Yeah, but why are WE honoring John McCain?

[moriah]

161. A couple of reasons.

1) As Republicans go, he occasionally showed decency rarely seen. It wasn't popular in his party to stand up against fancy labels for torture, and even if he had personal reasons why he could countenance sending people off to fight and die but not tolerate using distancing labels for torture, he called the "enhanced interrogation techniques" what they were. Remembering that and other similar moments of relative humanity like it are easier when the person can't cast a vote we disagree with anymore.

2) Many liberals have a strong sense of "fair" and "unfair", strong enough to overcome even extreme differences in policy. His record of horrible votes, crass language, and choosing Sarah Fucking Palin were all enough to attack in 08, and so we didn't attack even the negative parts of his service record much. Seeing Cadet Bone Spurs insult him for getting captured went beyond even allegations he was a reckless pilot or even questioning the wisdom of continuing with that particular bombing run when it was ultimately a failure -- it became an attack on all POWs, not just McCain. Even if one doesn't like McCain, they can agree belittling people who were captured in a war many people had no choice in fighting is the definition of "uncouth", amongst other less elegant words.

3) There's probably a sense of self-righteousness combined with schadenfreude regarding the fact Democrats can muster a few kind words while Republicans are out there trashing this man and embarrassing themselves thoroughly in the process. As one person interviewed on CBS tonight said, this sulky manchild behavior is going to tarnish Trump's legacy, not McCain's. Any infighting or hypocrisy in the Already Faltering GOP gives us a sense of hope that maybe it will finally implode. And so by "going high", we can then look down at the RWers saying things they'd have had apoplexy if we'd said in 2008.