John McCain

Senator John McCain is dead. The outpouring of warm sentiments for this man coming from across the political spectrum has been of the gushing variety – at least in terms of the very narrow band of political thought represented by electoral politics in the US and some other countries. The focus is on his years of captivity in Vietnam, his support for campaign finance reform, his many visits to US troops overseas, and the very occasional moments where he disagreed in a serious way with his party's leadership, which, in his own mind at least, earned him his beloved title of “maverick.”

Far less attention is paid to the fact that prior to his years of captivity, he had been dropping bombs on innocent civilians from tens of thousands of feet in the air. Before he became an advocate for campaign finance reform he was caught up in a corruption scandal that would at the very least have ruined the careers of less well-connected politicians. When he visited US troops overseas, the reason they were there in the first place, killing people and being killed themselves, was because of Senator McCain's enthusiastic support for every US imperialist venture that was launched by a US president – of either party. So as a war-monger he was very bipartisan, as is most of the Congress throughout the vast majority of US history, very much including recent history.

The idea that this man should be celebrated for his refusal to join the rest of his party in completely killing off the Affordable Care Act only makes sense in some kind of Disnified version of reality. Because the widespread poverty and lack of affordable healthcare that still defines much of the United States in 2018 is a very direct consequence of the economic policies and military spending that John McCain voted for unwaveringly, which have brought out country to the teetering edge it's on today.

I have written a musical appreciation of the Senator which I'll share with you now.

Ballad of John McCain
John McCain, John McCain
Your grandfather was an admiral

And your father was one too
When you turned 17 

You knew what to do
You signed up for the Navy 

So you could make it rain
Kill innocent civilians 

Dropping bombs from planes 

John McCain, John McCain, John McCain

John McCain, John McCain
On your military service 

You then made a run
You got into the Congress 

In 1981
In the halls of the Senate 

You had only just arrived
When you were caught up in corruption 

One of the Keating 5
What should have been a loss 

You turned into a gain
Not quite sure how you did it 

The innocence you feigned 

John McCain, John McCain, John McCain

John McCain, John McCain
You were the hero in the Senate 

Who had survived the war
The one who would explain to them 

What we were fighting for
For each act of aggression 

You would cheer along
You'd go visit the troops 

And sing your military songs
You'd thank them for their service 

And then you'd watch them die
As they fought for corporations 

Launching missiles from the sky
To the streets below 

Which would be covered with the stains
The blood of the innocent 

Running down the drains 

John McCain, John McCain, John McCain

John McCain, John McCain
You voted for austerity 

And every free trade deal
You never met an oil well 

You didn't think that you should steal
About the poverty around you 

You never did a thing
Except more military spending 

And less of everything
That matters to the people 

Who want a peaceful place to be
Without some war-crazed Senator 

Calling them his enemy
You called yourself a maverick 

Whatever the heck that meant

You had lofty aspirations 

To be the US president
Now your dead, it's over 

Your terroristic reign
The liberals, they loved you 

I loved the cancer in your brain 

John McCain, John McCain, John McCain