Kontextmaschine

26th August 2018

Question with 26 notes

bloodandhedonism asked: So, since people are asking me about it and I don't feel like having an opinion today: what's your take on John McCain?

His main role was to perform that “maverick” character, which I suppose signaled to those types that the Republican Party had a place for them (someone’s always gonna be the most marginal member of a coalition, after all) but… was that even a type in the first place? What is a McCain Republican anyway? Gen-X career military who signed on through the post-Nam nadir? A Scoop Jackson Reagan Democrat? Someone who still flies a POW-MIA flag but prides himself on distance from other red tribe totems?

A tenured media figure more than any voter, really - he had a following within the elite, maybe it comes down to him doing what they wish they had the strength to - call shenanigans on all the BS of the status quo then, um, apply no appreciable force to it other than towards marginally higher military spending?

And McCain-Feingold, whose impact was to be rejected.

Also in 2008 he represented the third straight term that Republicans nominated a fighter pilot despite the universal consensus those guys are huge pricks, though he was the break in an otherwise 5-term run of nominating teetotalers