McCain, an assessment

A man who made “straight talk” one of his trademarks would surely not be satisfied with the flood of worshipful accolades enshrining him as a unique hero, statesman, and patriot for the ages. My aim is to remedy that.

I put my shoulder to this necessary task knowing that he was admired and even loved by people I respect. They range from Grant Woods to Alfredo Gutierrez and Neil Giuliano. I never much cared for John McCain, both because he did so little to use his prestige and power to help his adopted state, and because his conservatism helped set the table for today’s emergency.

More about that later.

McCain suffered terribly as a prisoner of war and heroically refused an early release as the son of the admiral in charge of Pacific forces. This denied a propaganda coup to the communists.

Still, hundreds of American soldiers, Marines, airmen, and naval aviators suffered at the hands of Hanoi as well.

In World War II, the treatment of Allied POWs by the Japanese was barbaric. After they were liberated, Gen. Jonathan Wainwright who surrendered the Philippines and British Gen. Arthur Percival who surrendered Singapore were positioned beside Douglas MacArthur on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri for the Japanese surrender. Nearly walking skeletons in uniform, their presence was powerful. No one remembers them today.

McCain served 31 years in the Senate. But his legislative record was minimal. This is certainly so compared with giants such as Edward Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Robert Taft, Robert La Follette Sr., Arthur Vandenberg, or Arizona’s Ernest McFarland.

Mac, who served as Senate Majority leader, was the father of the GI Bill. Along with Carl Hayden, another towering figure from Arizona, he worked tirelessly for the Central Arizona Project. So did Sen. Barry Goldwater and Reps. Stewart Udall, Mo Udall, and John J. Rhodes. 

Winning the CAP was a bipartisan endeavor. Hayden most of all made it happen, creating today’s Arizona for better and worse (and Hayden had a bit of winner’s remorse late in life).

They understood that Arizona depended on not just its “fair share” of federal money, but much more. That without federal largesse — the U.S. Cavalry, Newlands Act, New Deal, postwar defense spending, flood control, etc. — the state would not be possible.

McCain married Cindy Hensley, and helped by the Hensley beer fortune, made Arizona the base of his political career. The Navy made it clear he wouldn’t become an admiral, and he had been bitten by the political bug while serving in D.C. He won Rhodes’ House seat in 1983.

There’s nothing wrong with being an engine of ambition. But by the time McCain came along, the bipartisan agenda had crumbled. So-called movement conservatism had triumphed, and Arizona's GOP House and Senate members were committed to being the "Delegation of No." McCain stuck to this fetish throughout his career, even as he gained seniority and influence. To be fair, Arizona was changing fast, becoming more reactionary, aggressively ignorant of history. To win, Republican politicians had to move right. On the other hand, Texas is plenty right wing, but its delegation brings home the bacon.

This change was tragic. Winning the CAP was the beginning, not the end, of the state’s need for what critics call “pork” but is actually investment. The state needed funding for transit, commuter rail, education, high-end federal facilities, a federal lab, and research money so it might be more than just an endless short-hustle land economy. The most McCain did was put off the overrunning of Luke Air Force Base by sprawl. Nor could his Olympian gaze find much time for some important local veterans' issues. The Prescott VA nursing home ranks among the worst in the nation. The VA Hospital crisis, part of a cynical GOP ploy to underfund and then privatize the system, had an epicenter in Phoenix.

McCain played no role gaining funding for Phoenix light rail (WBIYB).  Reliable sources told me McCain was so disliked by his colleagues that his intercession might actually have hurt the quest. He was a vehement opponent of Amtrak, especially the two long-distance trains that still served his nominal home state. He was untroubled that Phoenix became by far the largest American metropolis with no intercity passenger rail.

McCain was especially hostile to the city of Phoenix. He attempted to spearhead a regional airport near Casa Grande, which would have enriched local landowners and killed Sky Harbor (where a terminal now bears his name). When then-Mayor Terry Goddard tried to get the closing Phoenix Indian School as a grand central park in the late 1980s, McCain supported a Byzantine land swap that benefited the Barron Collier Co. Phoenix was left with an interior parcel for a much diminished Steele park. Collier continues to land-bank most of its Phoenix windfall.

