John McCain's Floor Statement on Need for Bipartisanship 7-25-17

This made my left-of-center / moderate on some things heart very happy. Please watch the entire video - it is a wonderful and powerful speech. Who knows, it may actually be his last floor speech, though we don't want to go there yet.

A lot of lefties are panning him for coming back and pushing forward the motion to debate the health care law, seeing as no one knows yet what really is up for debate or what the goal is...it is a call for ending the Right/Left War, and it's done in an inspiring way, at least to me.

So don't just whip on here and say "boo McCain" or something, please listen and give your opinion after. I would like to know if the "better angels of our nature" can rise up, even in these blisteringly partisan times, to overcome and equalize our governmental powers and processes.

I went from posting "Do You Hear The People Sing?" from Les Miserables (i.e. REVOLUTION!!!) in another thread, to posting this. Maybe it's the fear for my children, maybe it's the lack of sleep, but his speech actually moved me to tears...it was like something from a movie and deserves an inspiring orchestral soundtrack in my book... It gave me a smidge of hope that there is decency and honor yet to be found...just a smidge...

ok.

a reply to: AboveBoard

Wached this earlier today. Wasn't impressed. This is probably his last floor speech. Did see a cartoon that summed today up.

originally posted by: Bramble Iceshimmer
a reply to: AboveBoard

Wached this earlier today. Wasn't impressed. This is probably his last floor speech. Did see a cartoon that summed today up.

You weren't impressed because...why, you are labeling him a RINO?

Hm. What does that really mean, though? When I hear RINO I think people who are further to the right and more tribal, more intractable and more Trumpish are trying to claim that THEY are the "real" Republicans and not those old guard types with their silly Parliamentarian rules and Compromise and, you know, "Attempts at Governance."

No, today everyone is "my way or the Highway," or you are out of the club.

Today, even Reagan would be considered a "RINO."

a reply to: AboveBoard

McCain is the poster boy for a RINO.

He will sit there and negotiate away the rights of 'We the People' and doesn't have the backbone to take a stand for us. I suppose if someone WANTED completely ineffective compromises he would be your guy.

a reply to: Metallicus

Huh.

Yeah. So that makes two far-righters dissing McCain. Okay.

Hey, aren't you a Libertarian? Doesn't that make it hard for you to judge what "moderate" is?? No offense, but you guys are so far right you almost go full circle to far left anarchists...

So if you are defining the "real right," you aren't defining Republicans, but your own ideology instead.

When compromise becomes a dirty word, you will eventually have violence in the streets... Seriously. It's called being a "grown up."

a reply to: AboveBoard

Can't remember if it was local or national talk radio but I agree with them. The biggest problem with a lot of Republicans is they want to be liked. They are ashamed to be Republican because the media may talk bad about them and they may not get invited to a soiree in D.C. They don't want to recognize the Democrats as the enemy that will screw them over, whereas the Democrats want to win by hook or crook.

There are a lot of RINOs that want to be buddy buddy with the Democrats and given the chance the Democrats will gut them. Coupled with the nevertrump and the rest of the "elite swamp/sewer" that want Trump to fail because he is an outsider.

They won't mind loosing the house or the senate as long as they block Trump.

a reply to: AboveBoard

McCain is a Globalist and an Authoritarian. I am opposed to both of those things as enemies of personal liberty and freedom. I am against anyone that dictates or tells me what I have to do or what I have to believe. So, in practice this means I am opposed to anyone that tries to impose their schemes on me be it right or left.

Also, I don't 'compromise' my rights away.

I observed the reactions on Twitter when McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer and people wished him the best of luck and the strength to battle the cancer. Today they sang a complete different tune. Twitter is just full of hypocrites and i was again reminded why i only read the tweets for fun. A lot of them have no real identity left and just change their opinions to fit the next best narrative that gets the most likes and retweets. It's pathetic really.

I don't care much about McCain but i hope he gets replaced with someone who has more spine then him. Getting ill doesn't automatically absolve you from all your sins either.

a reply to: Perfectenemy

Thanks for jumping in. I agree that being ill doesn't absolve you from all sin, nor does it make me instantly agree with everything he says.

People in twitter being hypocritical? No!! Say it
Isn't so!! Lol!!!

I guess it was just refreshing for me to hear someone cut through the crap about "winning" being more important than good governance and how the power of the Executive was not over the Senate but equal to it. McCain was signaling that they'd done what they most needed to to keep their promises, had their little partisan smash fest vote today and their SCOTUS pick.

Between the lines he's telling them they can stop letting Trump control them and start doing their job. I liked that because Trump needs some checks and balances and The Senate is really the only place that can happen. The folks who elected Trump didn't elect a dictator, but a President.

