Remembering John McCain

McCain died five years ago today. He was a deeply flawed man with a decidedly mixed legacy. But he opposed Donald Trump and should be remembered for trying to stop fascism in America.

Editor’s Note: I wrote this piece in August of 2018 and believed it was worth reposting on the 5th anniversary of John McCain’s passing. Regardless of what you might think of McCain’s politics (and I didn’t think much of them), he stood up to Donald Trump during his final days and utilized the power he had in the Senate to hinder his agenda. As Trump launches another assault on democracy, it seems unlikely that another McCain-like figure will emerge to oppose him. No candidate or politician matches McCain’s stature or legacy within the party, so the responsibility of saving the nation from disaster will fall almost entirely to the Democrats. John McCain represented a dwindling breed of Republicans, and without him, the GOP has severed its connection to the values he stood for. It is now unequivocally the Party of Trump.

RIP John McCain, The War Hero Who Saved His Best For Last

by Ben Cohen

The news broke Saturday night that Arizona Senator and famed war hero John McCain has died from brain cancer at 81. Americans will spend the next few days remembering his extraordinary life and honoring his incredible sacrifice for his country.

I thought John McCain to be one of the worst war mongers in recent American history, and for much of his career, a scourge on the US political system. This was the man who pushed America headfirst into an illegal, unnecessary war with Iraq, and foisted Sarah Palin upon the nation when he ran for president in 2008. His legacy, at least much of it, is not a good one. I have spoken out vociferously against McCain, and do not want to pretend otherwise.

But for now, I would prefer to remember the war hero who was tortured for five years after being captured in Vietnam, for what he did right, particularly during his last few months on earth.

McCain saved his best for last, and used what political capital he had accumulated over the years to resist the bigotry and hatred of Donald Trump — a man he clearly saw as an existential threat to the country he loved so dearly. He did this at a time when almost every active Republican refused to stand up to Trump — an act of defiance and genuine patriotism that has given much of the resistance hope for the future of America.

The McCain Who Stood Up To Trump

After the infamous tape of Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women was released on the campaign trail in 2016, McCain immediately announced he would not be voting for the Republican nominee.

"I have wanted to support the candidate our party nominated. He was not my choice, but as a past nominee, I thought it important I respect the fact that Donald Trump won a majority of the delegates by the rules our party set. I thought I owed his supporters that deference," McCain said.

"But Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy."

McCain stated that he and his wife, Cindy, would not be voting for him under any circumstances.

"We will write in the name of some good conservative Republican who is qualified to be president," he said.

In October 2017, McCain also took a thinly veiled shot at the president for his avoidance of military service, no doubt partly in response to Trump's earlier comments that he liked war heroes "who weren't captured".

“One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest-income level of America, and the highest-income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur,” McCain during the interview with C-SPAN, clearly referencing Trump's excuse for deferring five times. “That is wrong. That is wrong. If we are going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve.”

Saving Obamacare

McCain also bucked his party to prevent the death of Obamacare, crucially voting with the Democrats to stop it from being dismantled -- an act that millions of vulnerable Americans who would have had no health insurance can be thankful for.

“We are an important check on the powers of the Executive," McCain said on the Senate floor the day after the vote. "Our consent is necessary for the President to appoint jurists and powerful government officials and in many respects to conduct foreign policy. Whether or not we are of the same party, we are not the President’s subordinates. We are his equal.”

McCain also attacked Trump mercilessly on his foreign policy and unwillingness to stand up to Vladimir Putin, tweeting and speaking out regularly about the president's attempts to dismantle Western alliances and the post World War II global order:

An extraordinary legacy

This does of course, represent only a small fraction of McCain's life as a public servant, and over the coming days much more will be written about him by us and the media around the world -- and deservedly so. McCain's legacy is, whether you agreed with him or not, an extraordinary one.

There is however, little else I want to say about the man. After over a decade of writing mostly negatively about him, I would prefer to end it on this note. His resistance to the bigotry and racism sweeping through America right now is how I, and many on the left will want to remember him.

So Rest In Peace, Senator, and may your family find theirs in this life.

Read an excerpt from the latest for Banter Members:

The Age Of The Untouchable Right Wing Is Over

The aura of unaccountability is evaporating and you can taste Republican fear in the air.

Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, January 6, 2021. Leah Millis | Reuters

by Justin Rosario

For longer than I’ve been alive, the American right wing has enjoyed a special status in America. Not only did they enjoy the perks that come with being (mostly) white men, they have been able to indulge in criminal acts with a level of impunity that almost beggars the imagination. 

The racist white men who killed 14-year-old Emmett Till were never held accountable despite everyone knowing they were vicious animals who slowly tortured a child to death. Thousands of racist white men looted and burned Black communities across the United States for decades, murdering thousands of Blacks Americans with little to no fear of consequences. In the service of white supremacy, Republicans have stolen elections, suppressed minority votes, and brazenly violated the law at both the state and federal level for generations. Sometimes they go to jail. Overwhelmingly, they brag about it without repercussion.

With this historic level of immunity to inform their decisions, it’s little wonder that we’ve seen a sharp escalation in right-wing lawlessness over the last 15 years. The election of a Black president sent an unmistakable signal that, not to be too blunt about it, white power was threatened. Something had to be done. Something drastic. And why not go all the way and topple democracy? When you’re untouchable, you can do anything, anything at all.

But the age of the untouchable right wing is over. What comes next?

Touchable

There’s a scene in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables where Oscar Wallace (played by Charles Martin Smith) is assassinated in an elevator. This is a little more than halfway through the movie and marked a key turning point in the film. Suddenly, Elliot Ness (played by Kevin Costner), realizes that he and his “Untouchables” are, in fact, not beyond the reach of Robert De Niro’s Al Capone. Fear and paranoia grips Ness, almost crippling his efforts to take down the notorious mobster:

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