McCain is said to have given some support for T-Gen, but it hardly shows in research funding. For example, in fiscal 2017, Arizona received $189 million in National Institutes of Health grants. This compares with $998 million for Washington and $2.7 billion for Massachusetts, states with similar population size.

Late in his life, McCain offered a rhetorical boost for completing the Rio Salado project. Again, no federal funding to make it real was forthcoming. He made few efforts to conserve the state's natural wonders in the face of exurban sprawl and dodgy land swaps. His lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters was 20 percent.

The crucial settlement of water rights with the Gila River Indian Community and other tribes was left to Sen. Jon Kyl, not McCain.

While he no doubt was fond of Arizona, McCain always wanted to be a national figure. He could have chosen Florida or Virginia as his perch if not for Cindy.

The “Maverick” was mostly a myth. McCain had a lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union of nearly 81 (Nancy Pelosi, 2.56). He was a usually reliable member of the disciplined Republican right. For all the accolades he received for loving the Constitution and norms-based self-governance, McCain supported Mitch McConnell's unprecedented refusal to give Merrick Garland, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, so much as a hearing. McCain promised to block any Supreme Court selections by Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.

He had his virtues. McCain was no climate-change denier. He introduced legislation for a mandatory cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases (it failed). He (mostly) spoke out against torture and (mostly) supported immigration reform. The McCain-Feingold Act attempted to control big money in politics, but had unintended consequences and was mostly undone by Citizens United — passed by activist Justices he had approved. McCain cast the vote that saved the Affordable Care Act from repeal (but not sabotage) — yet he hated Obamacare, even though it was a "market-based" plan that originated in a right-wing "think tank."

In 2000, McCain was treated shamefully by the Bush/Rove forces in the South Carolina primary, which derailed his first presidential campaign. Among these was a whisper campaign that his adopted daughter Bridget had been fathered by him with a black prostitute.

Alas, he also had titanic blind spots, previewed by his role in the Keating Five scandal, conveniently forgotten. As longtime chairman or ranking member on Armed Services, McCain was unable or unwilling to continue production on the essential F-22, while allowing the troubled and untrustworthy F-35 to continue production and enter service. Among all members of Congress, he should have realized the quagmire the Iraq War would become. He supported it.

In 2008, he was willing to put the wildly unqualified, half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency. While he’s rightly praised for correcting the supporter who called his opponent “an Arab,” the disturbing McCain-Palin rallies were our foretaste of today’s neo-Nazi “lock her up!” fervor.

Against Obama, McCain reprised Floyd Patterson against Muhammad Ali: “I came to see that I was a fighter and he was history.” Maybe he came to see it. McCain asked Obama to give his eulogy, which was a magnificent tribute — and a sense that we might have heard the same at the end of the Roman Republic.

A portion of Obama’s eulogy is worth reprinting, and meditating on:

John cared about the institutions of self-government, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, rule of law. Separation of powers. Even the arcane rules and procedures of the Senate. He knew that in a nation as big and boisterous and diverse as ours, those institutions, those rules, those norms are what bind us together. Give shape and order to our common life. Even when we disagree. Especially when we disagree.

John believed in honest argument and hearing our views. He understood that if we get in the habit of bending the truth to suit political expediency or party orthodoxy, our democracy will not work. That's why he was willing to buck his own party at times. Occasionally work across the aisle on campaign-finance reform and immigration reform. That's why he championed a free and independent press as vital to our democratic debate. And the fact it earned him good coverage didn't hurt either.

John understood as JFK understood, as Ronald Reagan understood that part of what makes our country great is that our membership is based not on our bloodline, not on what we look like, what our last names are, not based on where our parents or grandparents came from or how recently they arrived, but on adherence to a common creed that all of us are created equal. Endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.

Burn this in your brain. Even if Obama is being perhaps overly generous to an individual, he is making a vital point if we're to find our way out of this national crisis.

