Senator John McCain, at age 80, is having his finest hour.
At the Munich Security Conference on Friday he put an end to his deferring and
dodging and pretending that Donald Trump was just another righteous
conservative. As per a Washington Post headline, he "systematically
dismantled Donald Trump’s entire worldview."
Speaking of the United States, McCain said that founders of
that conference "would be alarmed by [its] increasing turn away from
universal values and toward old ties of blood and race and sectarianism.”
And by, "the hardening resentment we see towards
immigrants and refugees and minority groups -- especially Muslims."
This is the kind of indictment we might expect from a Paul
Krugman or, perhaps an Andrew Sullivan, when he wakes up on the left side of
his bed, and, as always, a Frank Rich. But remember, this is John McCain
talking, a man to military rank born and sworn, both his father and grandfather
having been four-star admirals. McCain is a patriot, someone who believes
fervently in certain ideals of the United States, ideals he thinks are being
attacked and undermined by the current president.
At the conference McCain went on to say that his peers,
"would be alarmed by the growing inability -- and even unwillingness -- to
separate truth from lies.”
And that they'd be "alarmed that more and more of our
fellow citizens seem to be flirting with authoritarianism and romanticizing it
as our moral equivalent."
McCain didn't mention Donald Trump by name. No need.
McCain speaks for me when he says these things, when he
argues that the basics of American democracy are threatened by Donald Trump.
Again, this is his finest hour.
The Vietnamese, his bombing targets, never threatened
anything vital about America. As McCain now sees it, Trump does.
As for McCain's military record, let's complicate it by
saying that as bomber pilot he was part of Operation Rolling Thunder, the
effort to bomb the Vietnamese if not all the back to the Stone Age then close
enough to make them submit to American control of their country.
This is not to justify or defend what happened to him when
he crashed over Hanoi and was saved by the North Vietnamese, only to be
subjected to two years of isolation and lots of torture.
I could go on to argue that when you're caught bombing the
civilian population of the capital of a country that has never attacked you
harsh treatment should not be unexpected. How many Vietnamese did his bombs
bring down? But I don't want to go there. I want to let that argument go.
Torture is wrong, and McCain heroic to have endured it.
Maybe he's being heroic now.
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