Combative narcissist Trump has so divided the country with his bombasm, half- truths and hate speeches, that Cohen may be right. The real America is danger of becoming a second/third rate Countrye.
2
Just finished watching McCain's funeral: It says a lot about the state of the nation when real patriots feel the need to use their father's funeral to speak against the liar and buffoon ruining democracy from the oval office now--when he's not on another of his endless vacations, as he was while this was going on, spilling more bile into the public blood stream via twitter.
20
I admired Senator McCain and his indomitable spirit during his long battle with glioblastoma. Today wa his day. The President who beetled off to his golf course minutes after Ms. McCain eulogized her father has made John mcCain perhaps a greater man in death than he was in life.
10
I dread that by this afternoon, the news will be full of moronic tweets, venal sentiments, and a return to the disgusting immaturity that is politics today.
Trump is already proving what a "big man" he is by making derogatory comments about Canada.
The ONLY reason he hasn't tweeted anything childish and nasty today is that his daughter Ivanka was in the audience. I bet she pleaded with him to NOT embarrass her today.....I HOPE she didn't just show up to be a surrogate that wanted to teach a lesson...I hope not.
O well. Back to the infantile behavior that is government today. I don't have much faith that ANY of the GOPPERS in that audience today will do ONE THING DIFFERENTLY on Tuesday. If they HAD any backbone, they would say "enough is enough". I think people would admire that, no matter what party.
One thing for sure-Trump is going to look more like the stupid moron than ever.
It was SO REFRESHING to hear people speak in whole sentences that made sense. No crossed arms clutching the chest, no rocking back and forth, and no rosebudded lips spouting gibberish.
17
Welcome words. How bracing to read these words, to hear more such words at McCain's funeral service in D.C.-even from Kissinger at his age- and from Biden in Arizona. These words may come from dinosaurs. Oh, God, how we need the dinosaurs!
7
RIP to the true greatness of America. RIP to the selfless dedication and compassion of American patriotism. RIP to the Republican Party (well, perhaps not peace).
America is defined neither by it's Stock Market not its border wall, it's incivility nor its corruption. It is defined by its humanity, inclusion, compassion and commitment to real, true and lasting human and democratic values - the values that have been thrown under the bus by Trump and his supporters.
In the next few months, those who attended John McCain's final farewell will have a chance to show their grit, their patriotic backbone omg behalf of all Americans. They either will, or will not, stand up to tyranny, corruption, lies and the systematic destruction of American Democracy. If they are men/women, there is hope for America. If they are the cowards that they have so far shown themselves to be, a violent resolution is probable - a resolution in which no one (except the rich, corrupt oligarchs who will isolate themselves in their security enclaves) will profit and few will survive intact.
Man or mouse - it's up to Congress to define itself. Put your soul where your mouth should be. Make your fellow Legislator proud.
6
"The two men loathed each other more than death could overcome."
When a man uses his death to castigate another, there are no winners. Only pity for their ignorance.
4
If John McCain were a Trump supporter there would be no funeral coverage. There would be no speeches. His death became nothing more than an opportunity for Trump haters to openly display their derangement and bile.
Because we can all see this Trump is now assured a victory in 2020.
3
Senator Iraq War refused to learn the lessons of Vietnam and, after temporarily acting as a maverick for a few years in the '90's to show penance for the Keating 5 scandal, completely capitulated to Bush-Cheney (after unfortunately losing to Bush in 2000 primary).
What happened to the McCain from the NH primary days? Carried water for the regime changing neo-cons every step of the way. Cheered for every intervention versus countries that never attacked US soil, be it Iraq (under Bush); or Libya and Syria (under Obama-Clinton).
It is fitting that Bush and Obama are speaking at the funeral service because both are representative of the abuse and overreach of the permanent national security state and military-industrial complex so adored by Senator McCain.
6
So glad that our pouting, bratty president is busy playing golf in Virginia today, and his vice president is squirreled away in Vermont. John McCain's funeral was a stately, dignified salute to a real man, a real gentleman, and an honorable public servant. Maybe, just maybe, some of the words spoken today will reach those who truly need to hear - and to heed - them.
8
"a requiem for the American century."
We have liberals crying that Trump's actions are a betrayal of their Cold War victory over the Soviet Union and Cohen lamenting the passing of the "American Century". You're joking, right?
Stick to preaching that imports are the progressive path forward.
The union wing of the Democratic Party will have to adopt the battle cry: "Burgers, flipped in American with union pride!"
Haven't you gotten enough mileage out of McMain's death yet?
3
Enough of the McCain hagiography. He loved war and the Pentagon . He was also captured in the illegal war in Vietnam . Let him go quietly in the night,
7
"But did the United States of President Donald Trump really need to take a sledgehammer to its values, its responsibilities and the anchors of its prosperity?"
Actually, therein lies the blessing of Trump. How can we accurately assess the health of American values without testing them? We detest Trump because he has effortlessly demonstrated how utterly flimsy and superficial these values have become. Trump is a shallow and pathetically egotistical charlatan. A healthy political system would have easily rejected him by now. As it is, we are reduced to hoping that a few brave souls within the career national security bureaucracy can somehow rescue us from our pervasive and deeply ingrained political opportunism and moral cowardice.
As Cohen correctly notes, this weekend's outpouring of high-minded celebrity rhetoric in praise of McCain will likely be a mere temporary sentimental distraction from our national suicide mission. It will be overwhelmed by the next wave arising from the breathless cable news cycle and disappear unnoticed into the vast sea of endless trivial chatter.
6
John McCain, despite his bad experience suffering torture in his prison time in Vietnam was a terrible warmonger all along his career, something I hated as an observer from outside the U.S. I believe, it was his irredeemable brain cancer which caused his final «conversion» to more humanity as Roger Cohen brings out here. And yes, his final days were effectively surrounded by dignity. And this has to be commended.
6
My husband and I watched the service this morning. We are both life-long Democrats. We both cried (andI have only seen my husband cry once before. Me - I’m a big baby).
Watching Obama, oh, I miss him. Heck, I even miss Bush.
John McCain - you will always be a hero to me.
8
Just finished watching the McCain funeral and found it uplifting and I feel good about the country after watching it. There were many things that I disagreed with McCain about and I do not think that he would have been a good President; but he was an honorable person who worked for what he viewed to be the best for his country.
The thing that The Donald has done is make all the other Presidents look good. George W. is a likeable person but he did some disastrous things as President; but he is head and shoulders better than The Donald. Lets pray that we never get a President who is more of a loser than The Donald.
Of course, our politicians are a reflection of the people who elect them. It is distressing that about 40% of the electorate support the nastiness and meanness, the ignorance and arrogance, that The Donald represents.
5
Sadly, Mr. McCain wanted America to fight wars, and the wars he wanted to fight ended very badly for us.
Don't forget that he was an early and strong proponent of invading Iraq. There is no evidence he participated in the Cheney/Rumsfeld -directed manipulation of "intelligence" to arrive at the false claims of WMD ... but he was one of the Republicans warhawks who thought that defeating Saddam would be easy, cheap, glorious ... what a disaster.
7
Excellent column, Roger. As I watched John Mc Cain's funeral service and its aftermath, I personally was moved to tears, though I, too, disagreed with many of Mc Cain's policies and prescriptions. It struck me that every politician in the National Cathedral, especially the GOP congress, should have immediately afterward rushed to the floor of congress to begin procedures for impeachment of our un-indicted co-conspirator president. As a Vietnam combat veteran, that would have been my choice. Sen. Mc Cain's death portends the end of bipartisanship, of politesse and ethical conduct in our very corrupt GOP congress. I weep for this, too, and salute that casket headed for Annapolis Naval Cemetary.
7
Resonate those words will. And, God willing may they also overshadow the pettiness and tribalism to focus on (and to secure) the greater good of liberty ‘in law’ (regardless of our many differences). John McCain embodied that ideal. May it overcome the boorish, small-minded subterfuge and envy of courage (masquerading as pragmatism, and fooling some) of this administration! Well said, Roger Cohan!
1
Thank god for John McCain. In life of course, and just as importantly, in death. Agree with him or not, watching the memorial and listening to the eulogies I took comfort in the endurance of our founding principles as a country...especially when they are under assault by someone as reprehensible as the uninvited co-conspirator. The men and women in the Cathedral serve as a blessed and much needed reminder that the union has a deep bench of like minded citizens .
McCain serves as that beacon on the hill now, allowing us, to reflect on our traditions of personal liberty and fighting to protect it, the sanctity of each human life..white, black, brown or yellow, family, sacrifice and humility. McCain lived all of those things in his life...and he is truly the American for it.
3
Alas, America's historical core values, that John McCain fought for all his life, seem to be unknown or scorned by Trump's cult. I draw that conclusion by who they put in office. . .even though there have to be many Vets among his cohort who served and suffered for this country. I don't get it.
3
JFK's funeral wasn't this over the top.
Far more successful and accomplished patriots didn't get nearly this kind of ridiculous hyperbolic treatment.
What about John Glenn?
What about Neil Armstrong (who did incidentally plant an AMERICAN flag on the moon)?
What about so many others? I am not downplaying Sen. McCain's experiences and accomplishments, but this kind of coverage seems awkward and unnecessary. In short, it seems like the kind of thing a group would embrace in order to make a political point. I wonder if the many stockholders of MSM businesses appreciate the sacrificing of Saturday morning ad revenue for the purpose of trying to commemorate what seems to be a Roman style apotheosis of a long term senator and one of the most mediocre candidates in history.
5
Of course Trump will tweet and have the last word with the hot rage of the media blowing things up past all proportion only to have the Donald covered globally.
In her eulogy to her father, Meghan McCain was mostly correct in her assertion that America does not need to be made great again, because "it has always been great." But she was not entirely correct.
I love the U.S. However, it is a difficult love, because the U.S. is as imperfect as the American hero who was rightly held captive by a people who were wholly innocent of crimes against our nation, and thus undeserving victims of the U.S.'s aggression against them.
John McCain went on to do great things for his country, and became a friend of the Vietnamese. But his name will always be a metaphor of the exceedingly complex moral burden that must be borne by "the most powerful nation on earth."
America is great in concept. But its divisions, especially those perpetrated by our rogue president -- and some 38% of delusional Americans who worship him as fellow bigots and xenophobes -- make America less than great in its daily applications.
Meghan McCain's eulogy to her father was beautiful and spot on in its accurate testament to John McCain's greatness. But in a week from now it will be recalled as just one more fragile wish in a nation where most wishes these days get blown away with the wind.
7
I see McCain categorized as a "giant of the senate." I regret his passing, but I think this is a bit too much. By being mediocre instead of outrageously bad he stood out as a "giant."
Daniel Webster was a "giant of the senate." Lafollette, who solo filibustered against WWI, was a giant of the senate. Johnson was a giant of the senate. One could list others, but I think McCain would be lucky to make the top 50.
7
I glanced at the long burial of John McCain today; not for long. It was a wonderful view of human myths, from the hero, warrior myth through the religious myths and I suppose a few clan/tribal myths. All sadly resulting in our reinforcing humans split into camps, hate groups, countries, antagonism, class warfare and universal warfare death and destruction.
3
McCain's days of remembrance have become an important time for reflection for the country and delivering a message for the importance of American values over the politics of division of late. McCain's commitment to honor, duty, and belief in service to our country continues in his passing. It points the way to respecting each other, the need to treat others with decency, and the fundamental value of human rights for all.
His love of his family, patriotism, sincerity, dignity, and sense of humor have shone though in the many kind words spoken about him in the last few days including by Obama, Bush, Biden, his daughter Meghan McCain, Kissinger, and his wife Cindy, his mother, and all of his children who are the legacy he will live on through.
Although many imperfections are known about McCain, his life is a model for all who follow him of a life lived in an authentic, meaningful way, his deep understanding of traditions, and living a life honoring this great country by knowing the value of coming together.
3
McCain's passing marks the end of an era. Whatever you thought of him and his positions, he was in many ways the embodiment of our 20th-century experience. After two world wars, with a devastating depression in between, America became the world's most powerful country and its most advanced democracy.
We took on civil rights and school desegregation, abortion, the environment (remember, Nixon founded the EPA), public education and so much more. Our 'do anything' spirit got us to the moon.
We made huge mistakes, like Vietnam, but in the final analysis, it was our optimism, self-confidence, and drive to do right that pulled us through.
Now we've lost our connection to all of that. We're cynical, corrupt, divided where we ought to be united, and disdainful of our true patriotic traditions. Very sad.
2
Two presidents from opposite parties spoke at his funeral. That gives you a sense of the measure of the man.
Made me wonder who will eulogize our current president when the time comes. I guess it will depend on who is out on parole at that time.
8
By his death Senator John McCain showed the World how to love his own Country passionately at the same time how to be a gentleman and to rise above all that is negative and petty in the World.
It does not matter which party one belongs to, what a wonderful celebration of life as I watch so much of it particularly the respect paid by our previous Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
President Obama`s eulogy brought tears to my eyes as he spoke so eloquently of his previous rival, how we are all humans in one nation irrespective of the color of our skin and when we arrive in America generations ago or not so long ago.
52
I'm expecting someone in the Trump-friendly media to view McCain's grand farewell as the last gathering of political dinosaurs, the people who ruined America and needed to be swept away.
I am becoming optimistic that we will gain some new leaders in the upcoming election
3
Excellent. Hope for the "better angels of our nature" is in there somewhere among the current mess.
4
The article should really be titled, "McCain and a Requiem for the Republican Party." John McCain was dedicated, in both war and peace, to defending the Constitution and its democratic "rule of law." His passing marks the demise of the Grand Old Party, the Party of Lincoln that fought to preserve the Union so that "government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." With his death we now are in the midst of a new Civil War between an autocratic, anti-Constitutional Trumpublican Party and those, like John McCain, who support our Constitutional democracy. The battle lines have been clearly drawn and the outcome of a political Gettysburg will be in the hands of the voters this November. As important as gun regulation, immigration reform, and health care are, the fundamental issue is the one John McCain gave his "last full measure devotion" to protect the Constitution and the values that have always made America great--dialogue, civil debate, respect for others, and political compromise.
17
In case Governor Doug Ducey has not made a decision regarding John McCain’s replacement, I nominate his daughter, Meghan McCain. Her reflection on what her father meant to both the country and his family was incredibly moving, but it also demonstrated the strong intelligence, powerful character, animating spirit and immovable will that defined her father. Of all the people whose names have been floated over the past week, I can think of no one who rises to her level.
18
@Ockham9 I agree. She was magnificent.
3
I completely disagree with Meghan McCain's statement that America was always great. Maybe she should ask the Native-Americans and Afro-Americans how they feel about that even today.
Roger Cohen shrugs off the fact that John McCain "bombed Vietnam" in a trumped up war against a country that helped the US fight Japan in a real war. He became a hero after he was captured not because what he did before that.
5
The "American Century" lasted a mere 71 years, from 1945 until precisely January 20, 2017. I hope you all enjoyed it because it is finished and is not going to recur. We now begin the inexorable post-empire transition in which we will become a larger version of France or Spain - which may not be an entirely bad thing as the food should get better and we can stop spending an inordinate amount of our treasure on the Pentagon.
8
@Jason Shapiro... You forget to mention England which is actually living at this very moment an excruciating and painful adventure trying to still recreate those Great Days of the British Empire.
1
The stone-faced Mitch McConnell at Senator McCain's funeral service is the prime example of the unprincipled politicians that McCain railed against and that were rebuked in his eulogies.
He showed not the slightest hint of embarrassment when President Obama said this:
"John cared about the institutions of self-government – our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, rule of law and 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 and give shape and order to our common life, even when we disagree, especially when we disagree."
All that was missing was McConnell's smirk.
39
Senator McCain may have been a military hero, but he was no political hero.
Over the last 10 years, Senator McCain became the walking and talking embodiment of the argument for term limits.
While managing to praise Senator McCain, Mr. Cohen acknowledges that "I disagreed with McCain about many things." In that regard - given the fact that many on the right and many on the left also disagreed with Senator McCain - it can be said (perhaps as a stretch) that he achieved bipartisan status.
11
@Maurice Gatien
I think it is not term limits we need urgently, but AGE limits. As I proposed before, the age limit should be 72 (or 70) on the day a term expires, meaning in the Senate a candidate could not be older than 66 (64) on her/his last campaign, a House member 70 (68), a President 68 (66) etc.
