McCain--A Hero, and a Maverick Manqué, Revised & Reprinted

McCain--A Hero, and a Maverick Manqué

            In describing John McCain as a Maverick Manqué several days ago I checked the derivation of manqué and saw that it once meant lame-handed. I do not mean to be punning lightly about McCain’s brutal treatment in captivity and the crippling aftereffects. At his best, McCain was straight and honest, but it needs to be said that whatever happened under that mesquite tree in Arizona after he received the nomination for President in 2008 was one of the worst things that ever happened to this country. Out there, we hear, he offered Sarah Palin the chance to run for Vice President. That "under the mesquite tree" moment led to the shamefully named Tea Party (what an insult to the men of 1773!), led to lurking racism being stirred up in white Evangelicals, and led, quite directly, to Donald Trump’s Presidency with his attacks on (to name a few) the environment, immigrant families, the separation of powers, and freedom of the press. No principled hesitation about Republican policy later on, no mumblings and grousings about where other Republicans were headed, no maverick stands—nothing good that he did--could stop the consequences of that decision to make that offer to so incompetent and erratic and, it became clear, hate-filled a candidate for high office. In choosing her, McCain legitimized ignorance and racial hatred—and, it turned out, greed. No one should have to suffer as McCain did in North Viet Nam. No one should suffer the way he did in his last years. He was a hero, but not a real maverick. A real maverick makes the right stands and keeps making the right stands. McCain was a hero, yes, but he was a maverick only now and then, and not always when it would have counted most. We should remember him as he was.