John McCain: Celebrating the Life of a Career Politician | Eastern North Carolina Now

      with George Liberty

    The following remarks are offered in remembrance of Senator John McCain.

    We, as a nation, celebrate our politicians more than any other group of people. We lift them up and we place them on podiums, even when they clearly don't deserve to be so elevated or celebrated. According to eulogies and to the dedications and to the commentaries, they were not only elected officials who passed our laws, but they were also our spokesmen. I would say they were our public servants, but we all know that the term rarely suits an elected official these days, especially.. ESPECIALLY, one in Washington DC.

    Today's politicians are quite different from our Founding Fathers, aren't they? Our Founding Fathers weren't politicians. They were Revolutionaries who saw an ideal through to its ultimate fruition - to our country's independence and then the constitutional protection and security of the rights of the individual. The American states were established as free sovereigns dedicated to the inalienable right of individuals to live free and with minimal intrusion of government on their lives, their liberty, their property, and their pursuit of happiness. Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, and those who fought in the War for Independence from Great Britain placed their lives and everything they owned on the alter of freedom. In attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence, they potentially signed their death warrants. "for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

    Our Founders were a breed of men that are almost extinct in today's world. Our Founders envisioned representatives as "citizen-servants," serving for a term or two and then returning back to their community to live under the laws they passed and to face members of the constituency in church, in the store, at ball games, etc. It was not only a culture of service and patriotism, but a way to ensure that representatives passed good laws. And that's how they served. After they helped draft the Constitution and then helped to ratify it in the state conventions, they ran for federal office only when they felt their efforts and their intentions for a limited government were in peril.

    Who in recent history talks about the uncompromising duty to protect those rights listed in the Bill of Rights and the need for the government to remain constrained to its delegated functions? Hardly anyone in DC, that's for sure. Instead, we hear them argue for gun control, we hear them call for civil disobedience to shut down free speech, we hear them disavow the duty of the government to secure our borders, and we watch as law after law, policy after policy, and expenditure after expenditure demonstrates a total disregard for constitutional limitations. And we watch as federal courts act to complete the federal monopoly over the meaning and intent of the Constitution and as they steadily and continually complete the transfer of power from the States and the People to Washington DC.

    True leaders do the right thing.

    Yet where are the true leaders today?

    Today's politician is a poor excuse for a leader. Once elected to federal office, they cease being an agent or representative for their constituents and begin becoming an agent for the federal government. We all know this is true. We see it with all our Congressmen and Senators. We've come to mistrust what comes out of their mouths. They all act the same and they all sound the same. They serve the government, they are greatly enriched by it, and they are protected by it. They enjoy the upper tier of a two-tier justice system and they enjoy monetary and other perks that incentivize the repeated tenure. Far from the era when representatives had to live under the laws they pass, now they are totally disconnected from them. They make so much money (salary plus "opportunities," and then a handsome pension for the rest of their lives) that they can live in exclusive gated communities and in the best parts of the state. They are immune from the crime and the effects of uncontrolled illegal immigration that their lack of adherence to the Constitution and their lack of responsible leadership results in for the ordinary citizen. They receive free high-quality healthcare for life, so they are exempt from any considerations that might have ordinarily plagued their conscience in passing healthcare reform. They are accompanied by bodyguards and other secret service protection, so they can easily condemn the Second Amendment whenever a mass shooting occurs. They are, in general and for the most part, not willing to stand up for freedom with the ferocity that our leaders once did. Their statements and their actions are always tempered with political considerations, such as how they might be portrayed in the media and how it might affect their re-election chances. The historic view that our country was founded on the rights of the "individual" is becoming more and more a minority view and most now seem to lean toward socialist views (what is good for the country, in the collective). They barely have any respect for the First Amendment right to Religious freedom (now believing it is a major impediment to social progress) and if they had the chance, they would gladly gut the Second Amendment. Hell, they no longer even put American citizens first. Since when does an illegal alien's right to an American taxpayer's hard-earned salary outweigh the right of that taxpayer to keep his or her hard-earned salary?

    At some point, the policy of merit, competition, and true progress (moving the country forward in wealth, production, technology, etc) has been replaced by a policy of "diversity." All of a sudden, the most important quality of a person is not what they bring to the table in terms of intelligence, wealth production, ingenuity, innovation, but rather, the most important quality is what they look like... what the color of their skin is. Every aspect of society is now subject to affirmative action and quotas. Merit is out the window. Diversity is the social tool of the progressive movement and NOT a tool that on its face is designed necessarily to benefit our country. When our country was founded, the purpose of our immigration policy was to "add wealth" to the united States... that is, immigrants were expected to add to the wealth of the country, to bring services, innovation, knowledge, etc and NOT to take from her wealth. Now the goal of our immigration policy is... well, there is no goal. It seems to be to further diversity only (again, to increase the number of bodies here that do not outwardly look like our average white male or female). And for a politician to take a position against diversity and in favor of merit is to be willing to die a thousand times by the sword of "racism."