This would be much more effective than term limits. People would get into politics earlier = but if they are good they could still serve multiple terms.
The politics shoved down our throats are the politics of the elderly and obstinate.
11
How sad that a man of McCain's courage and integrity was so lacking in judgement that he saw the GOP as committed to societal betterment as he was. I still remember the 1965 Republican Convention when the GOP committed itself to tear down the greatest evolution in human development rather than continue to build it up.
I was reminded yesterday of what holds us together rather than what pulls us apart.
When I was growing up we had monarch butterflies everywhere. They started to disappear and soon there were scarcely to be seen. Ten years ago the Quebec government started asking farmer and towns to help preserve the monarchs. The government asked us to preserve stands of milkweed. A drive through our country side will yield milkweed stands in the middle of immaculate fields of grains and vegetables. In Quebec we have a social contract that says we will do what we can to preserve family farms. Yesterday and today I understood what a social contract means. I saw more monarchs in two days than I had seen in the last ten years.
Many of us who loved and respected John McCain wonder how great John McCain could have been if he could only have understood what a social contract means. "Conservatism" is poison to a small overpopulated planet where only democracy can solve our major problems and only if OUR governments are strong and allowed to exercise control will the 99% prosper.
31
@Memphrie et Moi I see monarchs every year. They usually migrate around late September, but they are already moving here now courtesy of unexpected cool fronts from Canada. Are you planting butterfly friendly plants in your area? Our parks encourage that. Maybe you could work on that. All being said, your post is pretty off topic.
What largely goes unsaid by media pundits, whose default position appears to be "false equivalence," is that what truly distinguished John McCain is not some unique personality traits or character. It's that he bucked party orthodoxy to embrace relatively progressive positions -- albeit on too infrequent occasions -- positions that were unremarkable among Democrats.
So whether the issue was immigration reform, or acknowledging the need to battle climate change, it's not to diminish John McCain to say, to use a term Jon Stewart used in another context, that McCain may have been one of the "thinnest men in the GOP fat camp."
10
@Don Davis If I might add to your list: Campaign finance reform.
Over the last week there have been lots of questions about why Sen. McCain's death and life has had such a profound response from many different corners and people of different beliefs. I don't think it's a mystery. He represents something we are afraid we have lost and cannot get back. The only question is, is it lost forever? If we learn nothing else from this, it should be what do we DO next. After the stories and remembrances and ceremonies. If there is to be a legacy, what the heck is it for each of us and all of us? If it's just feelings and comments, then we have missed the point.
16
A truly impressive funeral for a man deserving of one.
But Trump’s final departure, I believe whenever it comes, will be even more impressive, with millions of Americans happily standing in line waiting for one last chance to check his pulse; notwithstanding the fact that the Trump family will likely decide to charge for admission.
41
American idealism brought optimism. McCain was a very fine example of that and some. Not least courage.
As a Frenchman who has spent all his adult life here in America, as an immigrant, I too mourn his passing. I am also deeply inspired by the profund show of respect, the dignity of the soldiers carrying their brother in arms. Now that I have become a citizen, and as a citizen of the world, it stands in stark contrast to our perilous times.
16
In full disclosure, I voted for Obama over McCain and always found McCain completely out of touch with real people. In spite of the canonization of St. John that the media has now embarked upon, I only remember a man who saw no war that he did not like for US to enter. It is unfortunate that the funeral has become politicized, with McCain's daughter's unfortunate comments about Making America Great (Make American Go to War Again if we do what John McCain wants). Even Obama's comments about "manufactured outrage" is being taken by the Zelleny (the official Washington complete conformist types on CNN) to be a strike against Trump, but it also could be taken as a strike against progressives and CNN who manufacture outrage on almost every issue today.
20
@Dan, thank you. Highly perceptive post. How many millions of Americans feel the same.
10
@Dan The battle was always the insulated elites against us. Back in the day, Democrats used to favor "kitchen table values." The problem is that once they gained power, they doubled down to stay in power. Look at congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle. Most of them came into politics during Watergate and never left. As a result they have passed bills that allowed them to become very wealthy and to bypass the issues average Americans endure. I'm not of the camp who blindly accepts one candidate over another, but when I read both sides, right now the attitudes being pushed by the headlines on the Left are scary. I don't think I'm alone in that. Given a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea you choose that person you think will help your family survive. Right now, like it or not, more people are employed and doing better than they were under all eight years of Obama and the Democrats. I can't help but think the media is trying to cast McCain as some sort of bridge, when he was one of the least willing people in the Senate to compromise on anything.
2
@Dan The "outrage," to use your word, of not only "progressives and CNN" but also of millions of Americans who occupy spots at the center of our political spectrum is hardly "manufactured."
Quite frankly, Trump's soiling of our rituals, traditions, values, principles and ideals with his lies, his inhumane policies, his weaponizing of basic institutions in order to protect himself and attack anyone who disagrees with or opposes him, his pathetic need for attention/approval which is satisfied by a pathetic few white people who respond to his demagogic, grievance-oriented adulation-fests, his projective blaming/shaming, his total lack of concern for the most vulnerable both in our country and around the world and his omnipresent self-interest are sufficient to evoke outrage without one having to pull out a tool box and do any "manufacturing."
But Trump is a master at manufacturing and then stoking outrage among his dwindling base. Anger and grievance combine to form the only currency of his political economy. Inspiration? Aspiration? Devotion to that which actually makes America great? Neither of the three are to be found in what is becoming Trump's "American Carnage."
He is neither worthy of nor fit for the office he occupies. I, too, voted for Obama. But I never doubted John McCain's worthiness or fitness---his resume would have been more than adequate.
2
McCain's honorable treatment of Obama during the election campaign in 2008 stands out. McCain was hostile to Russia, not steadfast, as most of the US Congress. McCain had the embarrassment of extolling a Syrian jihadist while at the same time they were kidnapping a moderate Syrian.
3
Pleaser, enough of this spectacle.The man organized every detail of this show to mythologize himself. Why are people and the press playing along? I suppose he chose the songs, and the pallbearers, and maybe he even told the eulogists what to say. Did he raise funds for a library to safeguard his memory and legacy? So many war heroes. As a senator he did his job, no outstanding performance, as a presidential candidate, not very good choices. Are we giving heroic funerals now to people for being more or less decent and not extremely polarizing? Why all this state fanfare? This is Kafkian.
23
@tdb Absolutely correct. These liberal opinion writers sang different tunes when he was alive. Their only poking jabs at Trump with all this tribute to McCain.
3
We will always remember you, John Mc Cain. Thank you, for you have given your all, and more.
America loves you, always.
God Bless John S. McCain and all he stands, and stood, for.
10
What honor?what decency?What duty?Hollow Words!
7
It is getting ludicrous to take Trump seriously. This week is one more nail in Trump's virtual coffin.
11
I think some of the bitter, even jealous comments, may come from a reflection on our own lives that comes when at a time like this and we see how truly small we are.
11
I just finished watching the tributes to John McCain at the National Cathedral and if a requiem was being played by the tomb of America's core values, what I heard was the sound of McCain rolling away the stone.
16
@kfm
Lovely, elegant comment, about John McCain’s memorials rolling away the stone from any tomb for America’s core values.
4
McCain brings to mind Ethan Edwards, the fictional hero portrayed by John Wayne in 'The Searchers', considered one of the finest movies ever made. As I puzzle over the many paradoxes surrounding Senator McCain's life, and his near deification upon passing at this pivotal time in our nation's history I am humbled contemplating the parallels. Ethan Edwards at first glance is a rather unappealing, tough, insensitive military man who embarks on a seemingly hopeless expedition, hopeless to the point of foolishness, perhaps. In fact his behavior is, yes, reprehensible and downright silly and foolish. However, he is, when the story is told, clearly a great, great man. How resolve the paradox?
By observing that without the Ethan Edwards of this world, unappealing, uncouth and terrible as they may often be, civilization would be next to impossible. Those of us who are poor decent and often weak people would perish overnight, along with those of us who are not so poor, decent or weak.
RIP John McCain.
6
The funeral today is not just for John McCain, but also for the America that used to be. It was pretty much already dead before McCain passed away, and the last few flickers of light seem to be dying out by the day.
That older America was far from perfect. There were plenty of flaws and failings, and much that was infuriating. But is this new America really better? Or is it more a case of simply going from bad to unimaginably worse?
26
For all his faults, McCain was a reasonable facsimile of a senator, sometimes eloquent, sometimes open to reason and willing to comprise because that is the essence of the deliberative body that Congress should be. He admitted his mistakes, knew that he was imperfect, as are we all. What his death makes us realize is just how deeply broken and lost we have become. Make no mistake, Trump is a dictator buoyed by opportunists who seek only to create a world of master and servants. McCain, for all his faults, would've never fomented the destruction of the Republic.
28
A recurring theme among conservatives today involves criticizing those who have opposed McCain in the past for honoring him today.
They fail to recognize one of his most important lesson: that honorable people can disagree and still respect each other.
Honorable Americans can acknowledge each other’s patriotism while disagreeing about how to govern the country.
Honorable leaders reject zero-sum outcomes and seek solutions that benefit everyone.
Members of the current administration and its sycophantic state media outlets lack the capacity to understand these higher truths, and thus find it impossible to understand why others honor McCain, or how far short of his example they fall.
24
McCain's hope to inspire partisanship is a noble aspiration, but in fact he was sporadic in his own participation in that same endeavor. Perhaps if he had been more consistent in the practice his message would be more powerful, for McCain was solidly "tribal" when he supported the denial of Barrack Obama's right and duty to choose a supreme court justice and made clear it would continue if Clinton would have been elected. None of us is perfect, but one's principles of fairness should remain consistent and refrain from being opportunistic. He was a good man, but had he consistently lived the principles he espoused, his actions might have spoken more loudly than all the eulogies.
17
I have never voted GOP in my life and didn't vote for McCain in 2008, but I have to thank him for one final act of public service: excluding Trump from any participation in his funeral.
I think McCain knew what he was doing with that exclusion: highlighting in a very public, impossible-to-miss fashion what a contemptible, negligible, shun-worthy character Trump is.
Thank you, John McCain. Sometimes shunning is the most effective way to call attention to something truly odious. Something like the current occupant of the White House.
Well done. The contrast is damning and unmissable. Thanks for shining that light. Not too many people get the chance to do a good deed after they're dead. You did. Good job!
200
@GreenGene Trump is attempting to do something else no other politician has done, deny raises to federal government employees. In my estimation, over paid, over compensated. They're certainly not on par with the private sector, April 2017 Congressional Budget Office. They don't warranty or deserve a raise.
1
How many mourners with integrity and morals will be at Trump's funeral? Very, very few if any.
15
The most hopefull moment of the funeral, for me, was when the chorus sang, "His truth is marching on."
6
McCain’s era may have given way to Trumpism (with an assist, as you say, from McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin), but at least for a few days, the memorials for him have brought back into focus the real America. Tomorrow, it’s back to cruelty and mendacity as the guiding principles of American politics. But for a few days, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution have been cleansed of the sewage That Trumpism has covered them with.
27
I disagreed with virtually all that the Senator represented - and found some of his choices outright scandalous and dangerous. And also self-serving.
But regardless of THAT, he still represents what was good about our nation politically because he drew a line as in how far he would go to achieve his stated goals. And that line lay decidedly both within out constitutional framework as well as within human decency (except for that horrid mistake Palin). The Paul Ryan / Mitch McConnell looting and destructive Congress plus the bullying imbecile President are all decidedly outside those lines.
24
It is a fitting irony that as Senator McCain is laid to rest which Judge Kavanaugh approaches the Supreme Court bench. While McCain was reminding us of the immorality, uselessness, and illegality of torture Judge Kavanaugh, then White House Counsel, was likely advising President Bush that torture is A-okay. That is why Republicans will not allow the American people to see Kavanaugh's White House records; they know we would be horrified to learn that Kavanaugh wants to take us back to the middle ages when women were condemned to birthing children born of rape and incest and captured soldiers were destined for torture.
17
It is confusing how short everyone's memory is, especially on the left. Ronald Reagan was considered a warmongering lightweight at best, and a lunatic and an idiot at worst, but now is routinely described as one of the best presidents ever. George W. was a dumb, silver spoon fed, big money puppet, and now we hear warm tones as he delivers a eulogy for McCain. I wonder if there will be a reassessment of Trump somewhere down the line, let's say if Steven Segal becomes POTUS?
6
@Henry K.
I do not know anyone who has changed their view on Reagan or Bush. That Bush speaks at these events and some fanboys in the press are swooning over former Presidents does not change the historic and accurate assessment: Both Reagan and Bush II were criminals.
14
@Henry K. Opinions of Reagan and Bush have not changed (and you describe them well) it is just that they did not call all Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists, and they did not ever say Democrats were an enemy poised to commit violence if they lost an election. They had respect for the press and the rule of law. We have not forgotten who Reagan and Bush were; it is comparison with Trump that has revealed them to have been at least decent people.
13
@Sherry Jones Beautifully said.:-)
Dear America:
Take a long look in the mirror.
You will see Trump and the GOP right now, bloated and suppurating, something like Steve Bannon.
Face up to that fact as you would a long period of ill health resulting from bad diet and bad habits.
Do what has to be done before it kills you.
Yours Sincerely,
A loving relative.
36
Cohen is dead in here, absolutely dead on.
Trump will not conveniently self destruct despite all the obvious indicators that he should. The Party that underpins his presidency will not go that way no matter how painful or destructive his execution of office may be to them or the nation.
McCain was for them mostly a nagging and unwanted voice that accomplished little in the face of the Trump debacle.
Unfortunately the profound American political crisis, which is far more fundamental than just DJT, goes unanswered by either of the two dominant political parties that in large measure engineered it.
5
"Jingoistic idiocy" is the most apt description of the Republican persona non grata I've ever heard. Why do people buy into this nonsense? And they really do. Someone was arrested this week for threatening the Boston Globe. Among a vast array of profanity the phrase "enemy of the people" emerged. Don't get me started on Pizzagate or the many other examples of idiocy that translated into real world violence.
I don't mean to be insulting here but there's no need for false equivalence anymore. We are allowed to call something "stupid" when we see something stupid. Truth be told, Republicans are stupid. The lies and manipulation are hiding in broad daylight and still the devotees cheer. Rally fans should hold signs saying "I'm an idiot and so can you!"
The common disclaimer these days is "You don't have to agree with the man to agree with his policies." Meanwhile, you can sense the smirking grin as they secretly applaud our current depravity. The Fact is: The man and the policy are inseparable. Your can't compartmentalize morality or so the saying goes.
"The true tragedy in this case is the collapse of the President's moral authority. He undermined himself when he wagged his finger and lied to the nation on national TV ... That did more damage to his credibility than any other single act. There was no better reason than that for the resignation by this President."
Charles E. Grassley
Republican of Iowa
Thanks to McCain for demonstrating how character matters.
7
America is strong not because of our might. America is strong because of our high ideals as embodied by the Constitution. After the second world war, America sought no new territory nor tribute. Instead, America helped its former enemies to rebuild. By pulling Germany firmly into the democratic orbit, its has nucleated the formation of the European Union with our allies, UK and France. By building up democracy in Japan, it series as the nucleus of democracy in the fast east. At the height of the American century, the iron curtain crumbled and both Russia and China started westernizing. The world was becoming more like America and we were all but certain that the war of ideas was won. Today, many of these precious achievements appear to be evaporating. Is this just a swing of the historic pendulum? Or, did we sleep walked for thirty years enriching some of us while rarely living up to our ideals? Ideas have power only if people choose to believe in them. People around the world have grown disillusioned when we took shortcuts and failed to live up to our own standards. Even more sadly, by electing Trump, many Americans appear ready to trade in high ideals for safety in isolation. This is again a time of choosing. Do we keep faith with the ideals that define America or do we retreat and be lost in the dust bin of history? There is no doubt that the ideals of America has remained as vital as the day that the Constitution was written.
67
Our current president's name did not have to be mentioned by the speakers at today's funeral for Senator John McCain. Each word of praise for John McCain diminished in every way the present occupant of the White House. What a monumental (and deserved) slap in the face.
146
Agree with Trump. A selfish, lying, grandstanding, swamp permanent resident and parasite. Happy to see him go. His permanent absence will be greatly appreciated. The country will be stronger without him. His self directed largess funeral is out of proportion to who he truly was.
2
Speak no ill of the dead especially for someone like McCain. But precisely because of all the praises heaped upon him, I think it is important to point out a few things he, as he was praised, should have done.
