John McCain has died

[John Galt]

chuck schumer announced he would introduce legislation to rename the Russel Senate building to the McCain Senate building. this is probably a good idea across the board. weirdly, republicans were tepid on changing the name of from one that honored a democratic senator to a republican one, but it could just be because it's so soon

[Kane]

[exploited]

There should be no question why America's politics are so trash these days. The pathetic fawning over men who consistently and without apology break the law, commit egregious acts of terror and violence against civilians, and enable the very worst aspects of American society is sitting at the root of this problem. The Founding Fathers would be aghast at the servitude, unthinking worship of power and general malaise found in this thread. I'm just happy that this kind of absurd revisionism is mostly limited to the United States. There are few other modern Western nations that would debase themselves to this degree.

I read "Speaker of the Dead" not long ago, and I was taken by the concept of a person who would explain and describe a persons life, without flinching away from any of it. He could point out acts of tenderness and mercy, while also concluding that a person was a violent and cruel monster.

When it comes to politicians, America desperately needs such a Speaker. Because watching this reaction to his death, this insane veneration of a single act that took place fifty years ago, followed by decades of atrocious and monstrous behaviour... well, it is sad. Genuinely sad. John McCain is a textbook example of how a person can exhibit some outstanding characteristics, but nonetheless carry on a trajectory defined by violence and degradation.

I mean, I've come to terms with the fact that 90% of the people who post here are politically inept on every level, but to see utter dogshit embraced on such a bipartisan basis is worrisome.

[JDHURF]

Other than Galt no one here really fawned over McCain (Spider was really low-key). The dominant religion in the United States is actually the state religion, so of course all of the state bishops are worshiped, many of whom regardless of denomination.

When actually analyzing this particular instance in detail one must do so within the political context. I cited, for instance, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform; his attempt, ineffective though it was, to dampen the virulent racism of the GOP base during the '08 campaign; his opposition to the ACA "skinny repeal", even though he later voted for the GOP tax bill which repeals the individual mandate which is foundational to the functioning of the ACA. While McCain had a record of advocating illegal wars of aggression which resulted in the killing of millions of civilians, even immediately after he was released from the Vietnamese torture chamber, the preceding policies cited differentiate him from most of the GOP. This being the case McCain is clearly preferable to a McConnell, Ryan, or some other GOP goon. As I've said, while 99% of his policies were terrible and some were violence of catastrophic proportions, he was one of the better republicans available.

There are going to be republicans in the congress and one must want them to be the best available. I supported Bernie Sanders for the democratic Presidential nomination even after he came out in defense of the drone assassination program which was a great disappointment. Support for Hillary Clinton was also the ethically rational choice given the situation quite apart from the nearly infinite index of horrific policies she helped to orchestrate and support. McCain, for instance, was one of three republicans who was in opposition to the nomination of the torturer Gina Haspel to Director of the CIA. His colleague from Arizona and Rand Paul were the only republicans who voted no (McCain wasn’t able to vote due to the treatment for brain cancer). There were five democrats who voted yes.

One has to give credit to McCain for refusing an early release from the torture chamber in Vietnam until POWs held longer than him were also released. Yet it also must be remembered that he was flying bombing runs over the Vietnamese people in an illegal and immoral war. He also then supported the bombing of Cambodia after he returned which was a wicked piece of evil that helped usher in the Khmer Rouge. As an unrepentant hawk he was a catastrophically dangerous senator.

As I rhetorically asked Philly, now that McCain is gone who do you imagine is going to fill his Senate seat, a progressive?

I actually agree with most of your argument.

[spacemonkey]

No big deal. Pretty much all the people no longer living have died.

[John Galt]

[exploited]

[Kane]

Wasn't McCain the one that railed against enhanced interrogations under Bush? And waterboarding?

[exploited]

[Spider]

Hurf, it's just a matter of the usual rejection of any sort of moderation or balance. Everything is either insane radical extremes...or rejected for lack of ideological purity. I plainly stated that you don't have agree with or even like the man. Obviously, there is good and bad in any life. Pointing this out is hardly fawning or worship or whatever. This is after all a man most of us here have taken turns burning down and voting against...more than once. Depressing that even after his death we have to irrationally maintain this shrill, hysterical wingnuttery.

I mean, damn. He's dead. If ever there was a time to pay a little basic respect for the good things done in a lifetime of service, even though checkered with the bad, this is it. God the partisan douchebaggery is thick.

Want to piss on a corpse? trump will hopefully be dead sooner rather than later. I'll throw a huge BBQ. But McCain? For f**k's sake grow the f**k up people.