John McCain....Patriot or not?

[Heartstrings]

Senator John McCain has only two days left to resign in time to allow his seat to go to special election in November. After May 31, by law, whenever the seat becomes vacant the Republican governor will be allowed to appoint someone who is allowed to hold that seat until December 31, 2020.

If McCain was the true patriot many of us suspect, he will give the Democratic party the chance to put up a senatorial firewall against Trump's disastrous judicial picks, and join a Democratic-majority House in keeping this con-man president in partial check. The odds of flipping the Senate in November are much better if McCain puts country before party and resigns in the next forty-eight hours. Sadly, I'm not holding my breath. Nor do I expect that the Republican party will ever do anything to clip the wings of our disastrous presidential pterodactyl.

[lamp_shade]

1. Bookmarked for follow-up. Thanks. nt

[irisblue]

2. I don't think he will resign, I think he'll pass away in office.

[TimeSnowDemos]

3. You have to define patriot

because few really agree on what it means....

[Heartstrings]

5. In this instance

I would simply define it as, country over party....

[TimeSnowDemos]

7. OK

The problem with THAT definition is that MANY people would accuse most American voters who identify with a party as "partisans". Sure we see it even here... vote for people based on nothing but party... so are those people unpatriotic?

And... I know this seems maybe beyond the scope of this but... what if people think that voting party line, including voting for partisans, is the best thing for the country?

Are they patriots?

In a country where your voting options are often vote for someone you don't like, who use rhetoric you think is dangerous vs vote for someone who you think will actively hurt the country, because they'll give a worse party power...... I mean.. your definition is maybe a bit too simplistic...especially as people don't agree on what voting for your country even means...

And what if you spend years being a non-partisan, and then years as a partisan, and then years as a non-partisan... are there on again off again patriots?

[Heartstrings]

10. Under "normal" circumstances I would have to agree with everything you stated...

These are not "normal" times, however, for our country.

Does John McCain, in his remaining time on this earth, do what he can to stop what is currently being done to his country?

[TimeSnowDemos]

11. I get that

I do, really... but he won't. And then what? I mean, is he retrospectively not a patriot? OR just not one for a few months until he dies?

I don't know... seems like an impossible thing to define...

[southrnbelle]

4. John, John, John........

Please!

[pintobean]

6. A lifetime of service to the country

won't be negated because he won't help his political opposition fill his seat. That's just a silly notion.

I don't care for the man, but he is a patriot.

[TimeSnowDemos]

9. Service

I hate the way that word is used... Does a corrupt cop get a pass because of his "service"?

McCain has done so much over the years to HURT America, but because he did that as a Senator it counts as "service"?


Meh.

[DrDan]

23. bingo - well said

[RelativelyJones]

8. John McCain does not need to prove his patriotism.

I don’t agree with his politics but his patriotism is beyond reproach after what this man went through for his country

[BlueJac]

12. Patriot?

maybe but voted with his pack of fools too many times

[Sherman A1]

13. John McCain just like all of us

is a mixed bag of things. He served his country in the Military and suffered at the hands of his captors during Vietnam. I am not sure if his Senate career was serving his country or himself from time to time, but we are all human and we are not perfect.

I will not pass judgement on him one way or the other.

[bucolic_frolic]

14. If he were a middle-of-the-road moderate he would have been president

but he only made moderate musings in the press, then stuck to his core deeply conservative beliefs with corporate rule. He did work across the aisle when some Democratic friends worked with him. That would be a giant success story today.

Sarah Palin was a klinker in his entire career. No way she should have been his running mate. I still don't understand how she could see Russia from her house. In retrospect it sounds like a Trump-induced deliberate rant with evil foreboding. They knew. They all knew because this has been brewed for decades as their last grasp at totalitarianism if their other methods failed.