I started watching the 2008 election with the thought, "Unlike the usual politicians, McCain is an honorable man, having been a soldier, a pow..." But that thought gradually subsided as I watched his campaign, with Palin, for the next few weeks.
Much focus was on the incident when he corrected an old woman making false accusation of Obama. But everybody seem to have forgotten his whole campaign was littered and pervaded with many falsehoods against Obama, not just that one instance. In fact, his whole party and the Right frequently, routinely distorted reality and promoted lies, and essentially laid the foundation that gives rise to someone like Trump.
In the subsequent 8 years, when his party acted obstructionist, did he try to change that? I didn't see it.
In the past year of Trump administration, besides verbal criticism, what did he actually do? Did he propose a bill to compel Trump to release his taxes, vote against the obviously ruinous and corrupt tax cut bill, insisted his party's Congress exercise their oversight duty against the corruption of the executive branch....? What did he do?
Trump is absent from his funeral today, Hurrah!? The entire Republican Party leadership, the root creator and enabler of Trump are there, along with Trump's top officials.
18
It's 'too bad' that trump won't get to see that his own funeral, compared to Mr. McCain's, will make his inaugural crowd comparison to President Obama's 'look good.'
Unfortunately, there 'necessarily' will be some measure of presidential ceremony should trump happen to 'pass' while in office -- albeit a measure more like that for the 'passing' of an officeholder a rank or two above dog catcher.
But if trump 'goes' post-office (!?!), I expect that the size of his funeral rituals will be about as 'YUGE' as the sales of a middling wedding band's self-published demo-records.
6
@Thomas Murray. Trump's super-ego alone will fill up any cathedral no matter how huge, without any need for a crowd.
John McCain, and despite his many vaults, represented the values of real America, an America that is lost on Trump and his base supporters. McCain in both life and death called for us to stand for duty, honor, and service instead of intolerance, racism, and authoritarianism. How long must we endure this nest of treasonous vipers? When will we say enough to the grifters who only serve our nation in order to personally line their pockets?
5
Interesting column.
McCain was a moderate, an increasingly dangerous place to be in American policy. You get attacked by both the right and the left
"McCain has been a crucial enabler of the Senate’s shame — and a world-class hypocrite to boot. "
Paul Krugman :"The Sanctimony and Sin of G.O.P. ‘Moderates’ " NYT 7/27/17
Add to this that peripatetic globetrotter such as Mr. Cohen, equally at home everywhere, don't value values attached to country , home. dislike of coercion (cause of McCains vacillations on Obamacare), patriotism, and honor, an increasingly foreign concept to today's politicians, and it strikes you that he was the last of a dying breed.
Rest in peace Mr. McCain. You lived an honorable life.
3
In these dark times, it is vitally important (and at least intermittently reassuring) to have eloquent restatement of the ideals that have animated the best parts of our Nation's and our People's histories. Thank you Roger Cohen.
7
I think we run the risk of giving Trump and his Republican supporters far too much credit when we claim that the old value system that John McCain believed in is now moribund. I understand the temptation to see it that way now, but there are good reasons to believe that this situation will not last. Human beings and human nature do not change. The longer Trump continues, the more people he offends and hurts. So far he has been lucky, but that is not bound to last.
The vast majority of Americans disapprove of Trump, and those old values still remain intact.
7
@David. Our only hope, "you can fool all the people only some of the tome". Yes, Trump's time will come....hopefully very soon.
It is not President Trump but rather time itself that is pulverizing held beliefs of a past that were in question even at the time the events occurred. Let the late senator rest in peace, he was a victim of misguided ideals of honor and country when neither was in play, and suffered tremendously for his actions.
2
The america that once aspired to decency is dead. We now need to build new countries out of the wreckage of the old.
#calexit
6
@Mark
Supporting you wholeheartedly. I would like to become a new citizen of California after #calexit
3
@Mark—
As a native Northern Californian who has watched from afar as my once-beloved State has destroyed itself, by all means, “#calexit!”
Most of the rest of the states in the Union—with only a few exceptions—will be more than happy to see you go!
1
The contrast between the McCain funeral and the Trump treasonous trash GOP couldn't be more glaring.
What we now have is a looting administration, taking all that was good and respected in this country and prostituting it for short-term gain. And it's aided and abetted by people who claim to be clergy but just worship money an power. We have a Supreme Court nominee with real questions about a $100,000 "baseball ticket debt" discharged by "friends," hinting that his services could somehow be for sale--but his access to 100,000 pages of his professional record have been blocked by this White House.
Where did we see this last, I wonder? Ah, yes, the looting stage known as the Gouvernement-General in Nazi-occupied Poland, from 1939-45, headed up by Hitler's lawyer Hans Frank. Frank was judged harshly by history and at Nuremberg, earning the death sentence.
Let's end this nightmare by voting, and make life a nightmare for Trump and his collaborators.
26
@Carl Ian Schwartz
"The contrast between ... etc etc"
Its a funeral. Please save your analysis of good and evil at least until the body has gone cold.
1
Sadly, I have to respectfully disagree. I am a proud liberal and patriot. I love my country, I disagreed almost completely with virtually every political point of view of the late senator, but I agreed that America was exceptional and should be the shining city on the hill. when I talk to my 13 year old daughter and hear how antiquated she thinks my view of greedy, dirty America is, it saddens me to think how badly we have failed our children and in her mind our planet.
8
Thank you, Mr. Cohen for this balanced picture. McCain was not perfect. To all the people who would judge him harshly for that simple. human fact I ask: And, what have you done for your country? What ideas have you articulated to help people as Sen. McCain did? Please quit trying to denigrate a man who you now judge was "not perfect." Get over yourself, and get out and live such an imperfect life.
16
Watching McCain’s funeral at National Cathedral.
Every single message emphasizes how he believed in every American, believed in the enduring greatness of America, believed in bipartisanship.
Every message makes it clear that the one American leader who would have been inappropriate in that cathedral would be the current prez, who should have shut up with competing tweet attempts, rallies with bigots and polarizing attempts to break trade agreements with our closest neighbors.
85
McCain's life and values reveals in stark contrast the small, sad, pathetic mean and spiteful values and morals of those that currently hold power in Congress and administration.
McCain was the first to say he was flawed and imperfect, and that he made mistakes. That alone garners respect that others will never have, let alone for the positive things he has done in his life.
10
@Marie
Yes he made mistakes: His final mistake was to use his death as a way of getting even.
A sad reflection on Christian values in the USA.
1
McCain's staged funeral constant reporting has gone too far. I can't believe that the Senator himself designed his own public funeral making arrangements for every single detail of the event. He even made literally personal invitations to public figures to be anything from his pallbearers to speakers giving his eulogies. And to arrange to lie in state as if he were a presidential figure is a bit galling. Is he going to have a "senatorial" or "presidential candidate" library too? This was a regular senator passing in a normal way in peace time (albeit in admittedly a time of political turmoil in the nation). A week of this story in the front page is going too far. And the press playing along.
4
@tdb, you are missing the point, as Roger clearly did not. This has been a funeral for our way of life, for our system of government. At best Hillary would have been a pretty good place-holder, but she did not have the leadership skills and moxie to lead us to the future. I do not think anyone in the democratic party can do so. And the GOP? Everyone of them is complicit with trump and his team in the destruction- their repulsive actions are all so a few among us can hoard more dollars, all so a true minority can dominate the courts so we go backwards in protection of equality and civil liberties. I think this is a funeral worth holding-- and I am surprised a fellow Californian does not see it that way too.
5
@tdbmccain,s funeral was a chance before the midterms to get into the open the rottenness of potus. May the imbeciles who still admire potus will develop a conscience or a sense of their smothered humanity. Jw
3
During McCain's service at the National Cathedral, I was struck by what is so different by our time now in American politics versus in days past. In looking at all the Presidents sitting in a row, I thought that these leaders still always had the US' best interests as an overarching principle even if I didn't always agree with their policies or means and that sometimes their efforts were misdirected.
That principle does not exist with the Trump Administration.
10
John McCain understood, as Donald Trump never will, that the greatness of America is directly proportional to its commitment to its ideals and its ability to put those ideals into practice.
As wedded to pushing America's military power as he was, John McCain did not mistake that power for the source of American greatness.
His stand against torture is his monument; his refusal to use the brutality of his treatment when a prisoner of war as license to justify torture on behalf of the United States, his legacy.
Physical courage is one thing; but moral courage, the courage to maintain one's strength of character, one's humanity, when all around you are urging you to abandon principle for safety, that is quite another.
John McCain had both; but of the two, it was the latter that served his country most.
When Donald Trump and much of the rest of the Republican Party pushed the "Birther" lie about Barack Obama, John McCain refused.
When Donald Trump became president and the rest of the Republican Party fell meekly in line behind him, John McCain refused to walk in lock-step.
As ambitious as he was, as many compromises that he made to that ambition, he never lost his deep and abiding support for American ideals of democracy, fairness, and basic decency. He never compromised his enduring commitment to serving his country.
Rest in peace, John McCain - you've earned it.
10
Torture imbued him with a humanity that transcended politics, after he dropped bombs on small people living in grass huts.
3
« As a spineless Republican Party folded into the Trump Party, McCain came to stand almost alone as a politician of principle. His party moved. He did not. »
So how do you explain his decision to saddle up with Sarah Palin?
4
@Alix Hoquet- his decision to saddle up with Sarah Palin?
As we are learning, again, he wanted Joe Lieberman. A Democrat. His party refused. They threatened not to confirm him as the party's nominee. The party selected Palin for him.
11
@Marie
I think he regrets not having stood firm, which might have sent Obama unopposed to the election I assume or who would the Rs have nominated instead?
It's all relative. We need a person like McCain to eulogize over in order to bring into sharp focus how far we have sunk. I only wish he had lasted a few more weeks. Now, come election time, he will likely have been forgotten. But Meghan's intense eulogy can never be forgotten.
8
@Bob in NM
Obama’s words are also memorable:
“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse, can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult, in phony controversies and manufactured outrage. It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born of fear.
“John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.”
2
Remember when McCain crashed his plane into the ocean when he was in the Navy? Later on he knocked down power lines. Even later a bomb was ejected from a plane on an aircraft carrier that McCain had landed his plane on earlier. The bomb exploded and injured and killed Military personnel. The investigation to determine who was responsible was terminated by McCain's father, who was Admiral of the entire Pacific fleet. Meanwhile, McCain was decorated for his "heroism" on the flight deck. McCain committed treason by teaching the Vietnamese how to read and write English when he was a prisoner of war because of his incompetence as a pilot and he received special treatment at the expense of his fellow soldiers. McCain is an arrogant, self entitled military brat who begged his daddy to let him fly planes.
4
Can you guys just report the news, instead of constantly beat up on Trump?
4
@Elliott
There is a difference between news and opinion/editorial. The difference is that the Times labels each as such where purveyors on the right make no such distinction.
And. by the way, it was opinion - that we should live free and govern ourselves - that formed this country. Just reporting the news would had continuing to live under the tyranny of a king.
11
@Elliott
Trump damaging the nation in matters great and small is the news.
10
@Elliott: They do report the news, but this is an editorial.
Whether you support his policies on not, Trump invites criticism through his behavior. It looks to me like a deliberate strategy to get him zillions of dollars of free publicity, and that helped him win the election.
4
Boy am I sick of hearing about McCain, who is being lauded for the one heroic thing he's done - stand up to Trump (sorta, kinda). He was a Republican through and through, and supported policies I abhor. He only looks good in comparison to the Trump and his sycophants who now own the Republican party.
17
I saw him by chance 20 years ago. I was in Carlisle, pa. It was Veterans Day. He drove up from DC to give a short address in the Square. No press. No staffers visible. The atmosphere was electric. I was very impressed.
He stood as a rebuke to nativism and the obviously emerging white fascism of the gop. There is no heir apparent.
5
" A war monger is laid to rest and so Is Truth"
6
"One dead John McCain, two million dead Iraqis”. Where are the tears for those he wanted to bomb? Perhaps we should be ashamed.
8
There's really no point in removing the flag from McCain's coffin. Just go ahead and bury it, along with the nation.
62
@Big Text Well said. Thanks
3
"resolve toward Vladimir Putin’s Russia." - Roger Cohen
Reality:
Mr. Obama says: "On all these issues, but particularly missile defence, this, this can be solved but it's important for him to give me space."
Mr Medyedev replies: "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you …"
Mr Obama retorts: "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."
1
Roger, I think you are wrong about McCain being a dinosaur. Although we have been prehistoric in our choice of President, always remember that Trump is the one who is the dinosaur. Most of the rest of us love this country and know it was great but sometimes flawed before the President came along. The regression to racism, greed and corruption is not what McCain and most Americans condone. There are young people and old who will bring us back to the virtues that represent what this country believes in, but it will take some work. Trump is the one that took us back in history.
98
@Sunny Garnering
In typical fashion for those who think they are in charge of Trump bashing, you tell us we have to remember that Trump is the dinosaur. Well, I despise Trump, but I don’t see it that way. Remember back to Obama’s second term. The Republicans had but one idea— say no to everything the Democrats proposed. They were a bankrupt party. Then Trump came along. Trump had a suitcase full of maniacal ideas. And he turned saying no into his twisted agenda. Oppose Obamacare, sound foreign policy, immigration, environmental regulation, net neutrality, budget balancing, women’s health, and on and on.
Trump is not a dinosaur. He is the Naysayer who has dedicated himself to the destruction of hope and change. He’s not an outsized relic of the past. He is the Grinch, and he is in the here and now, bent on destruction. His goal isn’t to restore the past. It is to destroy the very essence of Whoville.
6
The only reason the leftist media cares at all about the death of John McCain is that he did not get along with Trump If he was a Trump ally his death would be getting only a fraction of the coverage it is receiving. It is just the latest installment of Trump derangement syndrome with John McCain playing the gentle civilized Republican and Trump the uncouth rude one. In a few days a new way to attack Trump will arise from some new subject. None of it will succeed
20
@Harry If McCain were a Trump ally, then Trump wouldn't be a different person: it's not the embrace of the person McCain, it's the embrace of his values.
2
What will bring down Trump is Trump.
7
McCain ,who was a great man, had values that only matter to leftists to the extent that he did things to help the Democrats. Something no Democrat ever does or will anytime soon
There is no denying that McCain looks great next to Trump. But I question the depiction of him as a man of high honor. His statements about torture are questionable. Many reputable sources, including CNN, have reported that he disclosed military secrets when he was tortured. So much for the idea that torture doesn’t work.
McCain divorced his first wife who had been disfigured in an accident and married a girl 18 years youger. So much for honor. In addition he was one of the Keating Five, whose conduct during the S&L crisis was deemed reprehensible. So much for integrity. And he ran ultra conservative campaigns to please Arizona Republicans, and then returned to DC and broke all his promises.
Don’t get me wrong, McCain had his moments and was better than many. I’d say that for every good move on his part, there was a bad one. So lionizing him strikes me as wrong. The guy lived large with admirable accomplishments and shameful betrayals. I’d give him a net zero, which isn’t so bad for Republicans these days.
10
@michjas
Maybe a man wounded for life ( who couldn’t even raise his arm to comb his hair after the bodily damage from years of torture) just needed something different in a wife.
It is hard to judge the interior of a marriage that we are not in.
1
Enough already. McCain was a warmonger and a loud cheerleader for our tragic misguided wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was trigger happy. He saw no young people he did not want to be able to mourn with that term he overused again and again, “hallowed sacrifice.” He was frequently angry and often of hasty and poor judgment. Let it be.
10
Politics is a form of religion to many people. There is no other way to explain this column. McCain was a complex man, but these ridiculous one sided tributes are an assault on history. It’s fine to stay silent about his flaws until some decent interval, but columns like this are really a display of narcissism by America’s political and pundit classes.
9
Roger Cohen may love John McCain today but this is what he wrote in a 2008 column, after McCain was defeated by Barack Obama:
"Beyond Iraq, beyond the economy, beyond health care, there was something even more fundamental at stake in this U.S. election won by Barack Obama: the self-respect of the American people." [In other words, McCain's election would have lost the self respect that Obama won.]
"Against all this, Obama made a simple bet and stuck to it. If you trusted in the fundamental decency, civility and good sense of the American people, even at the end of a season of fear and loss, you could forge a new politics and win the day." [...in contrast to John McCain, who apparently did not represent "the fundamental decency, civility and good sense of the American people".]
