In Italy, few know the story of John McCain. Some know it was the anti-candidate in the primaries that opposed him in 2000 to George W. Bush.
Someone knows more than just the Republican candidate who challenged Barack Obama to the 2008 presidential election.
I personally became passionate about this atypical politician, while reading a report written by one of my favorite writers for a well-known American "magazine". He is David Foster Wallace, the book on which this fascinating reportage is published is "Consider the lobster", the report is called "Come on, Simba" and the magazine that commissioned the report is the Rolling Stones, certainly not a periodical that "Move the votes" nor that I know, a magazine that deals with politics. And this is precisely the strong point of the story. It seems that Rolling Stones has contacted DFW proposing to follow, on the occasion of the election campaign of 2000, one of the challengers of the very favorite George W. Bush in the race for the White House. The writer strongly disoriented by such a request objected, considering himself inadequate to deal with political topics, as he is not particularly interested and knowledgeable in the matter. The leaders of the powerful American magazine replied that that was precisely why they had identified him for that job. They considered DFW the right man because they were interested in the opinion of a person unrelated to the logic of the palace and consequently, free to tell, without conditioning, what he witnessed is what he managed to steal with his eyes and ears. The only politician who aroused interest in the writer, certainly not for political affinity, was precisely John McCain, considered by the same, a bit like him, a maverick dog without masters, allergic to leashes and muzzles. The result is a very beautiful and interesting reportage. Summarizing it would mean distorting it and raping it, so I invite the curious to look for a copy and read it to try to become passionate, as happened to me at the time, to a very interesting and unconventional character. After that pleasant reading, others followed that told me who John McCain was and who he had been. It will be understood from the transport with which I tell him that, although I cannot meet him personally, he is a person I respect very much and whom I also love. Returning to David Foster Wallace, I misappropriate a few sentences he wrote to try to paint it for us: “You have three broken limbs, and you are falling on the enemy capital you have just tried to bomb. Imagine fording a lake with your arms broken, while a crowd of North Vietnamese swims towards you, and one sticks a bayonet in your groin ”. I'll spare you the details of the "special" treatment reserved for him in that infamous prison nicknamed Hanoi Hotel and go straight to the point where DFW is moved by thinking of that decidedly shabby Officer, saying of him that "he is not looking only for dollars or votes. He speaks of honor, of devotion, of sacrifice as if these words really represent something ”. But now I try to explain, with less poetry but with immense esteem for the character, who John McCain is.
They say McCain is one of the most competent and right politicians in the world. He is a senator for thirty years and is one of the most respected by the Democrats as well. On the occasion of the last presidential election he did not vote for Trump. You do not necessarily have to be ideologically on your side to feel very sad about the severe brain tumor that has been recently diagnosed.
President Trump, in this regard, stated that "cancer does not know who it is against".
The senator is well aware that the brain cancer that has hit him "is very, very serious". In a recent interview with CBS, referring to the medical reports that appeared rather ominous, he said: “I understand! Now we will do what we can, with the best doctors, and at the same time we celebrate with gratitude a life well lived ». Then, speaking of Donald Trump, he said: "The American people have chosen him as president, we have to respect him, and then he has a very strong national security team, which I know has a significant influence on him" he then stressed: " I would like to talk to him, but I also understand that we are very different people, with different education and different life experiences ”.
John McCain has recently returned to the fore for his strong and apparently effective opposition to Donald Trump's plan to "cancel" the health reform strongly desired and implemented by former White House tenant, Barack Obama, the very current Obamacare. By John McCain I bring you a part of the last speech given in the Senate and thinking at the same time of the current Italian political scene and its interpreters I can only feel strongly worried, embittered and pass me the term, very pissed off for all that they deny to our wonderful people .
“Our choices, the exercise of our responsibilities, are often lively and interesting. They can be honest and principled, but today they are more facial and more tribal than any other moment I can remember. Our choices can still be useful and important, but I think we can all agree that lately they have not really been great and ambitious choices. At this time we are not doing much for the American people. Both sides have their own faults, let the historians decide who started it. I suspect that we have all been involved in our decline, for our actions and for our omissions, all of us have played a role. Sometimes I let my passion count more than my reason, sometimes I made it more complicated to reach a compromise because of something ugly I told a colleague, sometimes I wanted to win for the sake of winning, rather than to arrive at a compromise that I liked so. Instead, progress step by step, the compromises that everyone criticizes but everyone accepts, the little maneuvers and adjustments that allow to solve the problems slowly and protect us from our enemies, perhaps not particularly fascinating or exciting, maybe you do not seem like a triumph but they are often the utmost to get a democratic system like ours, in a big and different country like ours. Think of the injustices and cruelty inflicted on people by autocracies and regimes, think about how corruptible human nature is. If you think of all of this, our imperfect system and the freedom and justice that is still able to preserve, are actually magnificent achievements. It is not a system that depends on how noble we in this room are to each other, but it is a system that depends on our flaws and while being affected, it has helped us to become the most powerful and prosperous society on earth. Maintaining this system is our responsibility even when it involves doing something less satisfactory than winning, even when it involves having to surrender something even when our efforts make little steps and critics accuse us of our shyness for ours not to succeed to triumph. I hope we can rely on humility, on the willingness to collaborate in the way we depend on each other, to learn how to trust us again and better serve the people who elected us. Stop listening to those who scream and who shoots them big on the radio, TV or internet. Let's go to the devil. Those do not want people's good. Their lives depend on our inability. It is a privilege for me to give service to all of you, I say seriously. Many of you in the last few days have come to me with their thoughts and prayers and it has meant a lot to me, really. So many people have said such beautiful things to me, which in my opinion some of you have confused me with someone else. I really appreciate it anyway. Every word, even the many I do not deserve. I will stay with you a few more days, I hope I can manage the discussion on the defense law which I am proud to call an example of collaboration between the parties, then I will go home for a while to treat my illness.
GB
Photo: the newyorker
