"Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue," said the 17th Century French writer François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld. Conversely, it is apparently incumbent upon the Leader of the Free World to praise the late Senator John McCain, a man who despised the Leader of the Free World, a man who (a) was involved in the promulgation of the Steele Dossier and (b) theatrically cast the deciding vote against Obamacare repeal.
Trump saw no reason to honor a political enemy, until he was essentially forced to do so. You can question Trump on any number of issues; goodness knows I have. On this one, I don't. As I wrote yesterday, McCain may have been a hero in one facet of his life, but that did not mean he was consistently heroic, or even virtuous, throughout his political career. We have lowered the flag to half staff consistently throughout the years and, in many instances, it has been in tribute to scoundrels. In many cases, a flag is lowered to half staff and most of us aren't even sure why.
We will spend the next week honoring a man with an exceedingly complicated legacy. That's fine, but I wish we'd spend less time paying tribute and more time trying to unwind the implications of those legacies.
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