"An idea has power. John McCain had many things in this campaign, but an idea was not one of them."
"McCain flailed, opting on a whim for a sidekick, Sarah Palin, who personified the very “country-first” intolerance and Bush-like small-mindedness of which many Americans had grown as weary as the world."
Isn't it amazing how Roger Cohen transforms John McCain from a poor choice for President in 2008 to an American icon - in only 10 years?
10
Can America somehow forgive John McCain for elevating the desperate flinging about of Sarah Palin. For all his humaness that came from surviving the unthinkable in Hanoi, he introduced the flim flam huckstering that now passes as political savvy in the Republican Party. The juxtaposition of the possibility of the first African American President and a low life racist from Wassila overshadowed McCain's campaign for the office he cherished most. He allowed American politics and the grand ideas enshrined in our Constitution to become the Jerry Springer show with people throwing chairs enthralling people who just wanted to throw chairs. But John McCain is not responsible for Donald Trump. We are. And we need to do something about it at the voting booth rather than normalize the situation. In this we need to follow McCain's lead.
8
To understand how far removed from the “American century” Donald Trump is, consider that, in the trial, the United States of America vs. Paul Manafort, in which the latter was found guilty of stealing millions of dollars from the former and its citizens, the ostensible president of the USA sided with the felonious criminal, not the country he putatively leads. Adding insult to injury, after refusing to praise Senator McCain, he lauded Manafort as “good,” “brave” and worthy for not “breaking”. When a US President sides with a treasonous felon over and above the country whose constitution he swore to defend, not only is the
“American century” in danger of fading into distant memory, each and every one of its citizenry is threatened beyond imagining.
5
McCain’s funeral today represents, among many other things, a giant rebuke of Trumpism, one which the country was badly in need of.
Thanks John for planning it that way.
146
@A. Stanton
Trump is the one American leader who would have been out of place in the National Cathedral during that funeral.
He is dishonorable, and not a public servant like many of the others who were there.
McCain stood for endurance, duty, and for keeping faith in something greater than self: honor, America, and love of all fellow citizens.
3
Only in a country where a Trump is president would McCain be deemed a great man and a great patriot. He was neither, but he was an exceptionally brave and honorable soldier. Great Senator? Debatable. Potentially great president? After choosing Sarah Palin for running mate???? I have lived too long outside the United States to understand the cult of war heroes.
13
In no way do I want to demean John McCain or diminish his service to America. Having said that I always thought a hero was someone who put his life at risk to save someone else, usually, comrades in war or some gallant act to advance the cause of the nation. McCain and many others endured unbelievable torture and abuse at the hands of the North Vietnamese. His reported refusal to accept a release before others who had been there longer was indeed honorable and worthy of praise. What I have never understood is why McCain's heroism was popularized and publicized while his fellow prisoners faded away into obscurity. McCain with rare exception voted the Republican party line which has done more harm than good to the majority of Americans. Most people I know agree with me. There have been better Senators and far more heroic veterans who haven't received as much glorification in death. He has been put on a par with JFK which regrettably is far from deserved.
8
@dbl06. You can attribute the glorification to the vast amount of money that has been spent across the nation by the Republican Party. McCain was one of many Republican legislators who were the beneficiaries of that mountain of money, the purpose of which has been to destroy what is left of the FDR legacy of government for the people. Make no mistake, however brave he was, he was also a tool of the extreme right wing which is on target to put yet another hard right Catholic (5!) judge on the court although most of the nation is Protestant. Like authoritarian government? You’ll love our future.
3
@B. Rothman, I would also point out that he was praised by the press for reaching across the aisle which by the way is unusual for a Republican I would also venture to say that for every Republican who did so there have been 20 Democrats who have and received no recognition whatsoever.
1
"I disagreed with McCain about many things: his incorrigible itch to bomb Iran."
Oh, that.
10
It is past time we brought the over-the-top praise of John McCain to an end. Withstanding his efforts to bring some sanity to how political campaigns are financed in this country, McCain was a conservative and often rabidly partisan Republican. He was not a lion of the senate but an average United States Senator at best. That we have dealt with his passing in the fashion we have says a lot about the sad state of our Republic in the twenty-first century.
29
@jmgiardina
John Mccain did indeed embody admirable qualities of the post-war American character.
However, his appointment of the gun-toting "drill baby drill" Sara Palin as running mate fanned the embers of a virulent populism that has resulted in the election of Donald Trump.
11
@jmgiardina
I agree.
He was a reckless show off and a calculating attention hound.
Worst of all, a relentless war monger who has somehow, without real discussion, become this all-holy symbol of a jingoistic USA.
We can do better than John McCain for a national hero.
8
John McCain loved America, the freedoms provided its citizens and what it represented to the rest of the world. I pray that others will follow John McCain's lead. We can follow reason, common sense and empathy or continue on the path of darkness that now overshadows our nation. Country before party. That is his legacy.
5
@DD "Country over party"???? McCain rarely varied from the Republican party line, and even if he loved his country he supported policies that were divisive and harmful to the country. And what about Sarah Palin - who was every bit as bad as Trump himself?
4
Having experienced the “violent and turbulent” 1960’s, the self-preservation of youth protesting a war they called “unjust” was minor compared to the broader and greater ideals of African-Americans and young people of the time demonstrating social and government hypocrisy. Young men were forced into military conscription to fight a war for American and democratic values - equality, freedoms, rights, justice - many draftees were denied.
Sen. McCain embodied the greater ideals of this country. No one before has been labeled “a dinosaur” for standing for the greater good and fundamental democratic principles. Such an insult likely come from some fellow Republicans and wealthy individuals who are undermining constitutional rights and democratic principles in many State legislatures, the US Congress, and the Executive Branch today. Like President Trump in Helsinki, these individuals and elected officials sold out their country for political power only obtainable by serving anti-democratic ideas and forces, foreign and domestic. What was a successful struggle toward a more perfect Union in the 1960’s has been replaced by underhanded armchair anarchism driven by negative emotions - hate, greed, lust for power - and overt temerity to cover cowardice and treachery.
6
To paraphrase a once popular tune, Americans need a hero. We're fresh out. John McCain had many of the requisite qualities of that ilk. Take your last long look America. it may be some time before we see his like again...not perfection but intent to do what was right, and with dignity...always dignity.
4
I think there were two McCains, one before he was shot down, and another one after.
McCain was the son and grandson of Admirals. As such, he was admitted to Annapolis as a "legacy" candidate. His presence probably meant a more meritorious candidate did not gain admission. Once he was there, he disrespected his appointment by screwing around and graduating almost last in his class. One wonders, in a more conventional academic environment, if he would have been allowed to flunk out.
Somehow, notwithstanding his poor academic standing, he got to go to flight school. Crashing a plane in a lake, most candidates would be washed out. But not McCain. After he got his wings, he was involved in a cowboy flying incident in Europe where he ran into some electric power transmission lines. In Vietnam, he was on deck during a massive fire incident on his carrier, and some allege some responsibility on his part.
After being released from North Vietnam prison, McCain realized that he would not be a third generation Admiral, and got into politics instead. Early on, he got into hot water as part of the Keating 5. But with time, he redeemed his reputation
I agree he was a maverick legislator, but I never trusted him for judgement. I always thought that some of the old cowboy was lurking there. His Vice Presidential selection made it clear to me that judgement was lacking for the job. But at his core, he was a good person and worth having around in Washington.
32
Yes, he was a dinosaur, but he was a good dinosaur.
He served in Vietnam, in a war that marked the beginning of our slide. We committted 500,000, lost over 50,000, and lost the war. Vietnam was not our zenith, though it came as we topped.
Vietnam was our lowest... and we seem to be going lower.
Presidents Lyndon Baines Johnson and Richard Milhaus Nixon lied to us. Now we have a president that never seems to tell the truth.
Do Americans want the truth... or would we prefer to be told what we want to hear?
Is not this the question, tonight...
I am not sleeping well... and I know why.
For the first time since we invented the H-bomb following Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and I recall The Franck Report, long ignored...
For the first time, I am frightened... fear does strange things to people.
Fear of those difference produces prejudice, intolerance, and xenophobia.
Fear of sameness brings a thirst for those different...
I fear leaders that seek to inspire hatred of anyone...
Our present leader hates those different from us, or so he would have us believe.
The man is sick in the head... and in the soul.
I fear this man.
125
@S B Lewis
We and this nation will out live petty and mean Trump.
Enough of us still believe in every word of our Bill of Rights.
America annually spends as much on it's military as the next eight nations combined. Including 9x Russia and 3x China. But America has not made the world a better and safer place for American interests and values.
In a just world John McCain and the people who sent him to the illegal, immoral and inhumane Vietnam War would have been arrested and tried as war criminals. While those who opposed the Vietnam War would be honored as heroes. McCain volunteered while Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Chuck Schumer and Dan Quayle cowardly, dishonorably and unpatriotically dodged the military draft during the Vietnam War era.
John McCain was a warmonger who supported the equally immoral and inhumane wars in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Gaza , Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Wars that killed, wounded, displaced and made refugees of millions of people.
MAGA?
16
@Blackmamba nobody knows what Russia and China really spend. They have nukes. They are rivals. McCain grasped that.
Like the other commenters here I've been following this process for some time, and have come to this conclusion: its him or us. Either what we call American democracy will survive intact or we will descend into total fascist authoritarianism. There will be no middle ground. If allowed to remain in power Trump and his cult will continue to double down until there's nothing left. It's America or the abyss. Make your choice now, America. Pete McGuire, Atlanta
17
Oh, I don't know if Trump stands outside of American tradition, Roger.
As big a part of that tradition as the words of our founding documents are, we certainly have another long standing tradition of economic exploitation and snake oil Barnum-bunkum huckster grifting.
Trump stands fully within that tradition--and of the tradition of too many members of the American populace falling for those hucksters' claims.
24
He had bombed Vietnam in a losing war of confused aims and official obfuscation.
How many people did he kill with those bombs?
11
I am one of those “terrible” liberals mourning the passing of John McCain. The way i saw him was a man who understood liberty, not libertinage, as the most precious yet fragile value of the United States.
5
"The nationalist, nativist, xenophobic tide has not yet run its course."
We will know in November. Send a message. Vote Democratic in every race from Senator to dog catcher. Speaking of the latter, animal shelters do a better job of record keeping than the child hostage takers at ICE. We need a Democratic Congress, both Houses, to see that it does not resume.
10
Cohen is as usual not merely correct but elegantly correct: "Trump’s aim is the dismantlement of the world that gave McCain’s life purpose: the Atlantic Alliance, a rules-based international order, resolve toward Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Honor, decency and duty were ideas around which McCain built his life of service. They are concepts that have no meaning for Trump, the bone-spur rich kid from Queens."
It's clear to thoughtful people that America has had its century; in the 2000s its decline began; but the velocity and trajectory of that genu has been wildly, erratically hastened by Trump. Is he symptom or cause? I hope academia survives in the future to illuminate that question. (q.v., "Did Hitler cause or merely hasten WW2?")
Cohen is correct that 'checks and balances' brakes are scrap: the GOP is now the party of the "good people on both sides" that I covered in Charlottesville. Diplomacy and State careen from tweet to tweet. The rule of law is opacity, NDA's and dangled pardons. The Treaty of Westphalia drowns in resurgent tribalism.
The *only* question that must concern us is how this monster's fingers can be kept from the nuclear button --the ultimate distraction -- when Mueller's work is finished. I suspect that Cohen is no more optimistic than I am.
6
Still, bringing Sarah palin and her horrible family to the international stage was a huge error in judgement.
17
@Tears For USA
It was the downside of a compromise. He really wanted Liberman, who was an Independent, not a Republican. His campaign believed America would not tolerate it.
He believed staff that claimed she was “vetted”,and so he decided to give a chance for a woman vp.
Yes, terrible mistake. But understandable.
2
Trump supporters are grievance voters. They whine and cry that everyone is trying to take something from them. Instead of working to make America and themselves better, they would prefer to just sit back and blame others for their situation.
America is the greatest, most powerful, richest nation in the history of the world. Trump's constant bullying other people and other nations and whining about little grievances makes us all look small and petty.
17
@Ronny
America has the richest men within its borders. But it is certainly not the richest nation, when you consider the actual wealth and well being of its citizens. most of whom hover a pay check away from bankruptcy.
1
From the ancient age of Moses, Jesus and Mohammed to the contemporary times of Bush, Obama and Trump, the people haven’t learned how to separate the principles and the great ideas from the human personalities, religions and political parties.
That’s why the humanity has waged the endless religious wars instead of peaceful coexistence, why it equated the local tribal cultures with the faith, why it equaled the people and politicians to God and why the voters always allow the political parties to promise one thing only to implement completely opposite once in the power…
5
Ironic, isn’t it, that the end of American global dominance would be ushered in by a phony purveyor of false national pride? Whatever one thinks of America’s accomplishments or failings around the world, who can take encouragement in watching Trump make us less respected and less successful in every way?
9
John McCain’s courage during his capture, and torture, in Vietnam were immeasurable. Honorable. Resolute.
But since he chose the ridiculous and ignorant Sarah Palin as his running mate in his race for the presidency, and since he once quipped that the reason Chelsea Clinton was so ugly could be traced back to the fact Janet Reno was her father (so funny!), and since he voted as a pro-money conservative Republican over many years, John McCain is not my hero.
21
John McCain was an honorable and honest American. The (not so) Grand (anymore) Ole Party is short on people like McCain these days.
3
The preeminent warmonger of post WW2 America. The hundreds of thousands of victims of the military conflicts he dragged us into seem to be left out of the accolades.
21
McCain has a big hand in the demise of the USA, as do those who venerate his belief that war on other countries brings freedom.
21
Can someone, anyone, write something that is not about Donald Trump? For the love of God?
4
@Douglas Baines
You know, it's hard, because Mr. Trump is likely the most unpatriotic man ever to have held the office of POTUS. So unfortunately, he becomes a big distraction in contemplating the life of someone who was, for all his failings, at least a patriot who you can readily argue has acted in good faith, unlike Mr. Trump.
5
@Douglas Baines--------------------When a gigantic, rabid water buffalo is galloping down upon you it's difficult to sit down and have a nice cup of tea.
7
@Douglas Baines
If only we could collectively shun this presidency. But as I watch the memorial services, I believe we're doing precisely what Senator McCain would want us to do. Carry on the good fight. Continue to call out the anti-President at every opportunity. If not by name, certainly by comparison. It may be his most lasting legacy.
4
Watching Meghan McCain’s face today as Pence stood up there and pontificated, it suddenly struck me. John McCain didn’t disinvite Trump from his funeral to make a point from beyond the grave. He made it clear that Trump wasn’t welcome because he didn’t want to put his friends and family through that horrific experience! I cannot imagine trying to honor anyone I loved, creating a funeral that did them justice, and having to feel the tension while Trump waddled in and gave an idiotic eulogy, lauding himself in the process. I cringe just imagining it. Trump has so dishonored the Office of the Presidency that there IS no honor in his attending anything! There are simply no redeemable qualities in the man who is the current President. Sad. Truly sad.
14
Mr. Trump
Do you want to make America great again? Be like John McCain.
1
The more Trump is told he wasn't invited to the funeral so that it would bother him, the less it will bother him.
It is hard for many Americans who lack an international perspective to realize how badly their beloved America has turned out. The violence and vulgarity of American culture are shocking to most foreigners. The super rich who control American politics like to boast about the freedom that they enjoy without considering the enslavement of so many of their fellow citizens to drugs, crime, poor education, violence and fear. America is falling apart and its demagogue can do nothing to fix it.
27
@Robert Dole
We know how destructive current politics and Fox News
( banned in Canada), are.
I thank the Canadians for being our wonderful neighbors. You have a special place in the hearts of many of us, and we will become a better place. Enough of us are willing to do that work.
It's not just Trump. It's the whole cabal of modern Know-Nothings in the Republican Party. The stupids have taken over. The rest of the world will be wise to look elsewhere for leadership and inspiration. If, on the other hand, we can elect the Democrats again and get rid of the "America First" idiocy and all that goes with it, maybe we can regain respect and play the leadership role we thought we had. One thing for sure, though. Trump and the Know-Nothings have proven once and for all that our country is certainly not "exceptional." It's time for us to finally grow up.