I look at the national outpouring of encomiums and am reminded how much McCain cultivated the national media, which loved him (the local press knew the score: "positive" stories or no access). Sure, this was enhanced by social media. But other elements in the narrowness of the coverage are the 40-percent loss of journalists since 2007, and the desperate desire of the media to lionize a Republican at a time when the party is enabling Donald Trump. Yet don't forget: John McCain voted with Trump 80 percent of the time. We're not talking about Winston Churchill here (another former POW).

Part of this spectacle reminds me of the aftermath of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, especially the funeral train down the Northeast Corridor. Kennedy had a short, sketchy record in the Senate and, as Attorney General, approved wiretaps on Martin Luther King Jr. But much of the nation projected its grief over larger national losses and might-have-beens upon that passing train, especially with the RFK tempered by his brother’s murder and his liberal awakening.

Yet the McCain phenomenon is more still.

It is a collective primal scream against the traitorous, criminal enterprise in the Oval Office.

Next to scenes of McCain’s family in the National Cathedral, the most poignant image in the service was seeing Hillary Clinton, who should be president.

His beloved Hemingway is well and good: “Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.”

But time runs short for the American republic.

 

 

 

Comments

[Mark Carlson]

Thanks for this corrective to the past week’s hagiography.

[Cal Lash]

Stand by for Meghan !

[terry dudas]

Nice birthday present - thanks, Jon.

[soleri]

I remember how effortless McCain's Arizona career had been, how each election campaign was another reprise of archival footage of him moving haltingly and then saluting a superior with visible difficulty. Or lying Christ-like on the ground in his Hanoi cage. He was also lucky in his opponents like Richard Kimball and Claire Sargent who appeared completely out of their depth next to him.

He could be gratuitously cruel like the time he asked Governor Rose Mofford technical questions about the CAP in a Senate hearing. He himself would have been hard-pressed to answer those questions but he was delighted to see her flustered. This points out what an all-too loyal partisan he was in the years before he reinvented himself under the Country First banner.

I predicted McCain would memorialize his death in the manner of a Nordic god ascending to Valhalla, or perhaps by lying on a bier in a toga with a laurel wreath around his head under the Capitol dome. If anything, I underestimated the show he did put on. He knew the power of imagery and myth. He knew he was blessed in a way few politicians have ever been with a great biography and curated legend. Last week he delivered the long-promised goods, and not a moment too soon.

McCain was frustrating, vain, mercurial, and necessary. His death arrived at an opportune moment to contrast his tweaked nobility to that of the crude lowlife who stumbled into the presidency with the help of a Russian dictator and a citizenry that would make Mencken gag. His highly choreographed funeral was as articulate a rebuke to Trump's vileness as could be hoped for given the constraints of etiquette.

We don't have the luxury of picking our friends in war or utter necessity. McCain may perform in death a role he never quite attained in his colorful life. He can be our hero because America is, for the most part, worthy of Donald Trump. McCain didn't need to be consistent or fair to warrant our teary-eyed admiration. We are grateful there is someone who could contrast his sterner values to those of a toxic egomaniac.

I want to suggest to everyone on the left that we not neglect this extraordinary gift that McCain left us. It's possible patriotism can be defined not as noisy rituals of anthem-singing and flag-waving but as something far deeper and rewarding, such as involvement in your communities, or commitment to human rights, or simply service to others. In other words, there are worthy ideals we can aspire to and standards we can impress upon our political class.

America is struggling and exhausted. We require a transfiguring ethos that is national in scope and embodied by a vivid personality. McCain's code of honor was real despite his all-too human failings. Like a propped-up El Cid leading his troops into battle, McCain can be that mythic figure who inspires America to unify around an idea of national greatness. I wouldn't want it to be bellicose or imperialistic, and I believe the majority of Americans wouldn't want that either. But if we can pull out of this tailspin, the Orwellian formulations, the right-wing insanity, and the crushing sense that nothing works anymore, we would need either a great leader or an even greater inspiration. I wish McCain had been better than he was. But what he is today, sainted and lionized, may be even more valuable.

[Denise Stefanisin]

Thank you for reminding everyone that John McCain did little for the State of Arizona, the city of Phoenix or for veterans and we closely watched or were active in politics. We lived in Arizona for 35 years and never hesitate telling people our thoughts about Senator McCain. They are usually shocked to hear what I have to say. But, your column reinforces the fact that he was far from perfect. May he rest in peace.