John McCain is not responsible for the policies of replacement in Arizona. Nor should he work around them simply to thwart Trump. That is the voters' job. That he has aired his disapproval with Trump, voted against him at key points here or there, is notable enough. And it's all Democrats are going to get from him, but we should honor his service and tepid bipartisanship. He is old time GOP, and I don't know if America will breed another generation like him.

[democrank]

15. John McCain doesn't have to prove anything to anyone.

He sacrificed so much for his country.

He's dying. Let him be.

[malaise]

16. Hmmmmmmmmmm

He voted for the Con

[dem4decades]

17. He's a Patriot, and just another Republican jerk.

Other than his Healthcare vote he's been a disappointment.

[LakeArenal]

25. Nailed it..

He represented a hero in his past. Other than the health care vote he's been awful politically.

Republican Jerk with the Christian idea that in the last five minutes you can be "saved".

[beachbum bob]

18. no republican is patriotic to the point that allows democrats any say in the manner

its about power, not patriotism

[Tarc]

19. They're going to appoint his wife to fill the term

Which is making the FReeper heads explode since they loathe McCain. But this is pretty much a done deal.

[VOX]

20. 5 1/2 years in POW camps. Bayoneted, tortured...

At one point, while suffering with dysentery, he was bound and beaten every two hours. Of signing some anti-U.S. propaganda, he stated: "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine." (The beatings continued anyway, two to three times a week.)
- - - -
I’m no flag-waver, but I think the Senator from Arizona has more than earned the right to go out on his own terms, whatever they might be. And may he rest in peace when that day comes.

[TNNurse]

21. Read in the Knoxville paper this morning,

that Trump offered Bob Corker (who is retiring) an ambassadorship to Australia with the hope he would accept and Trump could put that idiot Marsha Blackburn in his place. Blackburn who is in the House is trailing behind the Democrat Phil Bredesen. As an incumbent Marsha would have a better chance. Corker declined.

As a woman, I want you to know I support women candidates. Decent, honest qualified candidates but not just because they are women. Marsha Blackburn for Senate and Diane Black for Governor in TN are awful people who will not get my vote.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. IMO, No

A combat hero? Yes. A person who put up with a horrible situation while in the Navy? Yes.

But, there are the 5 words in the Constitution that he, like so many other R's forget. "...to promote the general welfare."

Since it's actually in the first paragraph on the article concerning Congress, he's never actually followed the Constitution he swore, many times, to uphold.

That's not patriotic.

[PJMcK]

24. Yep, I'm in complete agreement

Although McCan was not a good student in the Naval Academy, (bottom of his class), and the fact that he was a poor aviator, (three crashes), he was a hero because of the way he handled himself as a POW.

Otherwise, he has always been a political hack. There are many events in his life that define him:

- Picking the unvetted Sarah Palin as his running mate
- Embracing George W. Bush after Bush's primary campaign told lies about McCain's adopted daughter
- Telling a disgusting "joke" about the teenaged daughter of President Clinton
- His votes to confirm Robert Bork and Clarance Thomas as Supreme Court Justices
- He was one of the Keating Five
- He voted to convict President Clinton following his impeachment by the House of Representatives
- His support of the Iraq War Resolution in 2002 (I don't care if he now claims it was a mistake; we knew it was BS at the time)

The list can go on and on. He is not a patriot in my book.

Good riddance, McCain.

[MyOwnPeace]

28. PJ,

I really like your summary - yeah, good for him as a suffering POW - but, boy, what a track record as a politician.
He has provided some interesting headlines, but really, not much for our country as a Senator.

[Power 2 the People]

29. Correct correct correct

A military hero as a POW.Unquestioned.

A political coward and self-serving opportunist as a representative of the people.

[NCTraveler]

26. I don't think this will define him as a patriot, either way.

I do understand that patriotism is all the craze.

[denbot]

27. I think he will keep his seat.

Partially out of concern for the country, but IMHO he will relish giving Shitler a groin kick from the grave by making it possible a Democratic Senator will have his seat, and cast a vote to impeach his sorry ass.