12
McCain a true American hero. Exemplified best by his courageous stance while a POW in Vietnam. And his life-long devotion to American values and traditions. By contrast there is Trump. Trump escaped service in Vietnam on a trumped up and spurious medical infirmity. Trump an empty suit devoid of basic human decency and empathy. Trump’s reign of terror will end.The life of Senator John McCain will stand as a shining example of a TRUE American. RIP Senator.
1
I see the lemming, Steve Knight, our Republican Congressman is, and I compare him to what John McCain was. It makes me sick to see a politician as unethical, spineless, and totally worthless as my own Congressman is, compare to a real patriot, believer in the American spirit and morals, was....It's sad, but I have a feeling Steve Knight's vision is here now and won't go away......
The word for Trump is “perverse”.
He is a twisted man without American values. Here’s hoping the time reflecting McCain’s death will bring about some clarity.
2
Oh brother...now I've heard it all.
3
The passing of Senator McCain should trigger yet another inflection point. Let’s see if it sticks to this Teflon Don.
Eloquent as ever, Mr. Cohen. And unanswerable. Another anecdote coming up.
NOT an anecdote, actually. A photograph.
Taken in 1940. France falling to the Nazis. Certain French battle flags, rather than fall into German hands, being loaded aboard ship to be carried to north Africa. Beyond the German grip.
A Frenchman standing there, looking on.
Weeping unabashedly. Making no effort (as men often do) to cover his face, cover his tears.
ISN'T THAT MAN US RIGHT NOW, MR. COHEN?
Wasn't the late Senator McCain that man?
Aren't there millions of that man inwardly (if not outwardly) weeping all over the United States?
Enemy armies are not pouring into our country. We have no Maginot Line (and no, the "wall" does NOT count) to be circumvented. The government is not fleeing to some safe spot in Virginia.
It's as if--and God forgive me for saying this--it's as if WE were the enemy. The people Senator McCain spoke against. Millions of Americans who (it would seem) have no idea what it is to BE an American. Have no idea in the world what America STANDS for--or stood for. Once. Once upon a time.
Tears are not enough. The war (so to speak) is not over.
Keep writing, Mr. Cohen. Stand firm. Stand fast.
We shall see what we shall see.
France nowadays is a free and independent country.
What'll WE be in two years? Five years? Ten years?
Keep writing, Mr. Cohen.
Keep writing.
4
@Susan Fitzwater Thank you, Susan. I remember that photograph. You've shown beautifully what is actually going on in our country. I am definitely one of the weeping.
2
McCain’s finest moment: when he corrected that nincompoop who blurted out that Obama was an Arab. His most unfortunate: when he chose Sarah Palin as his vice.
Trump’s finest moment: is there one? His worst: oh, where to begin?
8
Unlike Pericles delivering a funeral oration for all the war dead, Mr. McCain planned 'his' funeral and 'his own' eulogy that's now lasted for a week. Enough is enough!
" For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it INCREDULITY.”
— Thucydides, Pericles' Funeral Oration [115]a.
6
Thank you Roger, for another in your endless stream of anti-Trump rants.
Thank goodness Trump is in office. Without him, it appears there is nothing else for you to write about.
Those of us who remember the Keating Five, and McCain's egotistical thumbs-down on the healthcare vote, do not miss him at all.
2
Times newspaper, like other news outlets seeking to survive financially, has a tendency to put consumer and advertiser ahead of the product, which is, after all, good writing, objective, fair, informative, as Sullivan suggested. In this present piece, Mr. Cohen is pandering to an audience, mostly white and liberal, and glorifying an egomaniac like John McCain who, no sooner home from the Hanoi Hilton, sought to monetize his celebrity status as a war hero by becoming part of the biggest banking scandal of the 20th century as an "accuse" of the Keating FIVE, divorcing 1 wife and marrying another to bankroll his political career, meanwhile maintaining a role of self righteousness which was belied by his "manigances!"He resented Trump because the latter became president and he , McCain did not! So wrapped up in himself, so hungry for publicity that 1 could not watch the news w/o seeing an interview with McCain. When did he have time to get work done? RC confirms hypothesis that fundamental reason for glorifying JM was to humiliate The Donald and his supporters, whom author considers illegitimate!But hard to argue against a strong economy, lowest unemployment in decades! Interviewed heroes of Algerian war, French Generals Challe and Jouhaud:As brave as JM--they challenged De Gaulle in the Putsch of April 1961--but were modest and unassuming.See my videos!Monsieur Alexandre ne plaisante pas!"But RC still belongs in pantheon of fine writers!
2
@Alexander Harrison-------------------------
"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones;"
etc.
1
Trump = a poor excuse for a man.
Republicans = a poor excuse for Americans.
Evangelical Christians (Fundamentalists) = a poor excuse for
Christians.
9
I wonder if Lindsey Graham really has any trace of honor, holding himself out to be the best friend of John McCain -- a truly honorable man whom Donald Trump has relentlessly insulted and smeared for the past three years. What do you care to bet that Lindsey will be back on a golf course with Donald within a few days, sucking up to that miserable excuse for a human being?
5
McCain is a great example of the fact that your never a great person until after your death. I really find it nauseating to watch his GOP pals teary eyed on TV talking about what a great man, American, leader he was. About how he had these great values and bipartisan wish to work across the isle to solve those tough issues, about what a great Senator he was for the last 30+ years. They have all, and I mean all, abandoned him and all these values to embrace trump and his values because they have put their self before country, by Monday morning all this fine talk and high ideals will be back in the closet. Its really VERY VERY SAD!!!
3
".....the bone spur rich kid from Queens." Seriously Roger?? I live in Queens and I'm sick and tired of the elitist Manhattanite Times OP Ed columnists treating Queens like the national joke because Trump spent part of his childhood in upper crust Jamaica Estates. Guilt by association isn't kosher. You owe Queens an apology.
Ditto bone spurs. I know bone spurs sounds comical like something out of a Saturday Night Live comedy routine written by Al Franken. But it is a real problem. Just ask any orthopedist. The person you should be mad at is the doctor at Donald Trump's draft board who stamped the rich kid from Queens 4-F because of an imaginary condition called bone spurs. Did anyone ever think that 50 years later that bone spur rich kid from Queens would be living in the White House?
1
Stop with the re-writing of history. McCains been dead a week, We know what he was. You people lauding him now called him a right wink war monger and a Kook ten years ago. Look it up.
10
John McCain - a Giant!
Donald Trump - small, very very small...
1
We are witnessing -- with the funerals of two great Americans, Aretha Franklin and John McCain -- the passing of our American Empire in world history. The passing of our democratic ideals, values, hopes and wishes. "People are angry!" said President Trump in Indiana as he ignored the funerals of McCain and Franklin yesterday. Yes, he is right for once...that Americans (not his base of loyalists) are angry that our country has come to one of the worst moments in our history under the horrific leadership of a demagogue and White nationalist and bigoted American man who used his money to secure the presidency as his brand. The death knells of American liberty and freedom are sounding today for all of us. We no longer seek to find for whom the bells toll.
99
I refuse to accept that McCain is a "dinosaur." Just like I refuse to accept that this is Trump's world even in the short term and that his diseased political paradigm has not yet run its course. There is an undercurrent of anger and disgust among the Silent Majority. A tidal wave in the making of proaction and "go-get-um." An awakening of ethics and morality. We see it all around us. Just look at the Democratic candidates courageous enough to take on Red states and Red districts. They are the woman, millennial, Black, Brown, gay, and transgender. No, Mr. Cohen, do not underestimate us and our American fight. It is in our DNA. Rather you need to call more people to arms. So many of us our ready. Let us not declare defeat when we have only just begun.
2
John S. McCain, III. Steadfast. Controversial. “Maverick”. Never quite so popular nationally as after his passing.
We have lost our capacity to recognize courage, convictions, manliness that is real.
Fitting that Sen. McCain specified “No Trump” for his multiple services. Consistent with his loathing for selfish, ignorant, immoral, feckless thugs.
There is, in our respects paid to the warrior/politician, more than a hint of unspoken national loathing for Trump. We find a thousand ways to say, “Thank you, sir” to a man and civil servant in part because we are so revolted by his polar opposite.
That said, “Thank you, sailor, aviator, POW, survivor, Senator, patriot, man, hero.”
2
Before Trump, Bush-Cheney took a sledge to American values; and before that Nixon-Kissinger showed the devastation persisting down the wrong path can wreak. The same interests who blasted Iraq are lobbying for regime change in Iran. McCain even said "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran."
As for the Atlantic Alliance, it's being torn apart by white supremacy vs democratic socialist forms of government. Each country in Europe is divided on these lines; and so is America. So many feel robbed by the "others" invading their country that they side with the establishment (oligarchs.) The establishment are disadvantaged by creeping democratic socialism and rising of an educated middle class clamoring for equality.
McCain and Trump's "my country right or wrong" doesn't fly with an educated people who clearly see predatory wars for what they are, and the oligarchs behind them. And the deprivation and displacement of refugees who are not welcomed into society, but feared.
America is in need of a President and Congress dedicated to its people. The neocon philosophy has failed. It gave power to the few, who misuse it to feather their nests. Before the latest deluge of immigrants Europe was on the road to a fairer system. Sadly the wars in Iraq, Libya, and Syria brought refugees, which favors the right wing who in turn favor the oligarchs.
8
@betty durso Maybe it is time to try "PEACE" again. That word is no longer heard. We have never been more in need of that kind of thinking.
2
It is of course fitting that Trump was nowhere to be seen at McCain's funeral. But neither Ryan nor McConnell should have been there, much less speaking. Those two,as much as Trump, represent what McCain despised, Ryan for spinelessness and McConnell for cynical opportunism. If America ever recovers its dignity, those three will be in a hall of infamy. I often disagreed with McCain's policy positions but I never doubted that he thought of his country and ts values first and of himself last. The infamous trio are not worth shining his shoes.
15
McCain was a classical sort of American hero, but neither his passing nor Trump’s ascendance represents a “requiem for the American Century”. America remains, and millions of people would uproot themselves gladly for a chance at becoming Americans themselves.
America is within an historical discontinuity where norms of governance and discourse are challenged. Our civil war was another such discontinuity. They happen when traditional means of moving forward fail to move the policy needle because we find ourselves SO divided ideologically that the abilities of our leaders become ineffective at forging the political compromises required to move forward; and our traditional folkways, for a time, fail to move us forward -- when we must try something very different to get the civil heart pumping again.
I’m less concerned about eulogies for a completed American Century as I am about the prospects for another one that we’re trying to establish and live. To do that we will need more John McCains, but we also will need the shock that Trump creates that forces us to replace extremists with vast political centers, in self-defense against Trump’s manner and policy framework. We’re in the middle of it, which is a bad time to evaluate its success – as the First Battle of Bull Run was a bad time to evaluate the likely outcomes of our civil war.
Discontinuities are temporary, Trump is not forever, but we need a galvanic shock to our system now to establish that second American Century.
4
@Richard Luettgen Well said. I would add only one thing. Our periods of discontinuities ( Founding of the Nation, Civil War, Depression and WWII, Cold War )were temporary because a transcendent leader rose up ( Washington, Lincoln, FDR, JFK ) to guide us - to remind us and reconvince of the greatest of our founding ideals and values. To give us a vision -a mission- greater than our own self interest. Who might that be toda?
1
@Al Chapleau
It's almost certainly not Trump -- his role is as catalyst and accelerant for change, not as the future visionary and natural leader. Frankly, I don't yet see that necessary leader emerging yet, and in this our current discontinuity is different from others through which we've needed to pass, that have had their leaders as we entered the discontinuities.
But the conditions for such a leader to succeed also need to be established for that leader to exploit, and I believe that Trump is incrementally establishing those conditions.
One hopes that such a leader emerges soon.
Well said. and I am sure that Senator McCain personally asked former president Obama to offer a eulogy because he was our first black president, an articulate, intelligent, dignified, compassionate man who believed in bipartisanship in order for Congress to work for the majority of people and not the one percent with personal self-interests.
3
"Articulate," "Intelligent," "Dignified." Not very P.C., I'm afraid. Not as bad as Harry Reid's comments about candidate Obama, however.
1
Re John McCain: I will never question his bravery or valor. I will question his voting for the recent tax cut, most of which went into the pockets of about 85 people. I will question his constantly voting to increase an already bloated military budget at the expense of health care and food for those in need.
What is sad is that those on my side of the ledger - the left side - are so proud of coming forward to praise someone who spent his time in Congress voting against what was best for Americans he claimed to love so much. Oh, wait, there was that thumbs down on the repeal of the ACA.
I feel sorry for his family and more than anything the pain he'd gone through during his military service and in the year leading up to his death. I will not miss his Congressional voting record.
10
>
I'm sure he was an honorable sailor and decent person.
As a Vet, I don't feel I personally owe him a lot of the uber thanks, which the last few days are requesting of me to give him.
I was against Vietnam, Iraq, etc.... Vietnam, probably being our most immoral war to date. Yes, he served his nation well in the Vietnam war, but that that doesn't justify the war. He once made the comment that we've been in Korea for 50 yrs and called for that potential in Afghanistan.
But if anyone in the press got their fat butt off the couch and took the time to review his actual career voting record instead of participating in this silly myth making, they'd find a very, very rightwing person that voted in lock step with the the GOP right 99.9% of the time, with the exception of the ACA, which was done more to put a stick in DJT's eye ( a good reason) than a humanitarian act of virtue. This is not to say he was part of the John Birch society.
He was very militaristic and wanted to send mother's sons into the meat grinder at a drop of a hat, which is probably one reason he lost to Obama. He failed to learn from our past military mistakes and was always ready to try out a new one.
You see politicians leave a crumb trail as to their political actions for those that want to find the truth. It's all on the record.
25
Mr. Trump is doomed.
There are two men to whom Mr. Trump is forever condemned do be compared and found lesser: Senator John McCain, and President Barack Obama. And Mr. Trump seems, in the case of Senator McCain, to be aware that no matter how he tries to twist it, no matter what he does, he will never stand to be looked upon favourably in comparison. Mr. Trump appears to know that no matter how he tries to slander Senator McCain, no matter how he tries to negate Senator McCain's real accomplishments, no matter how he tries to minimize Senator McCain's principles and stance on principle, that his every act will only serve to diminish himself, Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump is doomed.
No matter how he tries to pull Senator McCain down, Mr. Trump is the one who ends up looking smaller. He is by now like a poor-me-one puppy caught in the rain, and capable of doing nothing more than scratching and yelping when the lightning strikes. Man, it must really suck to be Mr. Trump.
7
McCain spent his life under the delusion that the USA was all powerful and that we could bend the world to our will. This is a hangover from WWII when men like his grandfather commanded vast armies and navies and the Pentagon and CIA have never really come to grips with the defeat in Vietnam Which should have shattered their delusions. I also believe that his animosity toward Russia was based on his torture and the support that Russia gave NVM. He was the front man in the Senate for the neocons and their foreign supporters who brought devastation to the Middle East which resulted in the European refugee crisis. The probability of yet another war will be lower with his passing.
9
Are we truly at a place where an American politician is being lauded with such reverence simply for trying to live up to some principles? These are the death throes of a once great nation. Still rich, still awesomely powerful, but bereft of honor. America was a late and reluctant participant in the second world war, but emerged from that conflict as the dominant force on the planet. The U.N., NATO, the flourishing of democracy, the upsurge in respect for human rights, all accomplished thanks to American stature on the world stage.
How the mighty have fallen. A great nation, blessed with untold resources, a magnet for the best and brightest that led the world in scientific breakthroughs, an avatar for equality of opportunity. That country, now enthralled by a "reality" television personality who leads with vulgar, chaotic, bullying contempt for American ideals. The United States of America has abandoned its role as a great nation. Cheering throngs line up to support the principle-free charlatan who forsook that role.
11
I can't shake the image of Pence mimicking Trump when he reached for his water bottle. Neither served in the military. One is a classic bully, the other a boot lick.
Throw in Ryan, McConnell, Jim Jordan, Meadows, and all the other "leaders" who decided not to serve in the military and you naturally mourn for John McCain and the welfare of the country.
11
What is so sad is that even someone as relatively principled, as willing to buck the party line, as willing to work with the opposing party, as McCain, had to back away from so many good stands he took due to the dynamics of a Republican electorate increasingly malinformed, tolerant of bigotry, suspicious of science and of decency itself. Thus McCain at various times stopped supporting climate change science, humane immigration rules, and campaign finance reform to get big money out of politics, once his signature issue. The ignorant and vicious part of the Republican base won't allow rational discussion of such issues.
