By Brad Balfour
As I watched the motorcade ferreting late Senator John McCain’s body from Arizona to the airport where he/it would jet to Washington, I pondered what all the hullaballoo over his death meant to me. The pundits were in full exposition mode — waxing eloquent about how his death reflected the end of an era and a style of politics that Trump’s personal behavior was rendering null and void.
While this may be true, I actually considered something more else, something specific about McCain’s humanity, his general demeanor and overall public persona. He was a man who was willing to act and be wrong, to do and take a risk at failing without worrying whether he covered his ass and was one who self-assuredly enough did things that showed he was capable of reassessing and adjusting accordingly. When he did something that did or didn’t work he considered the consequences and made adjustments.
The very fact that as an officer, McCain refused to leave his men behind in the Hanoi Hilton while a prisoner in Viet Nam. That made him a symbol that transcended divided politics of the time — or this time for that matter. Even the most leftist in the crowd could appreciate that here was a man who stood up for his team, fellow soldier and prisoners regardless of affiliation, political or otherwise.
At the time of that war, my sympathies clearly fell on the other side of the aisle but I never condemned the soldiers who were sent there and truly respected those like McCain whose self sacrifice proved that once engaged didn’t cop out but lived up to his vows as an officer and leader of troops.
For that alone, McCain deserved the accolades that many from both political parties showered on the late Senator. But he was also being awarded for more than that. Because his death came at a time when attention was being focused on much what has been consider wrong about politics — ego, power and greed — McCain’s sacrifices recalled something else about our system.
His death came at a time when someone was needed to refocus attention toward the kind pf person who transformed his military service into political service and action. And when his daughter Meghan McCain eulogized her dad, she did a great job in hailing her father and America itself. As she said, that for her father, “There was no need to make America great again because America was always great.”
In doing so, she established a benchmark for the values he reflected. He served as a man even Democrats could hail as the symbol of bi partisanship and the classic version of Republicanism — conservative but principled. So when Renee Fleming sang “Danny Boy” at the conclusion of his public funeral/memorial, it was the right sentiment for right man at the right time – a celebration of an immigrant community coming to America to find the right way.