No one is above grief

I somehow stumbled upon a piece this morning called Mourning a Patriot Whose Politics You Hate by Jon Lovett. It’s written just after the death of Senator John McCain in August of 2018 and it’s about how although Jon disagrees with everything about McCain’s politics, there’s a shred of hope to be found in that disagreement:

John McCain was funny and acerbic and had soul and pathos and blind spots and cruelty and conviction. He was bellicose. He was bled and broken and brave for his country. He was dangerous and his decency as a man is belied by the death toll of the foreign policy he espoused. He sold out to corporations but he believed in campaign finance reform. He saved Obamacare but would have repealed it. He was enamored of independence and then surprised you by living up to it, rarely. He was complicated. He believed in America. He was big in a place filled with tiny tiny little fuckers. He was a patriot and he was wrong. He was a patriot and if there is a core challenge we face right now, if you could say in one sentence what may doom this country, it is that cowardice, greed, hate, and power have drained the patriotism of one of our two political parties.

It’s true, the world would be far worse if John McCain had his way. But it would be far better if more politicians had a shred of his character. And that ought to be mourned. That ought to be grieved.

McCain was one of those frustrating Sorkin-esque West Wing Republicans where you disagree with his politics in every which way, and fundamentally because they’re cruel and short-sighted, but he was still an honest man. He was not an evil caricature or an ego-driven maniac. And so it’s troubling that in the Republican party today there’s not one person I could count in that camp. Not a single damn one.

My point: those that let #45 continue his rampage are not good, honest people. And we must not forgive them for it.