7
"Trump does not know what human rights are." He knows, Mr. Cohen. He simply does not value them. He and his sycophants must be held politically accountable for their lapse in moral character. They truly are the antithesis of John McCain. I believe the Requiem in your title should be for the political party that once esteemed such a man in their ranks. That party no longer exists.
4
Let us hope that the genuine feelings evoked by the life and legacy of John McCain will not disappear in the smoke and mirrors before the next election !
2
If am surprised Senator McCain is eulogized to such high heavens - on the whole I have known better candidates. His opposition or senseless opposition to ACA, his final support to Trumps nomination during last election and planting a seedling for the growth of Tea Party to take root - abominable Sarah Palin has plunged us into everlasting nightmare. It washes away all the good he may have done.
May his soul Rest In Peace!
6
Senator McCain is a very difficult man to write a eulogy for. On the one hand he is a virtual SAINT in comparison to "The Donald", and he believed in many of the wonderful ideals that in theory at least, helped make the USA "great" in the first place: honor (as in Death before Disgrace), decency, honesty, the Rule of Law, and in fundamental respect for all human beings: a concept so completely foreign to the current regime and perhaps an entire third of the citizens in the country, that it seems absolutely marginalized. On the other hand, he was a war-monger: he had no qualms at all with maintaining a gigantic, bloated military monstrosity that could be used as a planetary policeman to further the ideals he believed in, and to protect "American interests"... as in "Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran". He was intimately familiar with all the horrors of war, and how its the innocent mothers, children, elderly and other non-combatants that inevitably suffer the most during any and all armed conflicts, yet this knowledge didn't stop him from ranking war very highly on the list of remedies for international situations that needed resolving one way or another. It is largely due to him that another 100 billion dollars was added to an already obscenely bloated military budget. Yet... on the OTHER hand, he was never afraid to stand firm on what he believed, and not to follow the herd and compromise his very soul for the sake of achieving shared goals with his compatriots. Confusing!!
5
There are basic principles, inviolate, of integrity and decency that should serve as the foil for all the commentary of the fourth estate, the guardians of our democracy. This foil is a solid brick wall that serves as our failsafe. Without it, the First Amendment simply becomes a joke, a protector of gibberish, lies, hypocrisy, and propaganda. This is where we are today. We have allowed our wall to be demolished.
How many of us truly understand what John McCain stood for and who he was? The respectful eulogies are just that, respectful. But their bigger message is falling on deaf ears.
1
When Paul Ryan was going on about the need for having the kind of political courage that McCain exhibited, I imagined that Ryan would look over his shoulder and be turned into a pillar of salt for his hypocrisy.
28
"He was a man of conviction. He preferred to be wrong than to bend....Torture over more than five years of captivity had imbued him with a humanity that transcended politics, even if did not dim his cantankerous bellicosity. He had bombed Vietnam in a losing war of confused aims and official obfuscation.... McCain was obstinate, sometimes to the point of obtuseness."
It is that willful "obtuseness" that was the hardest thing for me to forgive or overlook about McCain. A man born with his advantages should have worked harder at nuance and understanding positions other than his own.
Often times he would loudly bluster and give lip service to opposing his party on ideological grounds, but like clockwork would almost always retreat to the party line when push came to shove. The whole "maverick" schtick that he willingly embraced was from the beginning more of a perpetual marketing campaign than an accurate accounting of the man.
Being a patriot and a war hero does not make you a great senator, or even a good one. In John McCain's case, I believe those things ultimately got in the way of that more than they helped.
And Palin was unforgivable.
Even his famous "thumbs down" moment with the ACA vote seemed to be more about a fit of pique concerning the abandonment of senatorial "process" than the fact that it would be taking away health care from the millions of people who needed it.
He was a good man, but the hagiography I'll leave to others.
7
Don't forget that over 400,000 American troops gave their lives to create this American Century. Now that century has come down to a roll of the dice, by a madman.
7
Like the other commenters here I've been following this process closely, and have come to this conclusion: it's him or us; there will be no middle ground. Either what we've come to call American democracy will survive or this country will descend into fascist authoritarianism. Trump and his cult will continue to double down until there's nothing left if allowed to remain in power. . It's Trumpism or the abyss. Make your choice now, America. Pete McGuire, Atlanta
7
McCain fought in an unjust war. Was caught and tortured by the people we attacked. Came back home after some time. Later he dumped his first wife and married a rich heiresss whose money made him something he wanted to be. He punted around the senate for years randomly. He ran for president. Picked the worse qualified person ever as his VP candidate. Lost badly. He punted around the senste a bit more. He hated Trump so he voted against the killing of Obamacare. More out of hatred for Trump rather than principle.
He was a lightweight.
16
@Blunt------------------------------Once again,
"The evil that men do lives after them,
"The good is oft interred with their bones;"
--Shakespeare
1
With John McCain’s death our nation has lost a politician who evidenced great integrity, authentic patriotism and unconquerable courage. He was a maverick who put the national interest above lock-step party loyalty. He was a statesman who educated his own supporters when they had obviously been manipulated and victimized by radical right-wing propaganda.
What do we read concerning the response to McCain’s death in his home state of Arizona?
In the New York Times: “Senator John McCain’s death this weekend laid bare the long-simmering Republican tensions over who will be appointed to fill his Arizona seat, pitting the pragmatic wing of the party that Mr. McCain represented against the ascendant, hard-line forces loyal to President Trump — and hostile to the late senator.”
In the Washington Post: “In most of the country, McCain is being lauded as a hero. On Arizona’s GOP campaign trail, he’s a pariah.”
Friends in the Phoenix area tell me they are surrounded by Trumpublicans with whom they cannot conduct a rational, fact based and respectful political discussion.
John McCain remained a loyal and conservative Republican right up to the end, but as John Boehner clearly stated: “There is no Republican Party.” The GOP has devolved into the pseudo-populist, thoroughly plutocratic, borderline kleptocratic and authoritarian personality cult that is Trumpublicanism.
Senator John McCain, along with the notion that politics is the art of compromise, will be sorely missed.”
Andy
3
Et tu, Mr. Cohen? Flux may indeed be a portion of "the nature of things," but so is the second law of thermodynamics. And in that context, there's very little that drives the progression of an ordered system toward disorder more effectively than "cantankerous bellicosity." Great examples, courtesy of US empire, abound: Iraq for instance.
4
How does a person that was excused from their doing their part in wartime because of a bone spur, attack a hero that sacrificed much in that war? It should have been obvious to all that Trump lacked the qualities needed in a president!
But bumper sticker solutions seem valid to a bumper sticker size mind.
10
"You can tell the size of a man by the size of the things that make him mad."
- Adlai Stevenson
No President has ever been enraged by smaller things than Donald Trump. No President has ever been as small as Donald Trump in every important sense of the word.
John McCain was a War Hero and a Giant of the Senate. History will record that.
Hero and Giant. Two words that will never be used to describe the ever shrinking Donald Trump, the smallest man to ever sit in the oval office.
282
@LT
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is not enraged about the man whom he helped select as our President.
While Trump snarls and snarks, Putin is smiling and smirking in anticipation of making even more mayhem in 2018 and beyond.
McCain was a warmonger who encouraged us to dodge the draft and evade military service while pretending to be patriots by rising to sing the national anthem and salute the flag at sporting events.
MAGA!
I thought the same thing..a direct link to WW2 and the self sacrifice that would be inconceivable today. I am a Republican and actually voted Obama in 08(due to Palin and the financial crisis) but did it reluctantly and would have slept like a baby if Mccain won. RIP and Godspeed
5
@arthur As Steve Schmidt said " America won, no matter which candidate won between McCain and Obama."
3
He voted for trumps massive tax hikes to help his rich friends and let please not forget the Keaton’s Five.
11
Agree, we have a few more years of walking all over the value system embedded in our founding documents and history---but, at least, we still honor those virtues, albeit, today, more in word than deed. I sense, however, a general revulsion to man who has no shame. At the end of the day, the general public wants morning in America--- not daily reruns of a Mad Max movie.
3
Trump has never looked smaller than he does this morning. And that is a tribute to John McCain, for all his self-proclaimed faults a true American, and a true hero.
18
Thanks Roger Cohen, as a soldier who was tortured in Vietnam, I never understood fully the source of my deep conviction against violence. The torture ingrained humanity in me. I am deeply in your debt for that insight. Your insight pulled the two sides of me together.
205
@WilliamThank you for your service to our country. And your participation now in our democratic process.
12
@William Thank you for your service.
1
Thank you for this excellent, accurate & succinct summary of the gist of the challenge the late John McCain confronted & the defenders of DJT continue to exacerbate.
As revealed in Craig Unger's detailed recapitulation of the inroads made into the destruction of our democratic system by Russian-speaking international criminal syndicates (that include Azeris such as Azerbaijan President Aliyev & his son-in-law Emin Agalarov, plus Chechens), under the dominant leadership of Semion Mogilevich, based in Moscow, failure to confront & contain massive systematic lawbreaking by international gangs, their crimes within the US & allied NATO powers, has brought us to the point when our most fundamental institutions are now at risk.
The barbarians are no longer at the gate: they are inside the Oval, wielding a wrecking ball & aiming at the Supreme Court. Congress, thus far, has collapsed. Let's hope we can fix it. But months & months of ever worse damage will pass before the institutional remedy kicks in. If that even happens.
Trump wants to dismantle the system that prevents Maximum Criminality by the world's mobsters. "House of Trump, House of Putin" makes it clear why: Trump is in bed with the worst of the worst. They are his best friends & Jared's munificent protectors. Extreme criminality will unleash bloody mayhem around the world.
McCain has won the argument. Timely, firm, unambiguous action against criminals & greedy Russian crooks would have spared us this costly ordeal.
9
I couldn't imagine being a creature like Donald Trump. Most of the nation thinks he is, at his core, a dishonest, cruel, and bad person. I know of very few people who do not believe that McCain lived his life and went to his death truly believing what he believed, and that he was, at his core, good. With Trump, there's a noted lack of this sense of a greater self. His presidency is incredibly joyless. He seems eternally in need of winning in lieu of friends. Even with all the pomp and money, gold furnishings and motorcades, it's rather pathetic.
When his time comes, I cannot imagine his life will be celebrated all that much beyond an exhibition of scripted services. I do not believe great world leaders or even many decent people will pay heartfelt homage. That's what sets the passage of truly great American statesmen apart from people like Trump. The silver lining to the whole circus is that I truly believe this is merely a kicking, dying fit of an eclipsed generation and the mentality of American exceptionalism that was used an excuse to inflict horrors on the world instead of aiding it. The base cannot stand the ugly figures in the mirror and he provides enough of a distraction for now. They will ultimately reach the sunset of their lives with a world that rapidly leaves them even further behind and grandchildren who will be so disappointed that they won't want to be part of the walks down memory lane. Sad.
6
McCain served his country. Trump served up his country.
Trump divided us and won. McCain stood his ground undefeated. McCain over time became a giant. Trump can't get any smaller. McCain was a soldier. Trump was a shirker. Trump is a bad joke. McCain had the last laugh.
His thumbs down signaled resistance and resolve.
McCain was a hero. Trump is Nero.
42
@Yuri Asian: McCain fought in an unjust war where we killed a significant number of Asians for no reason. He dumped a wife to marry a richer and younger one. He picked Palin as VP candidate. Some hero.
1
McCain's legacy is one of good manners, respect for differences of opinions and people, unflinching honor and dignity and a disdain for things un-American. The fuming anger from the Oval Office, propelled by all the attention to McCain by Americans, is a symbol of honor. Evil does not like to be denied the limelight.
Rest in Peace Senator McCain.
10
Many comments echo Roger Cohen' praise of McCain as a way to contrast his decency or moral fiber with the lack of such qualities in Trump. Both Cohen and many commenters seem to have a blind spot.
In the Vietnam Holocaust and the Middle Eastern Holocaust, millions were exterminated by the U.S. government.
McCain was one of the perpetrators, in the Vietnam Holocaust as naval pilot, and in the Middle Eastern Holocaust as a politician.
Eulogies emphasize the good a person had done, especially in contrast to the fear that Trump has elicited, but we must never forget the evilism in which McCain was a willing part.
13
There is no other political figure in the United States who is more associated with warmongering than John McCain. His support for human rights throughout the world was simply deceitful window-dressing to an imperialism that ran rampant without cause. He blatantly lied to the press about connections between the anthrax attacks in Washington DC and supposed Middle East involvement to gin up interest for the Iraq War. He sang Beach-Boy songs about bombing at rallies. I'm very glad he is no longer in position to influence any public policy; not directly anyway. Unfortunately for a man like John McCain, the only way he would ever retire from politics is to die. May he in peace. His life was in pursuit of war.
10
The "nationalist, nativist, xenophobic tide" will have run its course when the Democratic Party ceases to demonize white males, which it has done for five decades. They are the only class in America which has been held responsible for its failures, while also being held responsible for the failures of anyone who was not a white male. Under the Obama Administration, they could not even claim credit for their successes: "You did not build that!" As a life long Democrat, I am looking forward to the change.
2
Wrong wrong wrong.
One of the bizarre parts of Trumpism is how his plain dumb acts show how the issue is, as in the central issue on the planet among the nation states, is, the central issue is,
the power of the United States.
But no one pays attention to what other nations are saying and doing in response as the United States goes crazy. NO OTHER NATION IS PROCEEDING ON ITS OWN. NONE NADA ZILCH.
Other Nations don’t even know where to start. Nor does any politician in the US. All are wrapped up in their own delusions and cannot spare the time to listen and observe.
Same with professional opinion writers.
@In deed
There's this thing called 'inertia.' It's going to take time for the rest of the world to pivot now that the US is acting in a bizarre manner.
The EU which, incidentally, has a GDP equal to or greater than our own, will make adjustments over time now that we cannot be counted on to hold up our end of the bargains we have made.
There's not much stopping China. They will take a hit while Trump beats them up on trade, but there are actually many smart people in China, believe it or not. When they recover from Trump, they will not forget how this administration treated them.
Your all-caps 'no other nation is proceeding on its own' is a little strange. They're just making stuff and doing deals and helping us fight our useless wars as usual while simultaneously stomping out the brush fires Trump keeps starting like a ten year old arsonist.
No nation can 'proceed on its own' anymore, not even us. We've become too intertwined and interdependent because of that 'global supply chain' you always hear about. Maybe you've missed that.
The passing of Sen McCain is one more signal that America is no longer America. Certainly American power is no longer determinant on the world stage.
But just as significantly, the erosion of American values -- equal rights and opportunities for all citizens, belief in the rule of law -- has proceeded at breathtaking pace under Trump.
Just this week we learned that the Justice Department is depriving many of our brown-skinned citizens of their Constitutional rights. It is starting with the Hispanic community, but it will not end there.
And once we are no longer America -- once we no longer believe in equal rights and protections for all of our citizens, what, exactly, are we?
From where I sit, it appears that the majority of us are, at different turns, appalled, horrified, disgusted, and sickened by the damage caused by a rabid, racist minority in this country. And make no mistake, without them, Trump would have been booted from office by now.
Because we have a government that no longer respects the rule of law, and is kowtowing to some 40% of our most ignorant, racist citizens, the rest of us may no longer sit quietly by. The suffering of the Hispanic community, and other minority communities, is our suffering. If our government will not protect their Constitutional rights as equal Americans, then the rest of us must be in the streets until their rights are restored. This is now our only recourse. With America now gone, the streets are all the rest of us have left.
7
Bravo, Roger Cohen. You speak truth to power. Unfortunately, I remain to be convinced that half of this uninformed collection of “voters” is listening.
2
Hegemonic powers have time in memorial invented icons, elevated mere ordinary mortals to human deities and shaped the tales of heroism or villainity which dominated subjects had to emulate and embarace. To achieve this they sometimes use wars, conquests, religion, laws et al, to validate the narrative they want to push. John McCains story is a text book example of such manufactured heroism. He is no hero, a regular guy who enlisted for Marine like many others who happend to be captured, He cheated on his injured wife, somehow got released from Hanoi prison, ran for senate seat became a war hawk pushed for the decimation of Iraq, Syria, Libya and wanted to actively bomb Iran.He voted for every Policy to help Trump and confirm his warped nominees, except for the oft mentioned publicity thumbs down of ACA skinny repeal. I am afraid but i will agree with Trump on this, there are more deserving heros than Mcain, who are lavishing under bridges, homeless vets who need help, but again who decides who "becomes" a hero?
