Jim Bratten
President Donald Trump just cannot let go of his old nemesis, John McCain, even though, as he’s constantly reminded, John McCain is no longer here to be a perpetual thorn in the president’s side. So it’s time to “declassify” a short McCain biography.
John S. McCain, III graduated the U.S. Naval Academy at the bottom of his class at Annapolis, a reluctant midshipman who preferred parties to studies. Making it through flight school, he got his wings as a naval aviator and was assigned to attack squadron VA-163 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, piloting his A-4E Skyhawk on missions against North Vietnam. He was downed by a SAM missile, suffered severe injuries and, captured by his enemy, incarcerated for 5½ years as a POW in the notorious “Hanoi Hilton” prison.
As with other American POWs in North Vietnamese prisons, he was beaten and brutally tortured. Offered a release due to his father’s rank of admiral in the U.S. Navy, McCain refused, choosing to remain with his fellow captive airmen. That was John McCain, the hero; his decision courageous. He decided on selfless over self.
After release and return to the United States, however, McCain chose a different path. He entered politics, became a careerist in Washington, DC, and ended up an establishment Republican U.S. senator from Arizona and the Republican presidential candidate in 2008. Famous for his involvement in the Keating Five scandal, it became obvious that John was in the Senate for John. Making a name for himself as a “maverick,” he hopped back-and-forth “across the aisle” depending on media favoritism for the issue at hand. He loved the press and they loved him, as long as he was compromising with Democrats. McCain placed conservative Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as VP on his presidential ticket in 2008 then sabotaged her when her popularity began to eclipse his own.
He joined Democrats to encourage the IRS to harass conservative Tea Party nonprofits in 2010, to restrict or delay their applications for tax exempt status.
John sent a trusted staffer, David Kremer, to London in 2016 to obtain a copy of the Steele dossier. After Kremer sought to spread it among media sources, McCain then gave it to FBI Director Jim Comey to launch an “investigation” of presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Never a friend of Donald Trump, particularly after Trump slammed his “heroism” during the 2016 campaign, McCain worked against Trump’s agenda in the U.S. Senate. He delivered his famous, sneering 2:00 a.m. “thumbs down” gesture on the Senate floor as the deciding vote against the repeal of Obamacare, single-handedly killing it, even though he loudly campaigned to repeal the law in 2016. McCain voted against the best interests of the country to show his hatred for Trump.
The final straw for Trump came in August, 2018. After approving the request for a state funeral for McCain, Trump ended up as the topic of continual derision and disrespect during the funeral, peaking in McCain’s daughter’s eulogy to her father. The press piled on, posthumously glorifying the dead senator and trashing Trump.
McCain was indeed an American hero, but he never again exhibited that quality once he settled on a political career in the Washington, DC establishment.
John McCain remains a thorn in today’s GOP reality. Although he has passed, the “McCain way” of thinking still presents Trump Republicans with real problems. It’s the reason Trump was elected in the first place. But conservatives are done with McCain and Trump should be also. It’s time that the GOP establishment understands this: The days of McCain-style fence-straddling and surrender to Democrats are over. The McCain practice of go-along-to-get-along thinking is incompatible with Trump’s agenda to “Drain the Swamp.”
Jeb Bush, are you listening?
Hoosier Patriots, Inc. is an educational and organizational non-profit for restoration, preservation and defense of the Constitution. We provide conservative commentary on public policy and government action across a variety of issues concerning the well-being of the republic. For more information go to www.vc-tpp.org or subscribe to the newsletter at hpnw.jimb@gmail.com.
