McCain has always been a maverick in name only.

McCain has a career-long legacy of talking a big game with regard to moderate thought, but never following through on that moderation in…

McCain has a career-long legacy of talking a big game with regard to moderate thought, but never following through on that moderation in his voting. People fall over themselves to compliment him for seeming so reasonable. But it’s a patina that barely conceals his cravenness & cowardice.

And he has literally always been this way. Look at his Presidential bids. This is the dude who brought Sarah Palin to the national stage, people. I don’t understand why anybody is shocked at his duplicity at this point. Speaking out for reasonable attitudes and then voting along unreasonable party lines is his whole brand.

And now, he’s in one of the most insulated-from-consequences positions a human can experience. He’s a white, wealthy Senator in a gerrymandered-beyond-all-recognition district, plus he’s also about to die. He can vote to deprive millions of Americans, many of them also cancer patients, of healthcare, without living to face repercussions. Republicans, especially older ones, tend not to care about a future world they will not live to inhabit. McCain is one of the best, starkest illustrations of that you’ll find.

I was quiet when news of his diagnosis broke because I was still thinking of him as a complex, multifaceted human with a family and cares and dreams. I don’t have any sympathy for him now that he’s done this. He could have stayed home. The Motion to Proceed would have failed and thousands of sick cancer patients would have been protected if hadn’t hauled his ass to DC to ruin their lives. I can’t respect someone who would do that. It’s clear his conscience died long before his body will.