According to the eulogies (really, ruling class propaganda) given at John McCain’s funeral, his life now reads like that of former civil rights leaders turned politicians. Think of congressional mainstays such as Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), whose actions decades ago are wielded as weapons against those who have dared to criticize him during his subsequent political career.
The image of McCain surviving five years at the Hanoi Hilton loomed during his time in Congress, with a few notable exceptions (such his presidential run in 2008). After his death, however, those departures from orthodoxy have been erased from history. Now McCain is as American as apple pie and how dare anyone question his legacy!
But the reasons to question that legacy are legion. Think of the Keating Five scandal, McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, the constant drumbeat of “bipartisan” immigration reform, endless wars in an ever-growing list of countries, and keeping Obamacare alive just to stick it to President Trump. As Sen. Lindsey Graham noted the other day, “John taught us how to lose.”
While what he did decades ago may have been honorable, John McCain’s ensuing political career was largely one disaster after another. But after his canonization by the ruling class over the weekend, these things can no longer be mentioned in polite company. After all, you don’t want to feel the wrath of the gods, do you?