1
In our hagiography of a war hero, let us remember that if only more young American men had emulated the draft-dodging "bone spur rich kid from Queens" in the 1960s, we would have been spared "a losing war of confused aims and official obfuscation."
1
The lack of humility will destroy us all.
Imperfection abounds, but humility is needed at this moment.
Anyone who believes someone who says "I alone" can solve the problem needs a rude awakening.
To allow an arrogant know-it-all to bully-rule is reprehensible and unconscionable.
McCain made some serious mistakes, but he admitted them.
4
Thank you, Roger. It looks like the next one or two decades of the present century will be ugly. Those of us who value democracy will have to work hard in order to keep ours. Our nation's greatest threat will almost certainly be the Trump Republican party itself, which has become more and more like a white supremacist cult. As this will be a long slog, the attitude expressed by the old British WWII poster must be the mantra of the resistance: keep calm and carry on.
5
Thank you for this clear statement of the meaning of John McCain. The leaders of the Republican Party are one and all small men who have sacrificed nothing for our country. In fact they have sacrificed our country for themselves. Such is the difference between McCain and Trump.
6
John McCain was often wrong on issues because he was misinformed or because his military experience and family tradition led him to overly simple solutions to complex problems.
McCain was never wrong because he put a selfish concern ahead of doing what he thought was best for America.
The contrast between John McCain’s selflessness and Donald Trump’s consuming interest in what personal profit and acclaim can be garnered led to the deep antipathy between the two men.
McCain’s courage and integrity about doing the right thing led to the friction between him and his Republican colleagues, whose cowardly obedience to Trump disgusted McCain.
The passing of John McCain is not the end of “the American century.” The lesson of McCain’s life is a basis for renewal of values which can assure a worldwide continuation of American influence for good.
Those values will survive if the nation, following John McCain’s example, totally rejects Donald Trump and Trump’s toadies.
Our national goal has always been better expressed as influence, rather than muscle-flexing dominance.
8
McCain has carefully orchestrated his own funeral, not to glorify himself, but apparently to send a message to the country. His invitation to George Bush and Barack Obama to give eulogies, and his rejection of Trump are meant to tell us something about patriotism and traditional American values.
The death of McCain may not be a turning point. But McCain is planting a seed in the minds of Americans who have not completely succumbed to Trump and the Fox News vision of America. As a Democrat, a liberal, and above all as an American, I salute John McCain for his noble behavior as a POW, his attempts to transcend party politics, and most particularly for the manner in which he highjacked his own death to promote the finest of American values and to attack the corruption of and treason against those values.
13
John McCain, for the most part, focused on the "we" and the "us." Donald Trump focuses on the "me." There is no starker contrast in American politics than that.
18
My thanks to Mr. Cohen for giving us a rounded remembrance of John McCain. We do well to recall him as a man with wonderful flaws, self-admitted flaws, who overcame his worst moments with courage, resolute belief in our democracy, and a warm, embracing love of humanity. He most often stood for the good we can do and best we can be.
John McCain was as rich and complex as Mr. Trump is simple, petty and dreadful. McCain leaves behind a nation being torn apart by his party's cowardice at best, abetting of criminality and perhaps treason at worst.
I would hope his Republican admirers would take up the courage he displayed. But there is no reason to believe this Republican Party will find it. It is a party without ideas, honor, or love of country.
John McCain's death may be remembered as the coda for the century and for the party to which he remained loyal from beginning to end.
But today's GOP is not the party McCain joined. It's like its leader. It expects loyalty but has none to give in return.
1
A most honorable man during his captivity and a clear and relentless eloquent voice for the ideas of freedom, democracy and human dignity McCain was; and a maverick politician throughout (from taking a chance on putting S. Palin some malignant cells from the presidency to, with more gravitas, fighting for reducing the influence of plutocrats like him in politics).
McCain’s straight and dignified way of life is indeed the anti-thesis of Trump’s slithering and despicable conduct. That said, Senator McCain’s legacy concerning America’s manifest destiny as a global power (“The American Century”) consists of him being among the chief promoters of the globally-disastrous Iraq invasion, Libyan regime-change, the Iranian nuclear incitement campaign (chanting “bomb, bomb, bomb” Iran) and a jingoist policy towards North Korea. As to superpowers’ relations, most definitely not a Russian-Republican but a relentless advocate of confronting Putin’s Russia as a clear and immediate threat to the West (not excluding military means) and for strategically encroaching on China in the South China Sea – thus being a considerable factor in destroying the lives of many millions of people and undermining the foundations of the humanity-saving Gorbachev’s Universalist revolution, all in the name of freedom and democracy in our time. Personality aside, they don’t make them more Neocon than that (with the exception of Cheney, perhaps).
2
An openly acknowledged imperfect man, John McCain showed strength, courage and stubborn fidelity in surviving the darkest depths of human experience and maintaining living principles. Those qualities, and the gifts of his later selfless service to the nation and world they supported, are rarely demonstrated by most American "leaders" in the present day.
What has America, and Western democracy, on their deathbeds are greed and fear. (And in my mind, greed is based on fear - fear that one isn't good enough by comparison, fear that one doesn't have enough to thrive, or even survive, and finding false comfort in the corrupting distractions and delusions of "wealth.")
Greed and fear. Everyone experiences them. But refraining from succumbing to them is the mark of maturity and an ethical, spiritual, humane way of living. John McCain spoke of fear: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity to act despite our fears.”
And, "We’re all afraid of something. The one fear we must all guard against is the fear of ourselves. Don’t let the sensation of fear convince you that you’re too weak to have courage. Fear is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice. No one is born a coward. We were meant to love. And we were meant to have the courage for it."
May his life and passing inspire a nation and its citizens in our time of great difficulty. Such inspiration, felt wholeheartedly and acted upon effectively, may help save the American Experiment.
5
"..America’s unique capacity to forge a more open and democratic world; and held America’s word as pledge in the cause of liberty."
I'm not sure if it right to describe these beliefs as quaint. Wouldn't bogus be better? Such beliefs allowed Mr McCain to travel to Vietnam where he took part in US airforce bombing which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. It's estimated that around 3 million died in Indo China as a result- basic facts of which were kept back from the American people. It was even an undeclared war and for that matter entirely illegal.
Much has focused on his mistreatment as a captured combatant while little attention has been given to what US forces did. While McCain said he bore no grievances for his own treatment, which is honorable, I would have liked more attention to how things look from the perspective of those who suffered and continue to suffer (from the toxic defoliants dumped on them), and what limited reparations the USA has made.
Nothing is honorable from this period. In fact, it is shameful and a dishonour to a people who claim to advance the causes of liberty and justice.
1
I don't know John McCain any better than others, but I know myths when I read them. Myth is what we mostly have about our public figures. (There are not so many psychological exhibitionists like Donald Trump around.)
I have read a lot about McCain, his early life, his military career, his marriage, his start in politics, his politics. Not someone I would likely look up to if I knew him, and no one I would ever vote for.
Better than Trump is not a high standard.
So rest in peace John McCain. I hope you enjoyed your real life however it was. All your mistakes are washed away, as will be the many more of Donald Trump.
1
I am hoping that Cindy McCain is appointed to fill out the rest of Senator McCain's term. It will remind those other Republican Senators of their duties to the whole country, not just their donors.
Better still would be if a Democrat was appointed.
Just dreaming!
3
Ironically John McCain was able to keep his "dinosaur" beliefs in America because he was in Hanoi while the country was torn apart for at least several generations by the Vietnam War and its consequences.
At home, we became divided into those who supported the war and those who opposed it. We discovered that the government had lied to us, and lost faith in it. We descended from political competition in ideas to the dirty tricks of Watergate and appeals to racism. Rather than honor those who served, many of us rejected the veterans.
We have wandered for fifty years in the wilderness. Perhaps John McCain was our Moses, and although he did not reach the promised land in the new generations we may perhaps see some hope.
2
"The nationalist, nativist, xenophobic tide has not yet run its course." I want to think it only a "tide" that will in time recede. Will we like McCain sustain our commitment to our ideals Or in the end will we surrender to the tide?
I'm not a fan of either McCain or Aretha so my attention was diverted to two other events this week. One was the renewal of "Dynasty" on The CW network. "Dynasty" stars "Melrose Place" alum Grant Show as an oil baron surrounded by an army of backstabbers and women dressed to kill. Trump and Sarah Palin not being invited to McCain's funeral sounds like it could have come out of an episode of "Dynasty", except that both people probably weren't planning on attending anyway. The other event was an instance of a world leader telling the simple truth about something even if the people don't want to hear it. Vladimir Putin said he can't do very much to lower the retirement age or increase pensions in Russia. Contrast that with Rahm Emmanuel trying to sell Chicago aldermen on the merits of issuing $10 billion more in pension obligation bonds.
2
@Matthew
Being seduced by that "world leader's simple truths" is a slippery slope.
Ask trump.
What should be noted is that a certain percentage of these refugees will no longer desire to return as they made a life elsewhere
It shouldn’t be a stumbling block for honest two sided discussions with credible leaders from both sides. Eliminating both Netanyahu and trump and progress will make history
2
McCain was correct in his belief that torturing prisoners would result in bad intelligence, but Trump not only wants Haspel as his token trademark of torture, but also wants to discredit and destroy our Intelligence services altogether.
How much easier for Putin if America is destroyed from within by Trump’s firing of top FBI agents such as Comey and Strozyk, but also removing the security clearance of John Brennan and targeting Bruce Orr.
As the post war generation ages, people forget the sacrifices of those who fought and the horrors of war. The abstract principles of freedom from and freedom to are replaced with close mindedness and tightened fists. Although McCain was a Republican whose views varied from mine, I respect him for his love of country and loyalty to its founding principles. He knew Trump was a traitor to both.
2
The people across this globe have wasted the centuries on blind following of the wrong personalities instead of focusing on the right principles.
It’s the principles that have the potential to unite us, not the kings, the presidents and the politicians.
The true leaders create the alliances around the great principles.
That created America - the great ideas, not the great politicians…
We fail as society only if we betray those noble ideas and get fooled into blind obedience of the wrong system of values.
We fail when we let greed, hubris, egoism and conceit run this world…
We fail when start believing into and idolizing our leaders.
They pitch us against each other to polarize, divide and antagonize the country to make us weak to fortify their personal power…
3
Beautifully stated and spot on!
"believed, despite setbacks, in America’s unique capacity to forge a more open and democratic world" Enough! Just stop with the constant bemoaning of the loss of America's "unique" place in the world and it's essential role in "democracy promotion" abroad. These days the US needs to focus more on "promoting" democrary at home. The country as currently functioning is a plutocracy not a democracy. This has been the case since the late 1980s. (Gilens Page 2014 Princeton study definitively confirmed this.) For about 3 decades ordinary Americans on their own or organized in groups have almost no effect on US gov policy. The wealthiest inidividuals and large corporations, however, get just about anything they want from their errand boys running the government. (See no universal medical care, very profitable endless wars and increasing tensions everywhere foreign policy, a casino capitalism financial system where financial institutions keep their profits but are bailed out by the gov for losses, inescapable student debt traps, ridiculous pharmaceutical costs. It goes on and on.) Even before this descent into an inequality fueled feudalism America's foreign policy report card was nothing any serious person would feel good about putting on their "how I contributed to the world being better" resume. Trump is the manifestation of these problems not the cause. Get to work rebuilding democracy within your own borders. Take responsibility for what your government does. Pay attention.
4
@Belasco, thank you! Even in Vermont, one of the "bluest" states in the Union, so-called "progressives" like Bernie Sanders (and certainly the corrupt local Democratic Party, led by likes of Patrick Leahy, etc.) refuse to listen to voters and have put Lockheed's budget-busting F-35 fighter jet and its basing ahead of the health and home values of ordinary constituents. Who these politicians refuse to even meet with. People who voted Democrat for years are forced to throw up their hands. It's no surprise you end up with someone like Trump.
1
Mr. Cohen offers an excellent and clear-eyed summary of Senator McCain.
At some point between zero and six years from now, Trump will fade into history. But the even greater problem, the most dangerous problem for our nation and the world, will remain.
That problem is the approximately forty percent of Americans who still, even now, are so deluded and/or intellectually stunted to believe that someone like Trump should be president.
Maybe after November somebody in a position of influence and authority will start coming up with solutions so that our nation can recover not just the ideals but the realities that Senator McCain loved so much and served (with some sad exceptions) so well?
5
McCain was the last remnant of a GOP that had a shred of decency. I didn't agree with him on a lot, but I respected him. There are few left to respect in the national GOP. At the local level, I can name a few. Trump should have been impeached the day he set foot in the oval office, yet the GOP and its rich donors needed a vehicle to further empower the one percent. Now the deal with the devil has gone too far and the US is a ghost of itself. So called conservatives have only conserved the worst of the twentieth century. The greatness of the greatest generation and baby boomers is gone.
133
It is ironic that it has taken the death of two American icons to feel better.
While I have been deeply saddened by the passing of both, I have relished the feelings that have been absent in the wake of the daily reality show.
20
"Honor, decency and duty were ideas around which McCain built his life of service. They are concepts that have no meaning for Trump, the bone-spur rich kid from Queens."
'A job bigger than ones self' are words I also heard and I stood up to applaud. This statement is irreproachable, leaving no room for misinterpreted.
This statement holds no authenticity for ' the bone-spur rich kid from Queens'. Any words and/or actions that he utters that claim to embrace this statement is that of a mimic an imitator.
You're right Mr. Cohen, "The nationalist, nativist, xenophobic tide has not yet run its course."
The challenge our young democracy is facing is not over yet, it is an unfinished revolution and sir, I have no doubt will end in victory.
Mr. John McCain is no dinosaur. He left this planet with a clear message to the current administration, words he honored throughout his life;
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..."
The ceremonies honoring this man of 'honor and decency' will continue to echo from shore to shore throughout time. This is who We are.
13
I am heartened to see realistic appraisals of his life and accomplishments. Just as a one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind, so does McCain tower over others in his party. It is easy to deem McCain a good man. It is hard to think of another I recognize as such in the GOP.
32
Sure, John McCain was stoic and principled but admiration for him would have been even higher if he'd pushed back at the extreme actions of his party. The denial of a vote for Merrick Garland, the gerrymandering, the unfair tax legislation. Yes, he upset trump's efforts to overturn the ACA but I would have liked to see many more examples of his maverick nature for the good of all Americans.
78
McCain remains a wonderful example of American military and political establishment, nurtured in the faith of the America as the leading, benign, indispensable nation, born to save the democracy in this world.
The question is why Trump is in the WH and not a Republican in the mold of McCain?
Maybe the American establishment has neglected to feed the essential relationship with grassroots voters, whose interests have been dismissed for too long, leaving the field open to the populist Trump.
Honoring McCain is certainly a bipartisan duty but this occasion should also be a time for rethinking on sound solutions to balance the struggle for taming the domestic challenges with the foreign policy strategic goals.
18
While opposed to many of John McCain's policy stands I always admired his hard work and, more than anything else, his optimism. With Aretha Franklin's funeral and McCain's arrival at the Capitol on the same day we were reminded of what humanity we as a people have - still have ! I am sure Franklin and McCain would have gotten along like a house on fire. Why ? They both had deep moral values and loved their fellow beings. Compared to most of our 'inside the beltway denizens', elected and otherwise, and the 'rich and famous' of the entertainment and financial sectors Franklin and McCain cared for real folks because they had real lives and they listened. I am hoping their legacies have a deep influence on us all going forward as we try to escape the swamp of modern American ethics we have created.
21
Keep the flame alight by reporting, but regroup and prepare for the aftermath. There will be a lot to do and that is where hope resides.
17
It is currently hard to imagine how the tide turns. An increasingly divided electorate seems incapable of hearing McCain-like principle instead looking for highly partisan red-meat. Those who do not toe the party line are quickly labeled, traders; the opposition is now "the enemy"; anyone who does not agree with "our" side is deemed not to be a "patriotic American." McCain in essence got away with it because he had been a war hero and because he had been around for so long, but newer politicians who try to stand up for what this nation had long stood for are likely to have very short political careers, indeed.
8
I sincerely hope that the memory of Senator McCain will inspire many decent Republicans to run, against all odds, as non-Trump Conservative candidates for office.
Mr. Flake, as an Independent Conservative, for instance?
