I hope McCain recovers.
Now. Why does he get a pass again voting for Trumpcare, when:
1. It’s going to throw between 18 million and 33 million to the wolves, unlike him; and
2. He himself said there should be a real process with committee hearings.
Now he’s going to fly to Washington and vote to let it proceed?
Stop letting John McCain off the hook. He’s about to jettison his vaunted independence exactly when he always does: WHEN HE VOTES IN THE SENATE.
Please share widely!
Call Sen. Caputo, Murkowski and Collins @ 202-224-3121 Tuesday to block GOP attempt to kill Obamacare and revive TrumpScare.
His cancer diagnosis is awful. So is his steadfast loyalty to GOP dogma, no matter the impact.
Mr. McCain is not “independent”. He is a “maverick” only when that has no consequences beyond burnishing his own celebrity status. When it comes to actual votes on actual policy, he always finds a way to toe the GOP line.
The irony of flying to Washington DC from the “cadillac” health care he is receiving in order to vote to deny basic health care to tens of millions of Americans is striking.
Here are some public acts Mr. McCain could do that demonstrate genuine political courage and genuine moral integrity — he could voluntarily decline to accept health care beyond what is provided by the minimal packages the GOP would foist on working-class men, women and children throughout America. He could volunteer to pay the enormous costs of his own treatment out of his own pocket.
He won’t do either of those. He prefers to instead play the hero, courageously and very publicly leaving his hospital bed to go to Washington and do everything in his power to destroy the meager benefits offered to working-class families under the ACA.
Those medicaid recipients fighting cancer have never faced a braver, pluckier adversary than John McCain.
I take issue with the premise of this post. Zero progressives in Congress, the media, and certainly this blog are letting him off the hook for his votes on ACA. All are pointing out the hypocrisy unanimously. John McCain deserves a fighting chance to survive, or at the very least, manage this prognosis the best he can. The injustice is not that he is getting treatment, the injustice is that every American cannot afford the same treatment. We can do both at the same time-sympathize with the man and call him to task for his votes.
I strongly reject the notion that any progressive in being sympathetic and/or praising his virtues is somehow “worshiping’ him or ‘letting him off the hook’ for his faults.
In the other thread. “John McCain not only served his country with distinction in the Vietnam War, he has largely served honorably in the Senate.”
That last clause is so false as to be completely ridiculous.
Your criticism is “The man absolutely showed terrible political judgement on several occasions.” I think that is largely letting him off the hook. His political career has been awful and he’s participated in or been a leader on horrible thing after horrible thing. His political career is one of consistent awfulness with a few bright spots, not the other way around.
Judge not lest he be judged my brother.
lol. So now criticizing politicians is out of bounds?
No, but you were judging me for being insufficiently judgmental of Mr. McCain. I listed the areas where I disagree and the areas where I feel he showed political courage (certainly not today and not often in the last decade). I think it was pretty clear that one area outweighed the other. I voted for Obama after all. That said, I think the fullest measure of the man is more nuanced than the caricature you paint, and it really cheapens the otherwise principled argument you are making about his hypocrisy on ACA when you blame him for everything wrong with health care in America. If the President who passed ACA can wish John well without being an asshole, surely you can. John McCain is wrong on healthcare. He is not a bad American, a bad person, or evil. Just misguided and totally wrong on an important policy question.
When people in positions of immense power make thousands of decisions over the course of their long careers that have the consistent effect of inflicting massive violence and damage to Americans, people around the globe, and the planet itself, I think those people are bad. John McCain is one of those people – notwithstanding military service when he was young or when he showed brief moments of human decency in a couple campaign events.
That’s a really dangerous premise to embrace. The right embraces this logic on abortion which has been used to justify violence against providers. I strongly reject that premise, and reject that it makes me a bad liberal.
People should be held to account for their decisions and the consequences of those decisions. I’m not endorsing violence. Although what you’re arguing is that violent resistance could never be justified, and I absolutely disagree. Too often politics is viewed as a game involving reasonable players who have different opinions. That view is so narrow and avoids facing the real world consequences of policy decisions. Senators like McCain have been incredibly insulated from those consequences, so they don’t give a shit. But at the very least, judging someone as bad based on a lifetime of bad and harmful decisions doesn’t seem controversial. And I think flying back to take this vote under the circumstances puts a fine point on showing the depravity of the man and his party.
