Max Boot: He goes when he's needed most

John McCain will be remembered, above all, for his character and courage.

COMMENT:

Abraham Lincoln said, "Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."

Senator John McCain was the real thing, and that is why his reputation will cast such a long shadow over our politics for years to come.

He was blessed with a caustic wit, a sense of irony and a healthy dose of self-awareness. As a result, he was free of the politician's usual sin of boring interlocutors with stump speech outtakes.

A good deal of his political appeal lay in his ability to avoid sounding like a politician - perhaps the only thing he and US President Donald Trump have in common. Unlike Trump, McCain did not establish his authenticity with ignorant or deranged statements. McCain could be politically incorrect but he was never cruel or bigoted. He believed in inspiring, rather than dividing, voters.

More than most politicians, McCain was not simply a collection of policy positions. Although a true conservative, he could transgress Republican orthodox.

McCain will be remembered, above all, for his character and courage. While other privileged young men were discovering ailments such as "bone spurs" to avoid the Vietnam War, McCain requested a combat assignment and spent more than five hellish years in the "Hanoi Hilton" POW camp. Years later, he displayed characteristic largess of spirit by advocating reconciliation with his torturers.

McCain's dedication to America's global leadership, advocacy for human rights, steadfast opposition to despots, devotion to bipartisanship, willingness to break with his own party, insistence on putting the nation's interest above self-interest, and, above all, his unwavering sense of right and wrong - all are desperately needed at a time when his party has embraced an amoral, narcissistic demagogue who fawns over tyrants and flirts with isolationism and protectionism and white nationalism.

Trump hated McCain and insulted him at every turn because McCain was everything Trump is not - and everything we need in our politics but tragically lack.