THEY DON'T GIVE MEDALS TO YESTERDAY'S HEROES

I’ve lived in Arizona since 1973.  I’ve had to pay attention to John McCain since 1986, when he ran for (and won) the Senate seat that Barry Goldwater gave up.  I voted for the other guy (Richard Kimball, if you’re curious).  I’ve voted for the other guy (or gal) five times since then.  McCain beat them all.

I get it.  He had a powerful resume – a prisoner of war from 1967-1973, a hero who rallied his fellow prisoners and refused offers of an early release because his father was an admiral.  As far as I’m concerned, he earned all of his medals.  In Vietnam, he was a hero.

After that, not so much.  He cheated on his first wife, and re-married into big money.  When he was elected to Congress, he opposed the creation of a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.  He took money from anti-porn activist and crooked financier Charles Keating and was rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee for his “poor judgment.”  He defended the Tailhook reunions of Navy and Marine pilots, even when it was clear that sexual harassment was rampant at these events, because boys will be boys.  He voted to convict Bill Clinton in his 1999 impeachment trial, because “boys will be boys” wasn’t a legitimate defense for Democrats.

He will live in infamy for choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008.  Palin horrified decent Republicans and Democrats alike, but she was popular with a demographic that turned into Donald Trump’s notorious Base.  McCain deliberately cultivated the reputation of a maverick by offering mild criticism of Republican presidents and policies, but when it came time to vote, he always toed the party line.

That’s precisely what he did on Tuesday, providing the deciding yes vote on the motion to proceed with a vote on the Republican plan to deprive millions of Americans of health care.  And then, right after he could have stopped the bill but didn’t, Senator Maverick gave a speech on the floor of the Senate denouncing it.  That’s typical McCain, trying to have it both ways. 

I’m not disappointed in him, because both McCain’s vote and subsequent speech were perfectly predictable based on the record he’s compiled in his 30 years in congress.  McCain’s money and his congressional health insurance means he’ll get the best treatment available for his brain cancer.  But if McCain and his Republican pals have their way, an average Arizona voter who is diagnosed with glioblastoma is shit out of luck.  John McCain is no hero to me.

One of our neighbors is an Air Force veteran, who, like McCain, was a POW in Vietnam.  In 1968, he was shot down and spent five years in various prisons near Hanoi.  Myron doesn’t talk about his time as a POW, and I’ve never spoken to him about politics.  I don’t know who he voted for.  But I know he’s a good guy.  Whenever we’ve needed to borrow a tool or get help with a home repair project, he’s always ready to lend a hand. 

Maybe McCain is a good neighbor too.  But he’s a bad Senator.