The late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was a maverick in American politics for 35 years. His legacy of sticking up for the little guy and pushing for bipartisan legislation was the hallmark of his career, but now, the Republican Party is tearing apart everything McCain stood for.
During a recent campaign stop in Phoenix, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) claimed that McCain was similar to former President Donald Trump, as neither one of them, "let their personal grievances get in the way of serving the country." Vance also assumed McCain, if he were alive today, would not support Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential candidacy.
These statements, among many more, have left a bad taste in the mouths of moderate Republicans.
"I think that’s preposterous when you have Trump who, on a daily basis, marginalizes, demonizes whoever disagrees with him in order to try to gain points and uplift himself," said former Director of Fundraising for the McCain 2008 Presidential Committee in Arizona, Bettina Nava. "John McCain would argue an issue on the merits of policy and data and facts and then conjecture."
McCain spent his career collaborating with politicians to create policies that put his country first, regardless of political gain. He based his life’s work on sacrifice and understood that the foundation of the U.S. comes from a diversity of people and ideas.
He collaborated with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) on the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act and worked with former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, with his only consideration being the American people.
In 2017, McCain joined every Democrat in the Senate, voting against a repeal of the Affordable Care Act despite his own party’s agenda.
Trump was the last person McCain spoke to before he made the deciding vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act, according to former McCain Deputy Campaign Manager Wes Gullett.
"He walked out of the cloakroom, where he just talked to Donald Trump, and gave the thumbs down," Gullett said. "That sent the far right bananas, and the reason he did that was because he was sticking out for the little guy."
Fear is the driving force behind how the Republican Party has devolved into a cesspool of extremism. Republicans are afraid of the reality of what the U.S. is: a mixture of thoughts and beliefs.
"John McCain believed that we had these conversations about the mosaic that is America, and it's a quilt that takes a lot of blocks and it's a beautiful thing," Gullett said. "JD Vance and Donald Trump, they're so worried that somebody is going to get more than them and that’s not what it’s all about."
Trump has "fundamentally changed the policy positions" of the Republican Party and alienated McCain Republicans who understood the importance of integrity, according to John Conway, the director of strategy for Republican Voters Against Trump.
The alienation of anti-Trump Republicans is one of the motivating factors of a recent letter from over 200 McCain, Romney and Bush alumni, sharing their support for Harris' presidential campaign.
Gullett and Nava were both signers of the letter and shared similar sentiments on why they chose to publicly support Harris.
Nava said that politics is not a "spectator sport" and that Trump's administration goes against everything that McCain stood for when it came to respecting different perspectives and opinions.
"(The signatories) know full well that we can’t go back to the chaos of the past," Gullett said. "But Trump, it's complete chaos, and he thrives in chaos, and that's dangerous."
Despite attempts from far-right Republicans to damage his reputation as an honorable statesman, history will show that McCain was a hero and lives on as a symbol of integrity.
McCain Institute Executive Director Evelyn Farkas said that the McCain Institute aims to "create people who emulate his style of leadership."
She said her hope is that the John S. McCain III Library will provide additional resources to promote careers in public service.
The federally-funded library hosted at ASU is set to be built soon and will be a testament to his character and a reminder that politics has not always been an intense battleground of divisiveness and anger.
READ MORE: Breaking: President Biden announces new library at ASU in honor of John McCain
"The reason that he is so well regarded across the aisle is because he was willing to work across the aisle," said Lincoln Project Chief of Staff Ryan Wiggins. "He always put country before party, and that is the thing that we need Americans to do right now."
Gullett recalled a story from McCain about his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. His captors offered McCain a chance to go home, but he chose to stay in order to allow officers with a higher rank to go home first.
"He said, 'No, I'm not going to go.' So you know what the Vietnamese did? They beat the s*** out of him … but he didn't waver," Gullett said. "For that, Donald Trump said, 'I don't like people who got caught' ... If you came at Donald Trump with a pair of pliers, he would tell you all the secrets."
That is the difference between the far-right Republicans today and the supporters of Republicans like McCain. One group lives for themselves and the other is inspired by sacrifice and selflessness for the betterment of a brighter future.
Editor's note: The opinions presented in this column are the author's and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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Edited by Sophia Ramirez, Sophia Braccio and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at mkubasko@asu.edu and follow @morganling on X.
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Morgan is a senior studying journalism and mass communication with minors in business and psychology. This is her seventh semester with The State Press. She has also worked at GradGuard, KJZZ, Rising Youth Theatre and Mental Health America of Arizona.