    Just as offensive is the way that politicians put themselves first and put the agenda of a political party first over the actual concerns and issues of the people they represent, and put the interests of special interest groups over those of the people - companies, industries, activist groups... Profit and globalism are the things that motivate politicians and not the happiness, the freedom, the financial well-being, or quality of life of the American people.

    That was John McCain - your typical modern-day politician. He was a politician in an ocean of politicians. He was a career politician in every sense of the word. He became so powerful that he became untouchable and unremovable.

    I do not doubt John McCain's heroics in surviving five years under torture. No one deserves that and no one can be faulted for exhibiting some degree of weakness under such inhuman conditions. We are glad and proud that he survived it. We are touched by his ordeal. To some degree, his ordeal - his fortitude, his endurance, and his survival - is an example of the American spirit.

    Yes, while serving as a navy aviator and wearing the uniform of the United States, he was quite a maverick. And when he traveled to Washington DC, under the guise of being a Republican, he became a maverick once again. The only difference is that being a maverick in government meant he essentially was a rogue politician. In his last Senate terms, he clearly strayed far from the principles of the Republican Party. He was a quintessential rino. In his last two years of service, his positions, his votes, and his actions became indistinguishable from those of the Democratic Party.

    McCain served as a politician, enjoyed the power he wielded, and became a typical politician. Over time, he became consumed by the system; he became a consummate political politician. He talked the talk and walked the walk. Publicly, he was against pork in the bills, but remained silent and inactive when it was built it in at every turn. He supported and signed ALL bills that exported our nation's wealth and our peoples' jobs. He advanced globalism at the expense of our citizens. He supported NAFTA and other bad trade deals designed only to weaken our manufacturing sector. For decades, he exported our wealth for the purpose of developing other countries. While the federal government pursued policies of wealth distribution at home, it equally pursued wealth distribution on an international scale as well. John McCain was happy to help further those goals. He supported the Paris Climate Accords and its mandate to support 150 billion of American taxpayers money every year to Brussels for - FOR 20 YEARS!! That's $3 trillion.

    I remember other things about Senator John McCain. I remember that he surrendered his own state's sovereignty to a system designed to exploit its weaknesses and to harm to his citizens. As a border state, Arizona was being over-run by massive illegal immigration, by the importation of drugs and crime, and plagued by all the social problems that go with all that illegal immigration, such as loss of jobs for citizens, the burden on its education and social programs, and the unsustainable cost of their flooding into the state. When Governor Jan Brewer sought to fight back, to enforce common-sense laws designed to crack down on illegal immigration and the effect it was having on the state's jobs and economy, he did not support her. A sovereign is not a sovereign if it lacks the authority to protect its borders and provide safety and security of its "citizens." He could have used his position as a US Senator to insist on enforcement of US immigration laws, and he could have also used his clout as a man of power to lend support to Governor Brewer and her position. But he didn't. He did not and would not defy a president or justice system that was in open violation of the very laws, as well as Article I of the US Constitution, they were sworn to uphold and enforce. He let the citizens of his own state down. He failed to protect them. law to the detriment of his own citizens he was sworn to protect defend. He put the interests of the federal government above the interests of the state he was elected to represent and the people he was elected to represent.

    Just like career politicians do, McCain said one thing and voted oppositely. He may have been better than most politicians, but that says very little about merit. This is not about John McCain, the man. I am sure, from what I've learned about him (aside from the cheating and the divorce of his first wife), that he was a good man and evolved into a decent man, a fierce friend, a great father, and wonderful husband.

    But let's be honest, when we celebrate our politicians, we don't celebrate their personal qualities. In general, the average American citizen is a far better human being than most politicians. Rather, we celebrate their being a good servant of the government.

    Towards the end of his life, Senator John McCain may have become that Maverick in the US Congress that people always described him as. But he became so in the worst of ways. In defying the party of conservativism, the party he used to secure his career as a politician and loyal agent of the federal government, the party he aligned with to dupe his voters, his "unorthodox conduct and independent-mindedness" caused him to openly wage war with President Trump, the candidate overwhelmingly embraced by conservatives all over the country. He detested Donald Trump and sparred with him on every occasion.

    Trump ran on a platform of "draining the swamp" (the criminal and unethical element working diligently and tirelessly against the American people and their interests), reversing the counter-productive, liberal, and globalist policies of Barack Obama, and returning the government, as best as possible, to the People. Of course each rung of Trump's platform, while good for the American people, American businessman/business owner and American employees, was bad for the federal government. Senator McCain's allegiance was with the policies that benefit the government. McCain's allegiance has always been to the leviathan in DC.

    And so, while we mourn the death of the man that was John McCain and we are profoundly grateful for his willing service to the country in the Vietnam War, it is hypocritical to have all these over-the-top ceremonies and dedications to the politician that was Senator John McCain.

    In the end, all said and done, what we are celebrating is the life of just another career politician.