John McCain III RIP
AJ Robinson

I never voted for John McCain. I wanted to get that out right away. Yet, I had great respect for the man because of his past. His service to our country during the Vietnam War, his five-and-one-half years as a prisoner of war and his devotion to our Constitution are beyond reproach.

Vietnam Peace Action polarised America.

Not many men wanted to serve in Vietnam. It wasn’t a good war, as was WWII; Vietnam was not a just and righteous war. In fact, Vietnam did not involve a declaration of war; it was a peace action.

Not one of my brothers wanted to serve in the US military. They registered for the draft, of course. None of my brothers used some lame medical excuse, such as bone spurs, to avoid serving, as did The Great Orange One.

I think of John Sydney McCain III as a loyal American, which is not a compliment I give to many of his fellow Republicans these days. When Senate Majority leader, Mitch McConnell, announced the Senate would not give the latest Obama nominee to the Supreme Court a vote or even a hearing, for no reason other than he’s mall-minded and petty, I was shocked and annoyed. Here was the so-called Party of the Constitution, essentially spitting on that sacred document and then stomping it into the ground.

I was disappointed McCain chose to be a good little boy when it came to the Supreme Court nominee. He went along with McConnell, which is yet another reason I didn’t vote for him, but I respected the fact he stood up to Trump and did try to be bipartisan, at times. I also loved the fact that he voted down the republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Yet, there was another act, taken by McCain, with which I did not agree. That was choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, in 2008. Now, don’t go accusing me of sexism, this has nothing to do with her gender.

Not everyone can be the VP.

My problem with Palin is she’s in idiot. Many people tried to defend her, they pointed out that she was the governor of a state and thus was qualified for the number two slot. I disagreed.

I live in Orlando, Florida, a city with a population greater than the entire state of Alaska. I’m here to tell you that our mayor, who works for more women and men than did Palin, is not qualified to be Vice President of the United States. Add to that the fact that Alaska is hardly the hotbed of social unrest, has few economic troubles and the state is pretty much sitting on a sea of oil money, means she’s never had to deal with anything truly earth-shattering.

Palin resigned in disgrace and tried to make her resignation speech sound like a victory speech. She also made it fairly clear how dim she was when she displayed her lack of knowledge of current events and basic civics. She was susceptible to confusion with the simplest gotcha questions: “What newspapers do you read?” How difficult is it to come with up a good answer to that question? Palin could not. Still, she could see Russia from her front porch, which made her an expert on foreign policy.

There was a moment in the 2008 election when I almost considered voting for McCain. It was truly his finest moment. He was holding a rally when a woman made the claim that Obama wasn’t an American and was a Muslim. Gently, McCain told the older woman she was wrong, told her Obama was a good man, told her he was a good American and he merely had a different political view than did McCain. Never in my life had I been so proud of him. He was definitely a long way from Trump, who, when confronted by a similar still-living-in-the-basement-with-his-parents jerk fell back on the old, “Well, we’re going to be looking into that” routine.

Respect doesn’t always mean agreeing.

Did I always agree with McCain on every issue? No, most definitely I did not. Do I respect him? Yes, most definitely as well and I think that’s what makes our country truly great. I shall miss him. I shall mourn his passing. I hope that Americans of equal grit and devotion rise to take up the challenge of leading our nation.