McCain is doing something right in my book if he manages to piss off the far left and the far right all in one swoop by talking about actually governing from the center, where the majority of people still reside. The artificial and enhanced divisions of left vs right are not conducive to governing, however entertaining they may be as a sparring match. Healthcare isn't a game though. We need actual grown ups to handle it in a bipartisan and fair manner rather than going from one party's dominance to another. The markets can't bear the whiplash and the country, both right and left, will suffer.

"Compromise" is being derided as "spineless?" I don't think so. I've been married a long time and without being able to be a grown up and sacrifice some of my desires for the good of the family, or my husband doing the same, we would simply not be married anymore. The core values can't be compromised but insisting always on my own way would be childish and unworthy of a marriage.

Compromise is a social art and unless you live in a land of identical clones, a necessary skill. Negotiation, compromise and pragmatic problem solving isn't always sexy, but it makes for a more peaceful and mutually beneficial world.

I would like an honest and non-inflammatory discussion of single-payer in the Senate. There are pros and cons and rational reasons both for and against. Don't we deserve that? Why does everything have to be a freaking WWE style wresting match with a "side" bloodying the floor and "winning." We all lose by the spin and lies that get paraded out in place of honest concerns and benefits. Am
I the only one here who sees that???

God I hope not.

a reply to: AboveBoard

it was a good speech, and he's right...
nothing of any value is going to be accomplished as long as the two sides can't sit down together and work together..
or is it three or four sides, it seems that the republicans can even sit down together and more and accomplish much. what, they had to bring pence in just to get a majority vote to debate the healthcare bill? that's pretty sick when you consider they hold the majority in both houses!

a reply to: dawnstar

I think what we are seeing is the realization that there are four sides, far right (Inhofe, Roberts, Cotton, Cruz, Pence, Freedom Caucus in the House, etc), right of center (McCain, Graham, Murkowski) left of center (Warner, McCaskill, Kaine) and far left (Franken, Sanders, Warren).

This spectrum gets really complicated if there is a constant effort to produce winners and losers. The art of "win win" needs to come back to Washington. It will make it hard for the ideological purists, and the battles within the parties will continue to rumble and ravage process but I'm hopeful that there are reasonable people who are not purists but pragmatists.

Call me crazy but there are some good points of view on all sides. I'd love to see a productive and functional government that met the diverse needs of the people.

a reply to: AboveBoard

if the left and right of center would come together, we'd might actually get a decent health bill.
it's probably the only way we're gonna get a decent health bill...

a reply to: AboveBoard

Hm. What does that really mean, though? When I hear RINO I think people who are further to the right and more tribal, more intractable and more Trumpish are trying to claim that THEY are the "real" Republicans and not those old guard types with their silly Parliamentarian rules and Compromise and, you know, "Attempts at Governance."

RINO means Republican In Name Only. They typically lean more left politically.

Insane McCain is the ultimate proof character that the Two Party System is one single party.

From what I could tell in '08, being intensely in tune with that election, was the GOP rabidly torpedoed Ron Paul's chances, to push McSlain at Obama like a silver platter open acquiescence to a liberal defeat, just so long as real change didn't come to DC by means of the GOP.

You see I endured that Primary's run in a most personal way, tuned so into it it was tantamount professional.

Before then all my outside the box instincts kept screaming at me the the "Two Party's" are a big con. That the "Neocon's" and "Neolib's" one in the same. That beyond the "Moral Emotional Wedge Issues" as I always lamented them (abortion etc), that whole WWE style facade, it was all breaking bread and the toast of the town.


And by 2009 there was no longer any doubt about it.

Ron Paul could have mopped the floor with Obama had he be given the proper party red carpet. Instead they massacred him. They told us Giuliani he was the real "front runner". The MSM polls all said so. And yet he went down like the Titanic. Ron Paul chugged on. The money from REAL PEOPLE kept breaking records continuous. The MSM polls kept saying he was NOBODY. So much of a nobody that they literally rigged the whole Primary's, and then the convention itself to stop him. To stop REAL CHANGE.

Like how they did it again in 2012. Like how the GOP old guard effectively campaigned for Hillary to stop Trump. And you all witnessed it.

DARK ELECTIONEERING: How the DNC-MSM-RNC Work Together In Lockstep To Subvert The Nation

So what did McCain do, his brand of bipartisanship?

I dont even have to watch the video, because I already know what his real agenda is.

He's Neocon global imperialism scum. Just like Bush. Just like Obama. Just like Clinton. Just like the CIA. Just like the entirety of the Military Industrial Complex. Just like the Globalists whom claim they represent the "Global Village" they are trying to destroy if they cant dominate it outright.

Insane McCain is the bottom of the barrel of scum sucking deluded tyrannical villains (of the uber hypocritical variety no less).

