John McCain, deconstructed

Kent Anderson
Jul 27, 2017 · 3 min read

Back when I played wheelchair basketball, I had a shirt that said “You can talk the game, but can you play the game?” It means that we are all talkers, but when it comes to backing up that talk, well, that’s another story altogether. And I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.

John McCain can talk. He can talk about values, sacrifice, honor and standing up for what’s right — and then do the exact opposite. Like calling out Jerry Falwell and then going to Liberty University seeking votes. Or, most famously, calling out a lady in Minnesota in the waning days of 2008, grabbing the microphone from her after she “didn’t trust” Barack Obama and that he was “an Arab.” “No, ma’am, he’s a decent family man with whom I have different policy views on the direction of the country.” Then barely shield his contempt and outright hatred for the man who defeated him. Or, how he ‘suspended’ his campaign when the world’s economy was on the verge of collapse, only to appear for an interview and then appear on Letterman to make a joke of it.

People like McCain love to hear the sound of their own voice. They love being part of the ‘in’ crowd. They will get up and talk about the importance of family and how much they love their wives, but then they are screwing around on them. They will go on “Meet the Press,” where Chuck Todd has always been the Caretaker at The Overlook Hotel, and will call out their own party’s leadership but vote with them, because Obama.

McCain has done all these things. He says all the right things, but does all the wrong things. Like saying how deplorable conditions are at VA hospitals, yet votes against an omnibus bill that would increase funding to help veterans and modernize the Veterans Administration.

This is a man who was used as a “distraction” in 1973* and 44 years years on, he’s still a distraction. Mostly due to his inability to keep his mouth shut. Or his insatiable need to always be in the spotlight. Or just his ego, much like another man he despises, who he still voted for.

  • Rick Pearlstein, the award winning author of “Nixonland” and “The Invisible Bridge,” points out, and rightly so, that the release of the POW’s from Vietnam was a publicity stunt to distract from the burgeoning “Watergate mess,” as an aide to Nixon said years later.

What it boils down to is this: McCain, for all his ‘Straight Talk’ is still a ‘party before country’ Republican. Upon his returning to the Senate on Tuesday, he proceeded to lambaste his fellow Senators, saying “it’s time to turn off the radio and TV and start doing the work the American People sent us here to do,” and called on bi-partisanship in crafting a better version of healthcare reform and then lying about how the Democratic senate (see, I don’t have a ‘-tic’ problem like others) passed the Affordable Care Act without any input from Republicans (bull and shit, Senator) and then said “we’re not getting anything done.” Well, he’s right about that. Hey, a stopped clock, blind squirrel, even a loser, you know the drill.

But McCain also said that while voting for the motion to proceed, he could not vote for any of the proposals without “significant changes” and “recommendations from my Governor” and then voted for said bills. Mendacity at its’ finest on display. “Big Daddy” couldn’t have said it better himself.

John McCain sure can talk a good game, but when it comes down to it, this “maverick” is as phony as the one Tom Cruise played 31 years ago. He says all the right things, but can’t ever back up his talk with standing up to his own party or ‘principals.’ Therein lies the dichotomy of too many in public life.

John McCain is 80.

John McCain is dying. Of cancer. May he die in peace and surrounded by his friends and family. But he is, in the end, a flawed human. As are we all. His legacy will be a conflicted one and one that will not be looked upon kindly.

Kent Anderson

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