5 1/2 years he was a POW.
The other 75 1/2 years? Meh.Report
Here’s a relevant section from Slate Star Codex’s “I can tolerate anything except the outgroup.”
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…Wow. FTP.Report
> John McCain’s legacy, good, bad, and indifferent, is now set. His character is known by a long and very public life and established history.
From 1987 to 2015, McCain voted with the Republican Party 87 percent of the time on party-line votes. Not much of a maverick nor independent thinker. Established history, not media hype.
He folded faster than Superman on laundry day in 2000 when the specter of a non-white illegitimate child loomed over the primaries in South Carolina. A man of character would’ve owned up to it, whether at the time of conception or the time he was called out by opponents.
More recently, McCain voted in line with the POTUS more often than not. So much for him being adversarial to the President’s politics.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/john-mccain/
At best, McCain is loyal. To his party. But principled? Yes, if the causes are conservative. As for the American people, he’s just another politician trying to stay in Washington rather than changing the world.
I don’t like the guy but I don’t wish death on him, before nor after his diagnosis. Folks need to take off the veteran-colored glasses, tinted with the tragedy, and stop trying to shame people who continue to point out McCain’s not all ponies and kittens.
An aside, and similarly disgusting, are liberals blindly celebrating McCain. If they always thought he was the bee’s knees, how come they didn’t give McCain a landslide victory in ’08? Then again, how bright can someone be if they get their information through celebrities retweeting news on Twitter?Report
These scores of “how often X votes with Trump or the GOP” are next to meaningless though. Most legislation is uncontroversial or at least well within established party doctrine. And left out of your “McCain votes with Trump” is that he has voted with Trump the fourth least of any GOP senator, only better than Paul, Murkowski, Lee and and Collins.Report
FWIW, All Senate votes are not equal, and you could argue on the biggest when the spotlight was most on McCain, and literally right in front of Mitch, he very publically voted no and against the President and party. Report
Agreed.Report
Um, there was no such child? It was a rumor based on the fact that one of his (adopted) children is Bangladeshi.
I have my share of problems with him, which overlap with yours, but I don’t think it reflects badly on him that he was a victim of a reprehensible smear campaign[1] in South Carolina in 2000.
[1] Just as repugnant, IMO, was the concurrently running smear that said he was mentally unfit as a result of his experience as a POW.Report
Smear campaign run by the Christian Coalition and Karl Rove. Trump did not come out of nowhere.Report
RIP John S. McCain III.
I didn’t agree with the man’s politics at all but this is still hitting me harder than I would have thought.Report
I have a very strong dissent here. Does anyone remember that in the 1990s McCain went around telling this “joke” at Republican fundraisers?
“Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father.”
What outstanding character we have there, making fun of a child. I don’t know how or why the media started labeling John McCain as a very serious man of integrity or fortitude or character. I don’t know how or why we decided to go along with it. But I think these performative dances and pompous declarations of tests of character are to our detriment.
McCain had some good ideas. McCain-Feingold was good but he was not a saint to be put on a pillar. I think there is a pernicious lie that we like to tell ourselves regarding politics and that is that deep down we all want the same things but have different ways of getting there. I don’t think this is true at all. But we want it to be true and we falsely elevate some people up for maverick status despite all evidence otherwise.
If this means you think I failed a test of character, so be it.Report
I remember that joke. And other very unflattering tidbits about him. I’m not a big fan.
But I also respect and acknowledge his service and his stronger attributes. On the occasion of his death, I focus on the redeemable.Report
No, not at all. The idea of the piece is the folks that just rejoice in the death of the man over whatever their pet politics or issue is. The purpose is not to canonize a complicated legacy like McCains. You lay out a reasoned position based on things that happened, and judge the man accordingly. That is how it should be. Report
@andrew-donaldson @em-carpenter
Perhaps so but I have become deeply cynical over the past few years and I can’t help thinking that there is an ulterior motive to these performstive dances. A large part of the ulterior motives is to clamp down on the discontents and dissenters for the age.