@James and doubleman:
Honestly, James, there just isn’t any way to avoid the harsh truth of this comment from doubleman:
There just isn’t any way to defend this behavior. It exemplifies Mr. McCain’s ultimately toxic “contribution” to American government.
I have and will never argue against the depravity of the vote. It’s just as depraved as the other 49 Republicans who don’t have cancer. Focusing all our ire on the one who does strikes me as the kind of cruel bullying we rightly condemn in our President. A depraved man who’s company in harshly condemning John McCain I refuse to join,
In light of what happened to Steve Scalese and Gabby Giffords I would tread very carefully with what you say about political violence being justified. The voters of Arizona had ample opportunity to select someone else to represent their interests, they felt McCain was the best choice 30 years running. His biggest challenges were from even more extremist conservatives.
I am glad he voted to take down Big Tabacco, backed McCain Finegold, voted to stop the Federal Marriage Amendment, and voted against the Bush Tax Cuts. Who pushed out Rumsfeld and pushed in Gates. Who opposed torture and filibustered appropriations bills to stop it. Those votes counted and they helped people, and I can’t think of another Republican the voters of Arizona would send who would vote differently.
Let me state it unequivocally: this vote was a sad and shameful vote that hurts millions. But I would have been applauding his return alongside every Democratic senator because I respect his service. Using your logic, Republicans should have shunned Biden or Kennedy in their hour of need over the ‘violence’ of abortion. Surely some of them did, McCain did not. So this is what we are talking about. I refuse to fight right wing extremism with left wing extremism.
Remember when McCain voted against applying the Dept of Defense’s limitations on torture to the CIA? The leader against torture? That’s some Maverick mythology right there. That McCain can be celebrated as the anti-torture leader by taking a kinda-anti-torture position also shows what a moral disaster his party, the party that he votes with nearly all of the time, is. A handful of times now you have shot back with a few instances of him taking decent positions. Adding those in to a very long career of mainly awful party-line votes makes for a very bad legacy – or at least it should.
I don’t remember saying much about his diagnosis so I don’t know what your “using your logic” point is about. I’ve focused on how he’s been bad throughout his career. One can express sympathy for his diagnosis without also having to state that he has “served admirably” throughout his career.
And what he just did is John McCain in a nutshell.
Racing back after his diagnosis to move ahead on a bill, that has been secret and had no public hearings and that will strip health care from tens of millions of struggling Americans, and adding on the floor of the Senate “I’m not sure we can claim that distinction with a straight face today,” referring to the Senate’s moniker of the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body.
Classic Maverick.
One can also express sympathy for his diagnosis without being forced to defend every vote he has every taken as if they were somehow related. Give it a rest and call some Senators. That’s what I am going to do.
What of Mr. McCain’s virtues do you see him displaying in his high-profile return to “the Swamp” in order to do all in his power to destroy health care for the working class?
We’ve already agreed about sympathy.
I’m asking you to be specific about what you mean by “praising his virtues”.
I don’t see ANYTHING to praise, beyond his meaningless and empty bluster about Mr. Trump.
Agreed. If he had an ounce of compassion for others, after being going through his recent diagnosis and surgery, he’d ask himself how every other American citizen would be affected by the same circumstances and be ashamed that he’s getting better care than the citizens he pledged to serve.
Instead, he’s fighting to remove what care they have!
Screw him. He’s sick, he’s ill. I wish him no physical suffering but am disgusted that he has no emotional suffering for what he is willing to do to others.
I am not a Maoist and don’t believe I have to condemn a political opponent in the harshest terms possible to justify my political principles. I find it really disturbing that’s become the BMG standard as of late.
Obviously this vote sucks and hurts me and my family directly. I have never and will never vote for John McCain. I campaigned for Barack Obama in multiple swing states to stop him from becoming President. I helped a friend in Arizona organize a phonebank for his opponent this cycle and even wrote scripts for her. I donate to organizations that donate to his opponents. His voting record on healthcare sucks. I haven’t argued otherwise. I have friends who served in the Navy and are far more liberal than I am saddened to see a fellow sailor suffer. I don’t think she is a bad progressive for feeling this way. Neither am I. So please, quit with the self righteous purity and let’s figure out how to beat this god awful bill and save some lives. Arguing about how harshly we should condemn McCain doesn’t seem like a good use of our time and resources when the stakes are so bloody high.
