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Reporting on John McCain’s funeral, The Wall Street Journal noted that former presidents Bush and Obama had called McCain “a model of enduring American virtue.” McCain has been widely lauded for his patriotism, his sense of honor, dignity and decency. He was widely praised for his love of bipartisanship.
But then, how did it happen that his funeral, which he orchestrated, became defiled by Trump bashing? After all, McCain pointedly excluded the President of the United States from his funeral ceremonies. And then, speakers from Meghan McCain to Barack Obama to George W. Bush notably took up his invitation to trash Donald Trump.
Susan Glasser captured the tone for The New Yorker:
Donald Trump’s name was never mentioned. It didn’t have to be. The funeral service for John Sidney McCain III, at the Washington National Cathedral, on this swampy Saturday morning, was all about a rebuke to the pointedly uninvited current President of the United States, which was exactly how McCain had planned it.
Of course, there were fulsome tributes to Senator McCain’s bravery and courage and public service, stark reminders of the torture he endured as a prisoner of war, and of the policies he fought for (and against) in his many decades as a Republican politician from Arizona. But McCain knew that would not be the headline from the grand service, whose many details he personally oversaw. This was to be no mere laying to rest of a Washington wise man, nor just another funeral of an elder statesman whose passing would be marked by flowery words about the end of an era. It was a meeting of the Resistance, under vaulted ceilings and stained-glass windows.
Glasser even notes that the Saturday morning was “swampy.” Clearly, the swamp used the McCain funeral to strike back. Those who took center stage had been repudiated by the election of Donald Trump.
And yet, it made McCain look petty and mean-spirited… as though he could not miss a last chance to play to the liberal media crowd.
And we must add that McCain also, and pointedly, excluded his chosen 2008 vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, along with Nicolle Wallace and Steve Schmidt… officials from that campaign.
What message was that sending? After all, Palin rose to prominence because John McCain chose her to be his running mate. It was his first and most significant executive decision as presidential candidate. Why did he exclude her?
Barack Obama captured the mood, though in reverse, when he offered these thoughts:
“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse seems small, mean, petty, trafficking in bombast and insults, phony controversies and manufactured outrage,” Mr. Obama said before a host of current and former lawmakers and White House officials.
The funny part is that Obama really believes that he himself did not make a massive contribution to our toxic political environment. And, what else was he and the other speakers at John McCain’s funeral doing but being:
Small, mean, petty, trafficking in bombast and insults, phony controversies and manufactured outrage.
For a life of service and sacrifice, John McCain deserved better. He would have received better if not for the fact that he insisted on orchestrating his funeral… to settle scores and to poke a finger in the eye of the President of the United States.
11 comments:
Is there not anything that the democrat party, Never Trumpers and the DC swamp cannot debase and ruin? And the Wellstone Memorial for the most politicized and polarizing, dishonoring funerals this year goes to #1 John McCain and in a close #2 Aretha Franklin. "Dishonorable Mention" goes to the Media for demonstrating TDS.
The truly sad part is that these poor excuses for human beings have not the slightest idea about what this says about them. Is there a one who would not stabbed others in the back for political expediency? The "Never to be Trusted" gang of "Swamp Creatures."
dtrumpet
Excluding Palin and president Trump does send a message, and it would have seemed better to let them choose to decline for their own reasons. But at least with Pence there, we can see it is personal, not political. And it really was a bipartisan affair to indirectly speak against Trump's repeated unrepentant offensiveness.
I was at the Wellstone Memorial days before the election and there was just one speaker who really let his irrational emotions take over that probably gave away the election to Norm Coleman. That's maybe where I first learned how "true believers" see things differently than the rest of us. The McCain funeral was a bipartisan party of "true believer" against our sorry excuse of a president.
As I said before, McCain lost me, my respect at his long goodbye. Megan McCain was bitter and vindictive and no doubt will use her father's death as a springboard to a political career of her own.
Megan McCain is a charter member of The Lucky Sperm club. Her grandmother was an oil heiress and her grandfather and great-grandfather were admirals in the Navy. She's never accomplished a single thing in her life that wasn't due to the circumstances of her birth. I'm getting a little tired of folks who were born on third base and think they hit a triple.
As for the other funeral, all of the speakers at Aretha Franklin's funeral who took swipes at President Trump and alluded to the state of black Americans as being less than ideal are themselves far richer and far more privileged than the average white male. Certainly none of them mentioned the numerous small business owners, trades people, and landlords the Ms. Franklin seemed to have a habit of stiffing.
"And yet, it made McCain look petty and mean-spirited… as though he could not miss a last chance to play to the liberal media crowd." "It made..."? It displayed pettiness and mean-spirittedness. It showed that part of the truth about McCain.
I don't know if McCain wanted a Wellstone funeral, but I suspect he'd have appreciated it.
Oh, Ares. There you go again.
Ten years ago at this moment, I was an alternate to the GOP convention in Minnesota that nominated McCain. I only wanted to go because I had lived there and wanted to catch up with friends, and because McCain made up somewhat for his obnoxiousness by picking Sarah Palin as his running mate. I held my nose and voted for him in November, and while the alternative was worse, I really don't think it was all that worse.
Using funerals this way demonstrates who these people are. All of them, including people who think there is any justification for honoring the memory of those departed in such a manner. It is truly wicked.
And it will backfire. Again.
Did you ever wonder who started this kerfuffle between Trump and McCain? It wasn't Trump. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/08/who_really_started_the_trumpmccain_feud.html Tells one a lot about McCain.
dtrumpet
But at least with Pence there, we can see it is personal, not political. And it really was a bipartisan affair to indirectly speak against Trump's repeated unrepentant offensiveness.
The definition of 'bipartisan' in the Swamp for some time has been being the enemy of my enemy, or at least pissing their supporters off. The 'bipartisan' tributes to McCain are fitting. Can anyone point to a piece of legislation he authored that provided a general benefit to the country? His signature accomplishment was a law that made it more difficult for citizens to campaign against incumbents, and many of his 'bipartisan' gestures favored the status quo to the detriment of his (nominal) party and the country as a whole.
Obama-speak is cringe worthy. His lack of self-awareness makes him either ignorant of or indifferent to his stewardship over the loss of civility by the left. Trump is the perfect antidote to this.
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For a life of service and sacrifice, John McCain deserved better. He would have received better if not for the fact that he insisted on orchestrating his funeral… to settle scores and to poke a finger in the eye of the President of the United States.'
If he had deserved better, he would have arranged better. McCain's funeral reflected his loyalties, which lay with the elites and the Left, but definitely not with Americans.
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