[Hamblin]

Now that he’s gone, the question is who Ducey will appoint to fill his seat??? That he has that power, in these times, is frightening!

[Rob Spindler]

McCain’s greatest legacy may be behind the curtain of constituent services. Bob Stump was very proud of saying he had the smallest congressional staff on the Hill. McCain’s Phoenix staff told me they felt they were carrying an unfair proportion of the constituent casework because citizens were not getting effective help from other members of the AZ delegation.

[Rich Weinroth]

I think the one consistent positive legacy of McCain was something that Churchill well understood. In order for evil to triumph, all it takes is for good people to do nothing and so McCain was not someone to ignore serious foreign policy problems. Sometimes this led him down the wrong path, but ultimately I think his input on foreign and defense policy was a positive consistent legacy and the opposite of the current administration. On domestic matters, I simply do not believe it was ever his focus. Overall, I would say the positive outweighs the negative for McCain, which is more than I can say for most politicians

[Amy Kirkwood]

Megahn! Also he is ALL we had.

[AL_Zona88]

Fair assessment.

[Harry Randolph]

"It is a collective primal scream against the traitorous, criminal enterprise in the Oval Office." That rang true all Labor Day weekend.

Jon, I didn't encounter one bit of false equivalence in your entire analysis. How refreshing.

[Jerry McKenzie]

If he had passed at any other time, he would only be remembered as a veteran, USN minor nobility, and a political hack. Now we’re stuck with Kyl again who is much better at enriching himself and his cronies.

[Donna]

Thank you for your article-although you didn't mention his nasty treatment of his first wife, bomb bomb bomb Iran, his famous Chelsea Clinton "joke," or his many airplane crashes, you did expose most of his foibles. As an Arizonan born in the 50's I've been following his career with dismay. I guess people needed a hero but McCain was the wrong guy.

[Sarah]

Thank you. A fair article and very informative.

[Ramjet]

IMHO, Rogue's post and Soleri's response are, as always, "Spot On".
John McCain was just John McCain. We all have our "warts and foibles".
it is important that we know all sides of our elected representatives, in order to understand their actions and positions.

I believe the column and responses to be fair and balanced.

I do not believe it will cause the lost of any "friends", it will certainly not affect what ever friendship I have with Jon.

[El Kabong]

Although Jon and I have very different views of the Indian School land exchange, for the most part I agree with this critique. Much of it, though, comes down to disagreeing with McCain's views. I usually did. But I don't take such disagreements personally.

McCain was a very flawed man. He genuinely loved his country, however, and he served it well according to his lights. That's a lot. Most recently, he spoke out against Trump when most Republicans found it expedient to stay silent. We shouldn't canonize him but he deserves respect and appreciation.

[Joe Schallan]

Thanks, Jon. That was terrific writing, and in a fairer universe the Republic should have you back. Your audience on this blog is far too small, though they DO tend to be people willing to THINK.

I don't know exactly what to make of John Sidney McCain III. I acknowledge and appreciate his suffering (and despise Trump for calling it something of no account), but I wonder why he couldn't have been better than himself, why he didn't translate his ostensible belief in a propositional republic rather than a tribal one into more substantial legislation.

[soleri]

Must read in the morning Times on this topic: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/opinion/mccain-biography-arizona-republicans.html

[ὀστρακισμός]

A rational review of McCain's service to Arizona and our Country as a whole (ignoring the Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) snippets that proliferate many columns and most comments here).

If McCain did, indeed plan his own funeral - 5 days is the sign of a narcissist (IMO).

The media provided wall-to-wall coverage (the only segment of the trip they didn't cover was Air Force 2 flying from AZ to DC) was because he was a "never-Trumper".

Though his military service and sacrifice is admirable, ask yourself what are McCain's most significant achievements - chances are you'll have to search wiki.

America has had more noble heroes.
America has had more virtuous civil servants.
America has had public citizens with more humility.

As for time running short for the American Republic - not a big deal! Climate change / global warming - whatever the term du jour is) will end the world before the Republic falls! Onward Leftist comrades! We must continue to move forward with our ideology of doomsday prophecies!