But James — I didn’t ask you to condemn Mr. McCain.
I asked a very specific question about your own comment. You wrote (emphasis mine):
I asked you to articulate the “virtues” you had in mind when you wrote this. Once again, you respond with what sounds like an attack (“Maoist”? Really?).
Mr. McCain just cast an immoral vote — “immoral” if any of the platitudes we talk about on Sunday mornings means anything.
I hear you again chastising those of us who loudly object to such votes.
In the same comment you argue you aren’t asking me to condemn McCain you proceed to call John McCain immoral and are forcing me to defend his virtue. I don’t have to. He served his country in war and rooted in a prison cell for five years, that’s virtue enough for me. On top of that he seems to be a good father, treats his staff well, and ran an honorable campaign in 2000 and 2008. That’s clearly insufficient for you and doubleman who expect him to vote like a progressive Democrat when he has never pretended to be one. I voted for Obama, not McCain. Today’s vote is one of the many reasons why. That’s enough for me. I’m truly sorry you and doubleman demand more than that.
I’m attacking his role TODAY. I’m attacking the stark difference between his words and his actions. I do not agree that military service decades ago provides a free pass for immoral actions taken today.
I don’t expect him to vote “like a progressive Democrat”. He had several options available to him. He could have:
– Skipped the vote
– Joined the several truly courageous Republicans — like Susan Collins — in voting to kill the bill
– Used his celebrity to stop this GOP abuse, rather than advance it.
When I wrote that “I didn’t ask you to condemn Mr. McCain”, I referred to the earlier comment of mine that provoked your “Maoist” reference.
And … as a point of order … I did NOT call Mr. McCain immoral. I called his VOTE today immoral. There is a difference.
And I agree and said exactly that prior to your reply to me that this was a shameful and immoral vote. My words if you care to look them up. Can we stop conflating sympathy over his diagnosis and appreciation for the bright spots on his record with endorsement of his positions? Especially on this issue? It’s getting awfully tiresome.
As usual, Atrios puts it best.
That’s a fair dig. Claiming progressives are letting him off the hook or giving him a pass is not. Those are strawmen and inventions of the thread author unless he cites someone who is. Nobody I know of is saying ‘McCain can totally vote against ACA because he has cancer”. What I am saying is, it’s a shame he is voting against ACA especially because he has cancer and should know better. Why is this hard for people?
It was actually long ago, when McCain was one of the Keating 5, that progressives let him off the hook. That scandal should have ended his career, but it would have been awkward for progressives because the other four senators were democrats.
In a bipartisan whitewash, the senate minimized the damage to McCain, et al by putting most of the blame on Alan Cranston, who was dying of cancer anyway.
Wasn’t really brought up in the Glenn obituaries, so probably won’t be brought up in McCain’s. It absolutely should be, and is truly a tarnish on his record and the other 5.
He voted yea on the motion to proceed, but also said he would NOT vote for the health care bill itself in its current form.
Indeed. A typical example of his style.
Sort of like his compromise that said torture was illegal and that the documented torturers in the White House (all Republican, of course) would not be prosecuted.
Mark my words — John McCain will NEVER cast a vote that makes a difference in stopping the GOP attempt to destroy the ACA. If a particular GOP measure has already been killed by more courageous Republicans, he’ll go along with it.
Mr. McCain will NEVER put the well-being of Americans above the dogma of his party. Never.
I was going to point this out too but he left a loophole a mile wide. He’s against repeal “in its current form” and will only vote for it “after consulting with my Governor”. Aka it’s a sellers market and McConnell better pony up a big down payment. Which he’s likely to do.
I’m with Nate Silver, Vox, and even doubleman that the media give him too much credit for his words this afternoon without recognizing how his very vote undermines them. Had he voted no he could’ve forced the procedure he says the Senate should have had rather than allow this mess to continue that undermines the process. He may very well be an eventual no, but it seems like he nicely set himself up to be a kingmaker on this. It’ll be great for Arizona to get extra Medicaid money-but that shouldn’t come at the expense of insuring Americans in other states.
This is the best thing I have read all day. Shame, shame, shame.
How can I edit my comment BTW? I meant to hyperlink “This”, not the rest of the sentence. đŸ˜‰