I don’t care for the self-serving, hate-mongering simpletons of either party, and my guess is neither does John McCain. But he’s had to get into bed with many of the right-wing ones to mobilize many of the party's most reliable voters--though frequently the least well-rounded. In league with them, a man that kept his countrymen’s spirits high and his own integrity clean in a prison-camp hole in VietNam has started to dirty his character by attacking Obama (no flawless choirboy himself) in some pretty outrageous ways.
But today, for a singular moment, like a philandering husband overpowered with a suddenly-active moral compass, John McCain got off that soggy mattress, stood up tall, and said essentially, “No, I’d rather lose with integrity — than win on the backs of an ignorant mob.”
Not every politician is able to do that, even when the odds are looking long, as they are now for McCain. Democrats by the smoky-roomful and Republicans by the smokey clubhouse-full have often sold their honor for our votes. I saw the tension in McCain's face as he spoke, for his mind knew the consequences of acting with integrity in a room that wanted a boogeyman.
I don’t know who’s going to win this election. And I don’t know whether this sudden clarity of purpose and commitment to truthfulness will stay with McCain. But my heart was buoyed by seeing McCain’s integrity re-surface under pressure-- or under the weight of self-respect and appropriate shame. No one who’s served their country as painfully and faithfully as he has deserves to let our lowest mob impulses drag him down to the lowest common denominator. That, my friends, might sometimes win elections. But it's always the stuff of tragedy, not triumph.
And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Matthew 16:26
