This writer did not, and could not watch (couldn’t bring himself to watch), any of the coverage dealing with the life, death and funeral of Senator John McCain; we expected the coverage to lionized the former Senator and then utilize the inflated image of McCain to draw as unflattering comparison as could be managed to POTUS Trump. In checking News web-pages we came upon a headline: “Trump issues 4-word reply after criticism at McCain, Franklin funerals”
(@http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/09/02/trump-issues-4-word-reply-after-criticism-at-mccain-franklin-funerals.html). If one scrolls down the page one can read Trump’s 4-word reply: “Make America Great Again!” in a Twitter message. Enclosed in the Fox report is a quote that Meghan McCain – the late Senator’s daughter – uttered as she eulogized her father; the report claims she said: “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.” So it would appear that Meghan McCain’s idea of “greatness” may differ from that of POTUS Trump, and his fans… What constitutes “greatness – like what constitutes a “hero” – depend upon one’s worldview; the Christian (moral theist) conception of greatness is likely diametrically opposed to that of a hedonistic autocrat; economic greatness is logically viewed differently by a free-market economist and command economist.
Many Americans think Obama was great, and his Presidency was great…? Shows what great Press coverage can produce in the minds of the dullard… And many people view Bill Clinton (his image is a bit tarnished post “Me-too” movement, but not as tarnished as it ought to be…), and Obama as wonderful people, as they think Trump is a monster; the two former president’s – each advocated the unrestricted murder of intrauterine infants, and ubiquitous sodomy – are thought “hero’s” and “great,” to many. But, Donald Trump sucks because he gets terrible Press, and he sometimes engages in personal affronts…
One of the things which grated upon Senator McCain – and we presume daughter Meghan – is that Trump did not recognize John McCain as worthy of emulation (at least, during the 2016 Presidential campaign), because of Trump’s remarks regarding heroism may vary from individual to individual; one shows oneself lacking in moral-virtue if one takes offense when another not deferential… Obviously, McCain may have been highly regarded by many, but it seems that nobody was as impressed with John McCain as Senator John McCain… McCain – in making sure Obama-care was not repealed – showed he cared more about harming Trump’s agenda, than he cared about the interests of his constituents, that is certainly a mark of virtue and heroism; at least as the Obama-ites and social-political Leftist would see things…
Returning to Meghan McCain; we suspect that Meghan McCain is not exactly objective when speaking about her father… And knowing of the attendees – and suspecting that they shared in – an insatiable visceral antipathy (an antipathy which animated Senator McCain, as well) for all-things-Trump, she consciously, or unconsciously, played/spoke to that antipathy, which redounded to the “glorification” of her father…
Meghan McCain was not alone in ascribing encomiums to her father, while giving the President the back-of-her-hand; former POTUS G.W. Bush, Barack Obama, and others deliver stinging rebukes of POTUS Trump; thus Meghan consciously – or unconsciously – allowed her father, and his death, to be used by Trump’s detractors to purge themselves of a bit of venom from their souls… The Senator’s death thus provided an opportunity for Bush and Obama to appear magnanimous – in their praise of McCain – while allowing them a large audience to which they could derogate Trump (something they are inclined to do anyway), and garner personal gratitude from all of the inveterate Trump haters…
Subsequent to that which we said above, we watched a recording of Fox News Sunday 09/02/2018, where the panel was solicited – by Chris Wallace – to comment upon Meghan McCain’s eulogy, and her remarks regarding Trump… Marc Lotter (Mike Pence’s former press secretary) provide a pass he neither defended nor joined the assault upon Donald Trump, while Marc Thiessen (Former Bush White House speechwriter) scorched POTUS Trump (Thiessen seems to be almost as emotionally angry and opposed to Trump – in his remarks – as Meghan McCain…) and Donna Edwards (Former Democratic U.S. Congresswoman) too took the opportunity – Wallace provided her – to dump on Trump; she claimed – more-or-less – that the spirit of John McCain was animating all those that were critical of POTUS Trump…
American Greatness exists, and has existed in the principles which animated the American soul before 1776; the divide between social-political Right and the social-political Left is in worldview and regards by which principles society should be ordered. The social-political Right shares the worldview of the founding fathers, which dominated through the WWII generation (a worldview in which rule-of-law meant something) and which persisted in institutions generations after it was abandoned by the University; the social-political Left embraces a worldview of power (they embrace a view which is rather Nietzschean), and that view is dominant in the Academy (University) and the Courts but has – over the last 60 years – began to cleanses institutions where the founder’s view (Christendom) was remnant. The social-political Left, and the RINO’s – which include G.W. Bush – believes in ubiquitous Government and Government control of all that is; there is a direct correlation between expanding Government and National Debt, and a correlation between Government which actively insinuated itself into the social order and moral decadence (We spend billions of dollars each year to make the nation more fractious, more hedonistic and less amenable to reason and the rule-of-law…); the path chosen by the principles which animate the social-political Left leads to dystopia…
Now POTUS Trump – as a practical man of business is not directly re-igniting the flames (or ideas) of Revolution of 1776. Trump is essentially a-philosophical (also non-ideological), but he – as a pragmatic man of business – is attempting to make right (as pragmatists do), what was made wrong, and in this regard the pragmatist differs from the conservative – not in goal – but in motivation; thus, POTUS Trump vision of American Greatness is very much the same as that of our Founders although his motivation may be considerably more pedestrian, but that is just how a pragmatist is…
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