The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights and Other Appreciations by John McCain and Mark Salter

I bought this the day it was released, not because I am a supporter or fan of McCain, hell if wasn't for his campaign we wouldn't have been subjected to the horror of the Sarah Palin train wreck, but because as much as I didn't like that he gave us her, as much as I don't agree with him on very much of anything, I respect his service, his military career and what he went through, and even his years in Congress. I am proud of how liberal I am, I lean pretty far left, so there isn't much common ground between us, but I don't have to agree with someone to respect them. And I have the utmost respect for Sen. McCain. So I bought his book, because I wanted to learn more about him. But then it sat in my TBR pile. Until Saturday night. When with his death a few hours earlier it felt like time to read it. 

And he is interesting. Some things that stood out to me, and I don't know if I knew this and forgot or hadn't known at all, but he was against the Bush era interrogation policies, called them what they really were, torture, and pushed for it to stop. Something I can agree with him on. It didn't earn him any points with Rumsfeld or Cheney but he said what he needed to, what he believed was right, and didn't put party before country. 

Also, It was interesting to read about his thinking process on the vote he made that stopped the ACA from being repealed, a vote I am so glad he cast. 

Something about him that I picked up from reading this was that he was of kind of Republican I feel is a dying breed (no pun intended), the kind that doesn't believe compromise is a dirty word or horrific act, the kind that knows it is the way to get things done and that the point of Congress is to get things done. 

The section on immigration reform was an area I wasn't sure I knew we shared some agreement until I read it. He isn't for the building of a wall, he doesn't agree with the scapegoating and othering of immigrants, those who came legally or otherwise, and he thinks there is a beauty in the diversity that makes America America. 

So anyway I am sadder than I expected to be over his death, I feel like he was one of the last holdouts against a full Trumpification of the opposition party, and having two (or more) parties who can civilly debate issues and govern together for all of the people in the country is so important. 

Also, I am so troubled by the way his military service and time as a POW and what he was put through is treated with such disdain and disrespect by Trump, it is hard not to feel some level of support for McCain. 

One final thing...I thought the way he stopped that woman at his event who called President Obama an Arab was admirable and the video is getting a lot of play now that he has died, but something was brought to my attention in discussing the event and it changes it somewhat. While it was great that he tried, no one else was, his running mate was encouraging the hateful treatment of then Candidate Obama so it looked like they were talking out of both sides of their mouths. Now I tend to believe he was sincere but he didn't stop her from doing and saying what she was so he would need to own that and I am not sure he ever did. Also, as it was said to me, the opposite of Arab isn't good family man. And maybe he meant to say citizen and good family man as two separate things and just citizen was the counter to the woman says "arab" but to those with Arab heritages it felt like an insult, like you could be one or the other. He would have been better served just focusing on the fact that the birthers were wrong, that Obama was born in the US and left it at that. So while not full points, he did try, sadly he even had to try. And that is the root of what Trump has unleashed and I think over the last year before his death McCain realized that because he spoke out more often. 

Read books about people you don't agree with, it is good to learn about them so you can defend your point of view or disagreement but have some insight into where they are coming from. 

(Finished August 27, 2018)