Ron: Long live the Maverick John McCain

My phone buzzed at 10:41 last night.

It was a text from Don that said, “The Maverick returns.”

I grabbed my iPad and pulled up CNN. I’ve never been more delighted to be wrong in my entire life.

So what are we talking about here?

After being the deciding vote to let the discussion continue on dismantling health care in America, John McCain was the deciding vote yet again. This time, though, he sent a defiant and resounding “No” through the halls of Washington D.C.

I think, and I’m speculating here, that one of two things happened.

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First, John McCain could have been making an appeal to the higher natures of the members of his party and voted the first time to allow them one more chance to do the right thing. When he saw that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell were both sandbagging him and they had no intention to be men of their word, McCain pulled the rip cord and voted no on the second vote.

Or, John McCain had a crisis of conscious prompted a sobering look into the eyes of mortality. It’s different this time. As a young prisoner of war, you can daydream about living a long life if you could only escape the hell hole of captivity.

But as an old man, when you hear the words “brain cancer,” as much as you vow to fight publicly, deep down, you know this is it.

I don’t know John McCain, but I like to imagine that a man whose lifetime has spanned the last 13 presidents had a realization. He looked at this current president and reflected back on all the presidents that he has known going back to John F. Kennedy. When it mattered most, and when his own life is hanging by a thread, McCain lived up to his moniker and was a Maverick indeed.

His vote was for this specific bill, but it might as well have been a vote on the entire political system, and what it’s become.

Remember, this vote happened on the same day the sitting president attempted to change a military policy that would strip the careers of honorable service members because of their sexual identity via Twitter. TWITTER!

What are we talking about here?

It was also on the same day as the new White House communications director gave an on the record interview that is so profane that I can’t even quote it on the radio.

I’d like to believe that John McCain had a moment of reflection on what has become of higher office. I’d like to think that he reminisced about his good friend and political rival Ted Kennedy with whom he battled mightily, but it was never personal. I’d like to think that he looked out the window of the Capitol to the White House and he said, “Not on my watch. I vote No.”

Long live the Maverick.

“What Are We Talking About Here” can be heard every weekday at 4:50 p.m. and 6:50 p.m. on the Ron & Don Show on KIRO Radio 97.3 FM.