The Sad Spectacle of John McCain and the Arc of History

There are those who have the ability to tap into the sense of changing times and then there are those who insist on closing their eyes and refusing to accept the reality of societal change. John McCain - who I enthusiastically supported when he was running for president in 2000 - has proven himself to fall into the alter category. Ironically, his wife and daughter Meghan understood the changing times, while McCain himself refused to do so and likely tarnished his image for posterity. His opposition to DADT and the expansion of equality to more citizens - and his selection of Sarah Palin, an intellectual cretin - to satisfy the most intolerant and bigoted segments of U.S. society may well be what he is remembered for above all else. Given his re-election for another 6 year term at his age, one might have thought that he'd realize that he'd likely never see another re-election campaign and give into his better muses, but such was not the case. I'm now embarrassed to say I ever though well of the man. A column in the Washington Post looks at McCain's sad spectacle in the Senate today. Here are highlights:
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It doesn't take much to set off McCain these days. Earlier in the week, he was observed in the unseemly act of publicly gloating on the Senate floor over his success in killing a massive spending bill. He's also been raising hurdles to the ratification of the Obama administration's nuclear arms treaty with Russia. At the same time, he led the opposition Saturday to repealing the ban on openly gay men and lesbians serving in the military - taking on Lieberman, who led the other side.
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McCain's statement on the floor was roughly one part argument, four parts tantrum. "So here we are about six weeks after an election that repudiated the agenda of the other side," he said, and those who would repeal don't-ask-don't-tell "are acting in direct repudiation of the message of the American people." (Actually, polls show support for repeal.)
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He bemoaned "this bizarro world that the majority leader has been carrying us in," and taunted: "Maybe it will require another election." The Arizonan suggested those who vote to repeal would have blood on their hands. "Don't think that it won't be at great cost," he said, punctuating his words by bouncing on his toes and chopping with his left hand. It will "probably," he said, "harm the battle effectiveness which is so vital to the survival of our young men and women in the military."
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On Saturday, McCain's rage was all the more striking because the general tone of the debate was tame. Republicans were mostly defensive, objecting not to the service of homosexuals in the military but to procedures and other technical matters. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said of the repeal: "Should it be done at some point in time? Maybe so, but in the middle of a military conflict is not the time to do it." Such tactical arguments made it appear that the opponents were standing against the inevitable tide of history.
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I believe that equality and the religious freedom promised by the U. S. Constitution but long denied to LGBT Americans won out today. The forces that rail against modernity and seek to inflict on religious based discrimination on gays will continue to foment hatred, but their days are limited and soon they will join the ranks of past members of the Klu Klux Klan who are viewed with horror by later generations. Andrew Sullivan summed up well what happened today in my view:
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What the gay rights movement should, in my view, be about is not the creation of a separate, protected class of victims. It should be about enlarging the circle of human freedom so that there are no excuses left, no classes of pre-ordained victims, just individual citizens living different lives with no group-based discrimination.
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This does not deny the uniqueness of different cultures, the value of a distinct minority, the differentness of race and gender and orientation and religion and geography. It merely says that politics should be indifferent to this cacophony of voices and carnival of color. Politics should merely address those core civil inequalities that keep groups separate, alien and mutually suspicious. By removing the bar on military service and the bar on marriage, the gay rights movement is, slowly, increasingly, making America more whole and the gay rights movement obsolete. I long for that day. But I will always cherish this one.