McCain’s Funeral: A Tipping Point for a Nation

We want to hug Meghan McCain as she reels from the pain of losing her father, we find solace in listening to President Obama’s words of wisdom; thankful for once again hearing eloquence and logic that we have sorely missed in the White House. 

For any members of a military family that experienced losses, this time brought up a well of emotions as we observed the familiar flag-draped casket. The world has been watching an America that is filled with hate and prejudice, being spewed by Trump and his supporters. We that have lived it feel that the country that we grew up in has been lost and yet McCain may have given us one last gift; he may have created the tipping point to reject the dictator-in-chief and all of those who seek to destroy us.

The Times Of Israel article printed what so much of the globe is thinking:

‘We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness — the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served,’ she said, her voice first choking back tears. Then, it rose in anger.

“The America of John McCain,” she added, with a reference to Trump’s trademark phrase, “has no need to be made great again because America was always great.’

The audience of Washington power players erupted in applause.”

The article continued with:

“Obama spoke of the long talks he and McCain had almost weekly in the Oval Office and the senator’s understanding that America’s security and influence came not from ‘our ability to bend others to our will’ but universal values of rule of law and human rights.

‘So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage,’ Obama said in a not-so-veiled nod to Trump. ‘It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born in fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.’”

Trump wasn’t invited to the funeral, in fact he spent days beforehand acting like the man-baby that he is; refusing to make any honorable comments regarding McCain and instead raising and lowering the flag at the capital, trying very hard to once again make the topic all about him.

You have to be a real ass to be deliberately excluded from two funerals and a wedding. He wasn’t invited to the royal wedding in England, Aretha Franklin’s funeral and John McCain’s funeral.

The family of Sen. John McCain, from left, Meghan McCain, Bridget McCain, Cindy McCain, James McCain and Jack McCain, watch as the casket is carried down the steps of the US Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, for a departure to the Washington National Cathedral for a memorial service (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

McCain: The Last Republican

As I looked to the McCain family, two sons proudly serving in the long-held tradition that they are carrying forward, I think the entire country knew that John McCain was indeed the last of his breed. He represented the kind of individual that could have a difference of opinion yet meet in the middle for the good of the country. The current conservatives that have gone off the deep end, gnashing and drooling as they try to grab every last dollar for themselves while they throw the American people over the cliff, is not what McCain was about. McCain was about honor, service and recognition of all, while the Trump administration and the GOP that supports him is focused on everything that is cruel and bad about humanity.

McCain saw Trump and the Republicans of today for what they are, and it sickened him. The question now is has the country finally had the slap in the face that it needed for the conservatives to see what they have become?

While the nation honored John McCain with tributes, stories and grace, Trump spent his time refusing to mention McCain and instead tweeting about his usual made up conspiracies, attacking Canada and both President Obama and Hillary Clinton. His supporters were also busy on social media, spreading the long-debunked lies about McCain while they waved their flags, thinking that this piece of material was all that was needed to be a patriot.

The images of the extreme Tea Party that has morphed the Republicans include those that have little in the way of education and a constant barrage of brainwashing propaganda of Fox/Breitbart/Sinclair/Limbaugh/Jones. These sick and twisted individuals are not the party of McCain, but some bizarre creation that resemble the Orcs in the Tolkien series.

I cover this topic in a previous article that I wrote: Trump Supporters: Hyper-Nationalism

When Trump Doesn’t Care About the Country

“A CNN article includes the most prominent part of [John] McCain’s speech in the following:

‘Here’s the key paragraph:

‘To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain ‘the last best hope of earth’ for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.’

“Half-baked.” “Spurious nationalism.” “Tired dogma.”

Did It Take Losing McCain to Learn the Lesson?

There has been a slow movement that has been veering away from the Trump/hate condition, but like everything else it seems to be at a molasses crawl. They have been working behind the scenes, trying to bridge gaps and bring about a renewed sense of “self” for the Republican Party. One would think that amidst the exposure of almost complete corruption within the GOP that it would begin to take on a faster pace, but I believe that this is all about to change. The loss of McCain was a slap in the face to the American public.

This is covered in a New York Times article: Concerned by Trump, Some Republicans Quietly Align With Democrats

‘If you’re a Republican who is concerned about the health of the liberal order and alarmed over the destruction of the norms of American democracy, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be willing to work with a Democrat who is equally concerned about those same matters,’ said Jerry Taylor, a Republican who is president of the Niskanen Center, a moderate think tank that grew out of the libertarian Cato Institute.”

However, it isn’t up to the representatives to make a dynamic shift, it is up to “we the people”. Has the general public had its fill of the lies, treasonous actions, spying, money-laundering, greed and propaganda that the GOP has been sending?

It appears that they possibly have, as the media is finally calling out the orange asshat for his redirects and lies, “impeachment” is being transitioned to “election rejection” and even some of the most extreme conservatives (aka libertarians) are finding themselves alone in the corner with their money bags clutched to their chests.

Of all of the legacies that John McCain has left, he knew that he could make the biggest difference in the manner of his funeral. He carefully planned each moment and the presence of each individual to make a statement to the American people. As a Republican, a statesman, and a true patriot, he exposed the hypocrisy of those in the White House and Putin’s puppet of Trump.

The time has come for the people in the United States to clean up the mess that we allowed to be created and throw out those that would undermine the very Democratic experiment that we are trying to achieve.

Thank you for your service Senator McCain and for leading us to a better path.

(S. Novi is a journalist who worked in the media and continues to seek out truth and integrity. A liberal and one that is suspicious of cults and empty promises. This piece first appeared on Medium.)

-cw