Pierce: John McCain's Funeral Was a Council of War--Just as He Meant It to Be
John McCain’s Funeral Was a Council of War—Just as He Meant It to Be
A dispatch from the National Cathedral.
BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
SEP 1, 2018
WASHINGTON — In the magnificent, lordly church-house, there were speeches and prayers. There were songs and hymns. There were bands and pipers and choirs and soloists. John McCain was given a national send-off in a National Cathedral and there was a great gathering of emotion that was almost frightening in its intensity because you knew that it was aimed at a solitary, angry, unbalanced man left back at the White House, at someone who nonetheless is the president* of the United States, with all the powers inherent to his office, a man who has created a situation in which he is an object of dislike and disrespect, because that is all that he's given to the world in return.
It was said almost immediately after the conclusion of the funeral ceremonies on Saturday that, for a few hours anyway, we were back in a familiar country with familiar customs and manners and norms, a country with institutions built to last. That may well be true. I felt it, too. But in back of that is the realization that all of us, including the deceased, had taken those customs, manners, norms, and institutions terribly for granted. We thought they could withstand anything, even a renegade president* in the pocket of a distant authoritarian goon. We let the customs, manners, norms and institutions weaken through neglect and now we are in open conflict with an elected president and, make no mistake about it, John McCain's funeral was a council of war, and it was a council of war because that's what John McCain meant it to be.
He deliberately made known to people that the president* was not welcome at any of the services. He deliberately chose the previous two presidents to deliver the formal eulogies. He deliberately created that scene in the Capitol rotunda at which Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and Mike Pence, an unholy trio of Trumpist quislings, had to choke down their own cowardice and say how much they loved him and his irascibility. He deliberately created a mirror in which, if they still have an ounce of self-awareness, they could see the rot that has set in on their souls. Even at the end, John McCain knew what he was doing and he was a fearsome opponent. He wanted a pageant of everything this administration* has trashed and put up for sale, and that's what he got Saturday—a morality play shot through with Shakespearian portent and foreshadowing, a pageant of democracy's vengeance....
Make no mistake. Those are not patriotic banalities any more. The current president* has made them dead serious again. They are no longer frothy paeans to the greatness of America. They are compass points on a battlefield. They are no longer heard with half an ear and then forgotten. They are fighting words now. The president* knew it. That's why he spent the morning rage-tweeting and the afternoon playing golf. In dying, and in carefully planning his funeral in the way he did, John McCain has opened a second front.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22893069/john-mccain-funeral-service/
= new reply since forum marked as read
If the caging of children and tearing apart families (hey, wait a minute - aren't THEY the party of "family values?) doesn't snap them into appropriate humane action, well, it is time for America to stand up and make things right.
GET OUT THE VOTE - it is the MOST important thing that you can do to save the United States of America!
I tip my hat to your brave, true and honest words.
And thank you so much for posting this, my dear mcar!
He has been fearlessly denouncing that thing in the White House from the beginning. He doesn't suggest or imply, but rather fires his words straight to the bones of this manufactured monstrosity.
[Edit to add: I see someone else, down the page but earlier in time, beat me to acknowledging treasure status. 
Should've read the whole page before commenting.]
Perfect
second front! I like it.
.....The entire service was amazing, and I loved the jab at #45 that Meghan McCain made when she said words to the effect that we don't need to make America great again as America has ALWAYS been great.......and of course, President Obama hit it out of the park, and even "W" was pretty doggone good......all in all, I think the way that John McCain outlined his service was a perfect fit for giving #45 the middle finger......it was good all the way around......... 
Kick and recommend for the Nation!
I like the asterisk that's seen throughout
(He should have put one after "elected," as well)
Stunning piece. Thank you for posting this
from Charles Pierce, mcar!