ObamaHillaryMcCainCo.'s TIMELINE OF TERROR In The Middle East

Obama paid lip service to being anti-war, and then continued Bush's foreign policy abroad, while spinning it in such a way to nurture and protect Radical Islam at home and abroad. And it was McCain the senate hatchetman to make sure the Congress kept in line with Obama & Hillary mother(&##&#*ing arming godamn AL QAEDA to go and overthrow f if fail that blow up Syria. It was McCain who helped them push their scapegoat Russia as the 'real cause' of the bloodshed BS to cover their own arses. And when Trump showed up to challenge them AND their policy of global destruction if not domination it was McCain who all the sudden was the hero of the Liberal's to throw around cooked up pissgate dossier drivel, and keep spinning the web of lies that is 'Russiagate' to keep covering their arses while the CIA keeps trying to keep their policies breathing air.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Yes Yes. I get you don't like him. I get he's done bad stuff.

Okay.

The OP isn't about McCain the Man, but about his call to bipartisan functioning of the Senate and the return to regular order and the established rules of the Senate.

I don't care particularly about his "brand of partisanship" or what you've already determined it means.

Forget WHO said the words. It was the words themselves that I liked. If you watch the video please let me know what you think of the content of the speech, rather than what you think aboout McCain. I'd like to hear it.

Thanks for contributing- McCain is no angel nor am I trying to defend his record, but in this time of perpetual and intentionally driven chaos, his voice was the call to hold steady and do the work the Constitution asks of the Senate. I appreciated that.

by what I read yesterday, they dropped a 170+ amendment on the senate members to read and decide weather they should support it in less than three hours.. all of those senators should be saying no to this kind of crap!!
to think that they are gonna get anything that works done by voting for crap they have no idea what it is nutty!!
nor should what the bill consists of be decided by only a few members of the senate, but all of them.
how can it be taxation without reprensentation if all the states aren't represented and taking part in building the bills and voting on things that they haven't been given time to read and consider??

a reply to: dawnstar

I hear you. That was part of the crappy process McCain was speaking to and I fully agree with you it was very badly done.

All for a tax cut and Medicaid funding slash while affecting everyone's health care, especially the most vulnerable. It's a bull-in-the-china shop approach to legislation that is rather brutal and it needs to stop.

Trump is the king of chaos. He thrives on it. The rest of our government needs to settle down and act as a balance to his constant mess-making.

originally posted by: Vector99
a reply to: AboveBoard

Hm. What does that really mean, though? When I hear RINO I think people who are further to the right and more tribal, more intractable and more Trumpish are trying to claim that THEY are the "real" Republicans and not those old guard types with their silly Parliamentarian rules and Compromise and, you know, "Attempts at Governance."

RINO means Republican In Name Only. They typically lean more left politically.

Yes, I knew what RINO meant, but more left than far right means they are simply closer to the center. Maybe we all need a little "centering" after six months of non-stop whiplash?

I dunno. Maybe it's just me.

originally posted by: AboveBoard
This made my left-of-center / moderate on some things heart very happy. Please watch the entire video - it is a wonderful and powerful speech. Who knows, it may actually be his last floor speech, though we don't want to go there yet.

A lot of lefties are panning him for coming back and pushing forward the motion to debate the health care law, seeing as no one knows yet what really is up for debate or what the goal is...it is a call for ending the Right/Left War, and it's done in an inspiring way, at least to me.

So don't just whip on here and say "boo McCain" or something, please listen and give your opinion after. I would like to know if the "better angels of our nature" can rise up, even in these blisteringly partisan times, to overcome and equalize our governmental powers and processes.

I went from posting "Do You Hear The People Sing?" from Les Miserables (i.e. REVOLUTION!!!) in another thread, to posting this. Maybe it's the fear for my children, maybe it's the lack of sleep, but his speech actually moved me to tears...it was like something from a movie and deserves an inspiring orchestral soundtrack in my book... It gave me a smidge of hope that there is decency and honor yet to be found...just a smidge...

ok.

You fell for words. After all Obama's polished lies I would have thought, as a writer, you would be wary of falling for such rhetoric again.

For example in the speech, McCain said he would not vote for the bill even though he voted for the debate to begin.
After the vote to debate, the Senate voted on the bill. McCain voted "YAY".

Be careful of lying politicians skilled at talking endlessly and telling you what you want to hear. Talk is cheap. They usually do the opposite.
I suspect he used his illness to draw in some adulation and praise... never one to miss an opportunity.

a reply to: UKTruth

No, I didn't "fall for words." I am asking people what they think about those words as those words were the roadmap back to sanity in the Senate.

Ok...maybe a little. I'm a sucker for a well-thought speech rather than blurts and tweets, especially when those verbal purgings are meant to cause chaos and are packed with lies...

*shrugs*