“The word is that John will come back if we need his vote, and it’s too bad. He’s going through a very tough time, no question about it, but he will come back if we need his vote.”
— Donald Trump on John McCain, Dec. 17, 2017
The story of America begins and ends with heroes.
For 241 years, generation after generation has produced men and women prepared to stand for what is right and just in the name of a more perfect Union, no matter what the personal cost. We deify our Founding Fathers for this reason, housing their likenesses in Classical temples where we can pledge the undying faith and devotion of a grateful nation. And on a cold day in December 2017—perhaps not coincidentally, a few days before commemorating the birth of a certain someone who suffered for the betterment of all humankind—we were blessed to learn that another righteous man had taken his place in the Pantheon of American heroes.
For on that day, John Sidney McCain III, engaged in a mortal struggle against brain cancer, traversed the country to rid a weak and weary world of the corporate alternative minimum tax.
The parallels between Senator McCain and Founding Father Caesar Rodney are obvious. If you are a private school student receiving the benefits of vouchers or tax-advantaged savings plans, you may know the story of Rodney’s “Midnight Ride.” If you don’t, take a look at the below image of him on horseback on the Delaware state quarter—with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, you’re sure to have a few more of those in your pocket (at least until the individual tax cuts expire, and if you’re not in a state with high state and local taxes, you’re not within certain income brackets, and you don’t need to spend more for basic health insurance)! On July 1, 1776, Rodney, who like McCain was a military
man battling cancer, famously sped 80 miles from Delaware to Philadelphia to cast his vote for independence just in the nick of time, breaking the tie among his state’s delegation and ensuring the Colonies’ unanimous support. The Broadway musical “1776” further dramatizes this pivotal moment by erroneously depicting an old and frail Rodney having forsaken his death bed to arrive in Congress.
But thanks to Senator McCain, our American mythos is obsolete. For he is the fiction of moral courage made into flesh.
Three days after the President had promised McCain’s support, we watched the McCain family private jet soar to the East. When he arrived at the Senate, we could see the rapid trembling of his hands; despite his outward stoicism, a brief and almost undetectable squint of his eyes betrayed the piercing pain he must have felt. When he arrived at the lectern, he extended one thumb upward, proclaiming: “It is finished. At long last, non-personal service businesses organized as S corporations, partnerships, LLCs, and sole proprietorships may take a 20% deduction on the first $315,000 of joint income.”
Following this triumph, John McCain returned to his Arizona convalescence. No one knows if or when we will see him again (although his prospects are improved by the fact that he is not one of the 13 million people who will lose their healthcare be grateful for an opportunity to pull themselves up by their bootstraps).
In one fell swoop, the esteemed Senator secured his legacy for all coming time. When future Americans look back on the life of John McCain, they will be informed that he heroically sacrificed of himself in war, refusing to leave his fellow men behind in their time of need. They will glance over a footnote about his attempts to reform campaign finance. They may even take note of his statements on September 26, 2017, that “we need to do [tax reform] in a bipartisan fashion” and that he is “committed . . . to a bipartisan approach.” But what will endure for posterity is how, in his bleakest moment, McCain found the courage and determination to be the “Maverick” we always knew he was: the one that was not afraid to lend his support to life-altering legislation even when it was opposed by the overwhelming majority of the American people.
The story of America begins and ends with heroes.