Friday, July 28, 2017

It Was A Real Life Frank Capra Movie

Frank Capra helped me grow up. Capra was an Italian immigrant. He volunteered in World War II.  His movies were inspiring. In "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" and "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town" and "It's A Wonderful Life" we see ordinary men stand up against all odds and fight the good fight and succeed.
Last night I got to see a real life drama unfold in the Senate. The leading man wasn't an ordinary man. He wasn't naive. No, this man was a bona fide war hero who survived and went on to become a Senator. A man who literally got up off what could have been his death bed last week and came to the Senate to deliver - to lead - to show by example.
John McCain was a text book study in leadership, bi-partisanship and patriotism last night. He exposed the hypocrisy of the Republican leadership and Trump and preserved our current level of healthcare coverage until a truly bi-partisan bill could be crafted. Yeah, this is the same guy who literally insured that Trump's connections with Russia would be investigated by hand delivering the Steele dossier to Comey.
Thankfully Senators Collins and Murkowski were right there with him. Without them this could not have happened. They've been there all along, but until McCain came along, their efforts would have been for naught.
McCain orchestrated a perfect nail biter - the ultimate cliffhanger. John had the whole country, possibly the whole world watching. The drama was building for days and the finale was delivered in the wee hours of the morning in the Senate. It was anything but dull.
The counterpoint to all this wasn't Mitch McConnell's post vote, pathetic attempt to blame this on the Democrats. It wasn't even Trump's lame Tweet.
The true counterpoint was delivered in a series of shameful Tweets by a chorus of people, who up until the moment of the actual vote, were steadily blaming the upcoming disaster on John McCain. They lambasted him mercilessly before the vote. After the vote they refused to give him any credit. Indeed, they criticized him for dragging this out.
The saddest thing about all this is that these are the very same people who have been wailing against McConnell and this legislation all along. Ultra partisanship is what's killing this country. It's why we have a traitor in the White House now.
Thank you John McCain.


Holy Moly!

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