Since his death last Saturday, I’ve stayed pretty quiet about John McCain and the legacy he left behind, but wanted to share a few of my own thoughts about that legacy. With 60 years of public service, which included 5 1/2 years as a POW in Hanoi, McCain certainly earned every bit of respect he’s now receiving by millions around the world. He was a creature of the Republican party, but also stood against that party many times, especially when it was dead wrong and pushing some idiotic or cruel policy that helped no one except its base of bigots and special interests. That part of John McCain I’ll miss greatly.
Having said that, there is one huge stain on his legacy for which I’ll never forgive him. When he he ran for the presidency in 2008, McCain abandoned the straight talk express and, as Stephen Colbert aptly put it, “climbed onto the the crazy train”. Remember that? McCain, always known for common sense and a fierce adherence to the truth, starting ranting like a teabagger and social warrior trying to get the base behind him instead of Romney (who was doing the same thing), and ideologues Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. It was shameful. But the worst thing he did after winning the nomination? He gave a voice and a face to the Know-Nothing Idiotic Wing of the Republican party by naming Sarah Palin to the ticket. That one action opened the floodgates to a tsunami of bullshit, lies, and coded racist rants that the fringes of the party lapped up like spilled Boone’s Farm on a dance hall floor. My God, what a disaster. Palin would spout word salad about “death panels” or “palling around with terrorists”, and all of a sudden the airwaves were full of it. Literally. She inflicted a new low of stupidity and falsehood never before seen in American politics.
McCain gave the alt-right exactly what we didn’t need, which was a megaphone that has metastasized into the slow motion train wreck that now assaults our senses on a daily basis. The GOP bears no resemblance to the business and freedom friendly party of the last half of the 20th century, having morphed into a Russian-loving, fascist movement that actually believes that Trump is some God-fearing messiah rather than the spray painted, hair weaved, lying shitbag that is reality. The GOP of Lincoln is dead and has become the Trumpist Party which gushes about the beauty and grace of the nude model from Slovenia who is now the First Lady, and actually believes that the FBI, CIA, Justice Department, Homeland Security, and all non-Trumpists are corrupt conspirators out to get him. They believe his denials about Russian interference in our elections and his campaign’s involvement in it, and support the convicted criminals who ran his campaign while refusing to honor McCain, who ironically paved the way for this rot that is coming from the head.
In total, McCain’s 60 years of public service is not totally negated by his selection of Palin, but that decision surely did a tremendous amount of damage to our country that will take decades to reverse (if ever), and history will not look kindly upon it.
There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.