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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJohn McCain Was a White American Hero
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/john-mccain-was-a-white-american-hero-1828628891This sort of veneration will likely be the legacy that prevails when hes regarded by history. I do not disagree with it. He was, in the context of whiteness, in the context of Americaness, in the context of maleness, and in the context of what those things fused together are intended to mean, a hero.
That McCain is considered and will continue to be considered heroic is less a way of synopsizing his life and more a testimony on whiteness and Americanness and maleness. Or, more accurately, an indictment. And we do not have to look further than the very recent past for proof. We know, for instance, that despite his conspicuous animus for President Trump and the type of nasty, dishonorable, and cowardly Americanness Trump representsan Americanness that John McCain considered himself abovehe was so aligned politically with this man he detested that he voted with him 83 percent of the time. And we know that his choice to select the squirrelly and thick-witted Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008 paved the way for Trumps ascension, the way a fart leads way to a shit.
There were many other decisions like this; careful and measured political choices that aligned McCain with what was (and is) the status quo for white American men. There was his dogmatic support of the Iraq War. Which, to be fair, he later admitted was a mistake. But, as Splinters Paul Blest articulated, he didnt seem to learn many lessons from it.
msongs
(67,405 posts)malaise
(268,998 posts)AlexSFCA
(6,137 posts)e.g., he was a staunch oppoent of gays serving in the military and then was the most vocal critic of repealing dont ask dont tell. But more recently he showed support for transgender people serving in the military after trump issued a ban.
He probably did support same sex marriage in 2018, if not, he would have by 2020 or so.
Anon-C
(3,430 posts)cynatnite
(31,011 posts)I've hated some of his votes, his views and disagreed with him politically a lot.
But that man will always have my respect for the fact that he refused to be released unless all the POW's were freed.
trixie2
(905 posts)John Fante
(3,479 posts)I'll take the Obama route on this one. I'm sure he disagreed with a boatload of McCain's political positions, but he doesn't feel the need to shit on the guy (or inexplicably arguing that he's seen as a hero because he was white) because of it.
Caliman73
(11,738 posts)President Obama has his reasons for behaving the way he does, especially in these type of situations. It is perfectly fine to accept one over the other and for you to think that it is a shit article as well, however, the author is expressing a point of view from the perspective of people of color who see the differences in the way that White people and Black or Brown people are treated in the US.