Like many people of my political affiliation, I feel like we live in an age of deep income and wealth economy and I am someone who is doing pretty well! Yet even I can see that there is spiraling inequality that is only getting worse. I also feel like there is an elite chattering class of people whom see politics and policy as more of a thing for whom politics is a game. Mainly because they will never suffer adverse consequences. This group might be pro-choice for example but will pretend that Brett Kavanaugh won’t gut Roe because their access to abortion is never going to be in doubt.
I can’t remember the name but a book came out recently about this class of the elite. They are the Aspen and Davos set and they will do anything to reduce income and wealth inequality except the things that will reduce income and wealth inequality because actual policies that help hurt their prerogatives and privileges. But maybe a performative dance requirement can keep the discontents at bay or outside the fortress they have erected.
So when I read all the insiders making statements about how criticizing McCain is s failure of character, it makes me wonder how sincere they are or if it is just a hurdle against the dissenters to their status.
I get why people dislike Gawker and Splinter. They can be abrasive and writers like Hamilton Nolan can have a self-righteous streak too. I can often be turned off by his tone. At the same time their absolute refusal to do performative dances is refreshing.Report
Again, just to clarify, my point of the piece was not canonizing or specifically insisting we should laud McCain in particular (note it was written before he died on Sat). My idea here was how people react and politicize something like a death based on their filters, and that the political filter needs to be turned down when it comes to things like death, in my opinion. To me, using someone’s pending death and protracted illness is something that we can make a basis of judgement on how they conduct themselves. Death is the commonality of all mankind, and we should be able to treat it with some shared humanity.Report
I’m torn here.
I share a lot of @saul-degraw ‘s policy preferences and partisanship, and I definitely think he’s partly right about the idea that demands for civility, especially as extended to high profile elected officials like McCain, can come across as hypocritical, and designed to chill dissent.
And that doesn’t really change all that much after someone dies. The argument for being more civil and forgiving is stronger on the merits, I think, but it doesn’t mean it stops being used in disreputable ways by disreputable people.
But I also think it’s not coincidental at all that Trump is (sigh, of course) being a petty jerk about McCain’s death, and that “acolytization” (sorry) you were writing about last week has been running alongside a process where old pieties and norms fall by the wayside. It makes me think that maybe there’s something worth holding onto here.Report
I just don’t think the issue is worth any consideration at all, myself. McCain dies. People say all sorts of things about him, more than merely honoring “his death”. They write that he was an X and a Y, and then other people write that he was actually a f***ing Z, to bring some reality back into it.
People should respect death for the finality that it is, I guess. I just don’t know what the means other than telling tales of how people lived. (Moment of silence??? Sure. Take a moment….)Report
@pillsy @andrew-donaldson
FWIW, I think that the best tactic is what Slate is doing where they explore McCain’s complicated legacy:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/one-moment-that-sums-up-what-was-admirable-and-dangerous-about-mccains-worldview.html
This is better than the Hagiography I see on CNN and the Atlantic and also the pure brutal take-downs of the former Gawker set.Report
AgreeReport
Yeah, this is pretty much my take.
McCain was a complex man, and had moments of nobility and honr as well as moments of failure.
We don’t need to ignore his faults to remember his better moments.Report
@saul-degraw
I respect Senator McCain, not for being perfect, but for dedicating himself to a life of public service, for withstanding public scrutiny at the highest level and for spending a career trying to find compromise. He never hid his opinions behind an alias and there is something to be admired there. The man forgave his captors for years of torture, and even in death you’re still blame him for a joke told in poor taste.
Ugh.Report
Appealing to the better angels of our nature:
“John McCain and i were members of different generations, came from completely different backgrounds, and competed at the highest level of politics. But we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher-the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed. We saw our political battles, even, as a privilege, something noble, an opportunity to serve as stewards of those high ideals at home, and to advance them around the world. We saw this country as a place where anything is possible – and citizenship as our patriotic obligation to ensure it forever remains that way.
“Few of us have been tested the way John once was, or required to show the kind of courage that he did. But all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own. At John’s best, he showed us what that means. And for that, we are all in his debt. Michelle and I send our heartfelt condolences to Cindy and their family.”
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