6
@Albert Koeman...Jeff Flake is NOT a conservative. He is a Libertarian masquerading as a Republican and for all of his criticism of Trump, he has voted with the Administration on every issue. He is a decent man, with honor and integrity. But, the policies he would support would be disastrous.
5
@Albert Koeman The Whig Party collapsed because there were enough decent members (who opposed slavery) who were finally willing to abandon that party. Not sure there are enough decent Republicans available these days.
1
@Albert Koeman, what would their platform be? Their economics has exploded the debt. Their American exceptionalism has dragged us into ever-less-winnable and ever-more-costly wars. American workers are losing ground. The wealthy are taking and giving back less at every turn. Health care, infrastructure, race relations all decay. And now "conservatives" cling to power by clinging to a serial criminal, sexual predator, and a spewer of vile hatreds.
"Independent Conservative"? What in heavens name would they have to offer save tired platitudes, already tested and found worse than hollow?
4
Try and relax Roger and if you are not already working on a democratic campaign then start to do so today. Really it is simple, you can make phone calls, canvas door to door, send texts and post cards. we are talking about turn out and winning these elections. You can even give cash. But it is probably more effective to work face to face with voters- friends and neighbors. I like your column but two hours this weekend door to door may have more impact.
Regarding the content of your piece- I am hoping that the revulsion against what we have today could usher in a new era of pragmatic progressive politics. It is going to take a decade of constant work to transcend the madness and rebuild alliances and really get to work on global climate and global economic security.
42
Mr Cohen,
“I wish I could believe the outpouring of sympathy for McCain marks the moment when principle and bipartisanship will rise above lies and fracture in American politics. But I don’t, at least not in the near term. The nationalist, nativist, xenophobic tide has not yet run its course.”
That, too, is my fear. Trump’s “lack of convention” seems to have set the stage, or at least reinforced the dissolution, of bipartisan, common sense politics that advance the needs and desires of the majority of the electorate. It may validate the “what aboutism” that is so prevalent on the right today, but could become the currency of any party going forward.
Bret Stephens column about McCain’s notion of “straining our faith” in government was prescient, and I fear our faith may be strained beyond repair, or at best, take several generations to recover. I fear for my children, and future grandchildren, that we’ll leave a legacy of political toxicity that will ultimately undermine the values and future if this country.
26
The exclusion of president Trump from Senator McCain's funeral service and other memorials forces people to contrast the two men.
The fundamental contrast I derive is this: One man possessed integrity and honor. The other is unable to grasp those concepts.
75
Citizens of both parties have turned their attention to the life of John McCain because we desperately need to know that there has been at least one good man in our world. Because of his torture and resulting injuries, McCain could have excused himself from the very hard, stressful work of a politician. No one would have faulted him for stepping back from the call to continued service after he returned from Vietnam. But he didn’t. While I don’t agree with many things that he stood for and believed, I do think he was sincere, truthful and honest. Those are the qualities that many people saw in him and the reason so many have responded with true sadness at his passing. We all feel we have lost a small bit of honesty, and there is very little left in Washington, DC.
Trump will never, ever receive the accolades McCain has received. Neither will most of the politicians that inhabit our nation’s capitol. When most retire or are voted out of public office, we will all give a collective sigh of relief and hope the next person in is at least a little more truthful and is slightly more respectful and knowledgeable of our Constitution, Bill of Rights and mores. I think many people mourn John McCain because no one could hope for anyone more honest or truthful. I realize what has been lost, even if I couldn’t agree with him always.
83
Like you, I doubt whether "the outpouring of sympathy for McCain marks the moment when principle and bipartisanship will rise above lies and fracture in American politics" at least in the near term.
You gone on to write, "The nationalist, nativist, xenophobic tide has not yet run its course." Again I agree, but I don't think it's necessary for that tide to run its course or for the rest of us to watch and wonder when it will do so. A tide can be stemmed and turned. This one must be, and I believe it will be.
The people whose wills form the tide you speak of may never change. Their energy may never flag, and their numbers may never dwindle. Very well. Our energy and our numbers must be greater. The nationalist, nativist xenophobes may not reconcile themselves to being driven out of power, but that's all right. For starters, it's enough that we drive them out.
57
'No Man is an Island'
(lines of prose by John Donne, a poet, originally published 1624}
"No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
The poet was English, writing in Great Britain, but the sentiment is not confined to one country, nor to the death of one man. It speaks of what we share as human beings, the bonds we have to one another, our need to support our shared destiny.
The more times you read the poem, the better you understand it, the more deeply it articulates the loss we must feel when anyone dies.
John McCain's death is no different from anyone else's, but we are all able to share the sense of his loss in a broader sense because he was a part of our history, of our nation, and known to so many of us.
81
Beautifully written: both Donne’s poem and your comment.
34
Many many well-deserve accolades for Senator McCain. I would like to add my appreciation for him alerting the FBI and Justice Department of the Steele dossier--and putting a copy of it in their hands.
100
McCain himself realized the mistake he made with picking Sarah Palin.
But he lived up to his maverick reputation, when Trump became president. We needed at least one more Republican with integrity to stop the ACA repeal. He became that one, and incurred the wrath that Trump kept from Collins and Murkowski.
In the end, he didn't stand "almost alone as a politician of principle" in the GOP.
He stood completely alone.
152
Well said. I didn't often agree with Sen. McCain, and I didn't vote for him, but I appreciate his service, and what he endured as a prisoner of war. That being said, Sen. McCain was head and shoulders above the current occupant of the oval office.
72
As long as our leading columnists waste the decades on the individuals like Clinton, Obama, Trump, and McCain we can rest assured they are incapable of understanding te essence of the problems and the governing principles in control of our world.
The great nations don’t have the Secret Service. Why? Because they have at a least a hundred thousand individuals perfectly capable of running the country.
If our national course depends on the politician sitting in the White House, it means we don’t have the national consensus about our future, meaning we don’t have the shared values and the unifying vision.
As long as all of us believe in same set of values, we have the strong national unity and the common priorities.
If we protect the individual politicians, it means we lack the basic system of shared values.
9
McCain had such a delightful grin, was unpredictable-- and always came back from some compelling edge in every aspect of his life. Many of us loved his rebellious nature. How he defied doctors' orders to come to the senate floor to vote on the health care bill. This man is unforgettable.
63
John McCain had once remarked that he thought both the Constitution and the Congress would be checks on Trump's power. So far, no. But can they be?
The Constitution is only as powerful as its enforcement. That comes down to the Supreme Court and the Congress. There is no sign that the High Court is turning less rightward. The current Congress sits on their laurels while Trump debases our nation. House and Senate Republicans aren't just about to change. However, we can change our legislative body in two months. Let's take back Congress and introduce the curb to Trump's power which McCain had been waiting for.
156
@NM The profound dishonesty of the US is evident in its failure to live by “Congress shall make no law respecting a establishment of religion”. There is no plainer example of its fakeness.
4
Remember, too, that John McCain was an early advocate of campaign finance reform - and reached across the aisle to craft legislation limiting the influence of special interests. That was not only remarkable for a member of Congress who stood to benefit from the status quo, it showed how deeply McCain believed in democracy. He fought to make elections more about we the people and less about moneyed interests.
236
For all his flaws, and there were many and many were serious and self-damaging, John McCain believed in things higher than himself. He called them "ideals." We are a nation founded on ideals and can only redeem our manifold flaws when we try to live up to them. John McCain tried often and always.
136
@Eric Caine The most important ideal in the US Constitution is neglected and denied: Laws based on fact and reason, not faith.
5
"American power is no longer determinant."
Was it ever? The Cold War, the US was certainly balanced by the Soviet Union. We won some, Greece, and lost some Vietnam, Panama, El Salvador, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and had some draws Korea.
Today, while US wildly outspends the world on unproductive weapons (16 aircraft carriers to Russia's 1 and China's 1, 200 overseas military bases to Russia's 2 and China's 1) it has not helped US in trade, political influence, industrial development. The untaxed military spending is responsible for the US's $20T in debt so it is a economic disadvantage.
So the military power costs us a lot but provides no commensurate $20T in national income to justify it.
99
@EaglesPDX China is getting positioning to replace us in military dominance. If they succeed, would that make us feel safer? freer? wealthier? (I don't know. But have my doubts).
1
The “American Century” is ending.
Just as the end of WWI in 1918 marked the beginning of US ascendancy to world dominance and leadership and the concomitant beginning of the dissolution of the British Empire, 2018 marks the beginning of the end for the US Empire.
Trump’s actions in facilitating and hastening this demise are symptomatic, not causal.
Hubris, pure and simple.
190
@Norman McDougall
Perhaps it takes an outsider to see the truth of your bottom line: Trump is the chief symptom rather than the cause of 'The End of the American Century' - his personal hubris foreshadowed by Fukuyama's hubristic and premature celebration of the End of History in a supposedly emerging global dominance of the Dream that fuelled the closing century.
That dream and that shared hubris is rooted in a specifically American ideology of untrammeled individual Agency, pure 'Freedom', that has reached its Reductio ad Absurdum in Trump's absurd and bathetic self-image, and the collective pathology of those who identify with this tragicomic Actor.
But most of the Fake President's domestic critics are themselves still caught in an obsolete American fantasy of pure self-determination, still unfettered by a newly emerging multilateral, polycentric global order, as they paradoxically ascribe to Trump, as cause rather than symptom, the false sense of agency that itself, rather than the preening lead actor or antihero, is the hubristic motor of its own nemesis in a worsening nightmare.
1
It’s plain the Death of John McCain
To Donald Trump, seemed so arcane,
No Hero was John,
Not to the wan Don,
His five deferments? Such a strain.
The White House flag at half staff flew
Two days and t’was enough to do,
McCain’s a pain,
Trod his own lane,
The real McCain Trump never knew.
Like his mouthpiece, the grotesque Rudy,
Trump didn’t dare risk his patootie,
Hero of the Deal,
Risk had no appeal,
Unless for a porn starring beauty.
128
"An important voice for “basic human rights” is gone. Trump does not know what human rights are. That McCain voice could be erratic or impetuous, but it was never petty."
I agree with Roger Cohen that this seemingly endless moment has surely not run its course. I also think things might get a lot worse before they get better, if we're lucky enough to survive the coming storm.
But most of all I agree that an important voice for essential decency--an old-fashioned voice, to be sure, in our jaded and cynical world--will be hard to replicate.
Will we ever again see an American with the moral fiber of McCain? Thinking over the list of what passes for statesmen and women today, it's easy to say no.
But that would give lie to all McCain stood for. It's said nobody is indispensable even when he or she is irreplaceable.
Does anyone presume to say how many John McCain may have inspired in death what he couldn't while living?
Maybe some kid heard something to latch onto, or a college student felt a new calling, deciding to switch college majors after witnessing the genuine love and respect drenching all this week.
But soaring words and ceremonies don't need to translate into grand, noble gestures, if the passing of John McCain inspires Americans to be a little kinder, more generous, and more engaged with others in their daily lives.
120
The idealism, if we can call it that, and the fantasies of being the last great hope on earth that led us into Vietnam and then, lessons quickly forgotten, into Iraq and Afghanistan. We could have used a bit more America First over the last fifty years, by which I mean not the caricature of the ivory tower isolationist content to make money and let the rest of the world rot but rather that we had pursued the best for our citizens while engaging with both our allies and adversaries in a more measured and, yes, transactional way.
Senator McCain, both as a man and a public servant, deserves our respect and praise, but this twisted eulogy to the American Century contains a fair measure of misplaced contempt.
14
@Frunobulax
“We could have used a bit more America First over the last fifty years, by which I mean not the caricature of the ivory tower isolationist content to make money and let the rest of the world rot but rather that we had pursued the best for our citizens while engaging with both our allies and adversaries in a more measured and, yes, transactional way.”
I read this argument to mean not championing adventurous wars, tax cuts and deregulation, but keeping steep graduated taxes to fund modern infrastructure, public universities, health care expansion, pensions, and other benefits to the greater common good of all citizens—primarily our once-burgeoning middle class, as the other leading western democracies do.
8
@Frunobulax The US learned nothing in Vietnam.
4
@Frunobulax
Vietnam was the death of idealism. God what a waste! Those beautiful boys that went over to fight for our country and died at age 19, 20, 21, 22. Friends never to be seen again. Guys who were the best of their time.
5
As a veteran of the Vietnam War era, I too made sacrifices. We all did, though of very different natures.
But I can look back with pride at my stance, and I can look with admiration at the career of John McCain.
I would not have done so fifty years ago, and that's a lesson I can thank him for. Though very different from my own, he lived his life honorably. It was the life of a decent man, a man who respected the views of others. A man who protected the dignity of his adversary, Obama, when he didn't have to.
As I travel around Arizona, I see memorials to this heroic gentleman, amid a sea of Trump and Sherif Arpaio bumper stickers and wonder: how can these two utterly opposing spirits co-exist in a single group, a single political party?
281
@Sera
Living in Phoenix, I also see what you see, and may I offer a thought to your final question?
McCain was the antithesis of Trump and Arpaio in his courage, his basic human decency, and his love of our country and its values. No person who is really being honest with themselves can claim they share McCain's values, and then support Trump or Arpaio.
Therefore, the incongruity we see comes from those who (by choice or ability) haven't considered what it means to actually live their lives consistent those values. Most likely, they are simply reacting emotionally to Trump and Arpaio, seeing their false bravado, and accepting it as true courage.
Bullying is accepted as strength. Braggadocio and threats are accepted as strong, straight talk. Attacking the vulnerable is seen as protecting the country. Breaking the law is seen as protecting our laws.
Here in the West we still celebrate the infamous outlaws of the past. Why? Because we remember them as tough, independent men. Never mind the reality, that's the myth, and we won't let go of it.
McCain was a tough, independent man. Trump pretends to be. Arpaio tried to pretend to be. If someone won't or can't bother to tell true from false, they'll admire all three men, and never notice the dissonance.
7
Trumpism is schizophrenia.
3
I believe that the American values McCain lived and taught and practiced are still alive in most of us. I'm hopeful that in 2020, at the latest, we will rid ourselves of the one man who is trying to destroy those values. I say one man, because I believe most of the Republicans in Congress would still be practicing many of those values were it not for their self-serving worship of Trump.
Perhaps our downward spiral will be halted by a Democratic win in the House in November. We can then look forward to electing a real American president in 2020. If I'm wrong about the Republicans and/or this fall's election, then we will have much more work to do.
36
I watched the service this morning. I got choked up. I was overcome with the dignity, the majesty, and the honor of the entire affair. I felt like I haven't felt in years. I was filled with a sense of duty of what this nation stands for, of what my immigrant father and uncle went overseas to fight for during WWII.
I got choked up not just for the loss of a great man, faults and all. His death does not mark the passing of a man, but what that man stood for. When John McCain is laid to rest, we also bury a part of America, it's values.
To witness a state funeral of the highest honor, an honor only bestowed upon 30 individuals, and to not have the president present, reveals how far we have fallen. Our president is so disgusting that a deceased war hero would not allow him to attend his own funeral.
To watch the vice sycophant bring up Trump's name in his eulogy was inexcusable. To listen to two of the biggest cowards in Washington call out John McCain's beliefs as if they too employed them was the height of hypocrisy.
We now have a charlatan in the White House who only cares about himself, who is actively destroying everything that made this the nation John McCain loved. But the fighter McCain got in one last tremendous body blow.
By emphasising the dignity, character and honor that John McCain lived his life and orchestrated his funeral, he showed the world how awful Trump is. Trump lost big today. Thank you John McCain for one last battle.
545
The fact that the Daycare Donnie and his kindergarten White House couldn't even manage to recognize a fallen American hero and properly lower the flag in John McCain's honor demonstrates everything Americans need to know about this fake President.
He wouldn't know a patriot if he saw one because he doesn't have a patriotic bone in his body.
The Pretender-In-Chief, shunned, unwelcomed and rejected during a moment of national unity, is a deplorable moment in American history, yet another indicator of hundreds of indicators that America's Bone-Spur-In-Chief has no business soiling the Oval Office and the United States with his odious presence.
The nation's voters have a patriotic duty to vote in record numbers on November 6 2018 to reestablish American decency, ideals and democracy.
McCain was no Russian-Republican.
And neither are the overwhelming majority of American voters.
Time for a nationwide McCain 'thumbs-down' vote on November 6 2018 to save the republic from Russian-Republican scoundrels of the worst order.
429
@Socrates
Very wise, Socrates
1