John McCain

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Dr. Malcolm Cross

The news that Senator John McCain has brain cancer has elicited a wide range of reactions across the political spectrum.  He’s won praise for showing the sort of courage in the face of adversity that once won him the Congressional Medal of Honor for enduring five years of torture at the hands of his Communist captors after being shot down during the Vietnam War, as well as best wishes and hopes for a safe and speedy recovery.  Former President Obama tweeted, “John McCain is an American hero & one of the bravest fighters I’ve ever known.  Cancer doesn’t know what it’s up against.  Give it hell, John.”  Even President Trump, who once questioned McCain’s heroism, has telephoned McCain to wish him a full recovery.  His White House spokeswoman, Sandra Huckabee Sanders, apparently implying Trump has changed his mind on McCain, said, “We know that [McCain] will bring that unflappable spirit to his latest challenge.”

But some folks at my end of the political spectrum have been less supportive.  His 2016 primary opponent has suggested McCain resign from the Senate and the governor of Arizona consider appointing her to replace him.  And one member of the Republican National Committee has expressed the hope that he die.  Promptly.

How to account for these reactions?

The best explanation is that John McCain, a self-described “maverick,” has antagonized too many folks on the right with his independence—an independence which has at times led him to work with liberal Democrats to try to achieve policy goals which many conservatives oppose. 

For example, working with Ted Kennedy, John McCain advocated reforms in health care and immigration policy.  With John Kerrey, he worked for reconciliation with Vietnam.  And with Russell Feingold, a liberal former Senator from Wisconsin, McCain authored the McCain-Feingold Act, one of the most misbegotten and ill-informed attempts at campaign finance reform ever attempted.

The opprobrium McCain has attracted is unwarranted and undeserving, for several reasons.  First, it obscures the fact that more often than not McCain has reliably supported Republican efforts to limit abortion, to build up America’s armed forces, and to place more originalists on the Supreme Court.  Moreover, despite the fact that when McCain shows his maverick side his policy initiatives—especially those concerning campaign finance reform—can be quite questionable, his efforts actually reflect decent impulses which, if shown by more of his colleagues, might make governance far better, in Washington and throughout the American political system.

One such impulse was to try to work constructively with the Democrats rather than simply demonize them and refuse to have anything to do with them.  Although his attempts to work with Kennedy, Kerrey, and Feingold produced results at best questionable, he at least saw them as fellow patriots working for what they thought was best for America, rather than simply as scoundrels out to enhance their own power. 

Another impulse was to separate personalities from policies, even when agreement on policies was impossible.  For example, in 2008, when McCain was accosted by someone at one of his rallies who said that Obama was an “Arab,” McCain famously replied, “No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about.”

In these days of intense and bitter political strife, John McCain’s example should not be underrated, ignored, or ridiculed.  Perhaps if more Republicans (and more Democrats) showed his willingness to reach across party lines to achieve results or at least a better understanding of each other, more progress could be made on health care, tax reform, and other pressing issues.  Or perhaps not.  But where would be the harm of trying?

In the meantime, let’s recall that regardless of what we think of John McCain’s politics, he did win the Medal of Honor for refusing to knuckle under to Communist torture in Vietnam.  The Communists wanted to release him early from captivity, thinking that his early release would demoralize American forces since his father, an admiral, was commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater from 1968 to 1972.  McCain’s refusal to let himself become a propaganda tool, and his insistence that he remain in prison until every POW captured before him was released, earned him five years of torture.  That should be enough to justify our best wishes for him as he copes with his latest challenge, shouldn’t it?

Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville and taught politics and government at Tarleton since 1987. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990 to the present).  He was Mayor Pro Tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014.  He is a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and the Stephenville Rotary Club, and does volunteer work for the Boy Scouts of America. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.

2 Comments

    • Right you are. Thanks for the update. I’ll note this on the websites where my article appears.

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