Person

John McCain

Related Excerpts

My Fellow Prisoners

The grand lesson of John McCain's life should be that heroic politics is a broken politics.
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How Watergate and Citizens United Shaped Campaign Finance Law

Watergate led to a landmark law designed to limit the influence of money in politics. Today, some say the scandal isn’t what’s illegal, it’s what’s legal.
A red, white, and blue star over a cropped portrait of James Madison.

America Must Become a Democracy

The authors of the Constitution feared mass participation would unsettle government, but it’s the privileged minority that has proved destabilizing.

Metaphors and Malignancy in Senator McCain’s Cancer Diagnosis

How does one talk about cancer, something so unpleasant that is almost always linked with death, and where do metaphors come in?
Jimmy Carter and Max Cleland unveil a memorial to Vietnam Veterans during Veterans Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery in 1978.
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The History Behind the Attacks on Tim Walz's Military Record

In 2002, Republicans attacked the patriotism of a distinguished Democratic veteran. It worked and they've kept doing it ever since.
Senator Richard B. Russell of Georgia outside the U.S. Capitol in 1965.

The U.S. Senate Has Three Buildings. Why Is One Still Named for a White Supremacist?

Georgia’s Richard Russell was an unrepentant racist. You’d think a name change would be a no-brainer. And yet...
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) at a podium.
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Dark Money in Politics is a Problem. History Points to a Solution.

Everyone would benefit from new rules forcing greater transparency in political donations.
Paul Ryan against a background of graph paper and a dotted line.

The Struggle for the Soul of the GOP

Is the Republican Party compatible with democracy?
McGeorge Bundy with Lyndon Johnson in 1967

American Mandarins

David Halberstam’s title The Best and the Brightest was steeped in irony. Did these presidential advisers earn it?
Farmers harvest wheat near the village of Tbilisskaya, Russia, July 21, 2021. That nation’s farmers produce nearly a fifth of world wheat exports.

How High Energy Prices Emboldened Putin

Rupert Russell’s new book shows how the financialization of commodity prices worsens volatility and destabilizes geopolitics. It couldn’t be more timely.
Bob Dole sitting next to Mike Pence at an official event

Bob Dole’s Disability Rights Legacy Marked the End of a Bipartisan Era

The former Republican leader played a key role in the Americans With Disabilities Act but stuck with the GOP as the party turned its back on the law.
Demonstrators supporting immigration reform.
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Avoiding Past Mistakes is Key to Congress Passing Immigration Reform That Works

Updating the Registry Act and uncoupling legalization from punitive measures could be first steps.

9/11 Forever

Far from a relic of the past, September 11 continues to normalize previously unimaginable forms of state-sanctioned barbarity.
The Russell Senate Office Building.

The U.S. Senate’s Oldest Office Building Honors a Racist

Richard Russell was a segregationist and a fervent opponent of civil rights. So why does his name still adorn the Russell Senate Office Building?
Rush Limbaugh at a Trump rally

From Limbaugh to Trump: A Historian of the Right Wing Explains Rush’s Real Legacy

In so many ways, Limbaugh helped sow the seeds of the pathologies we're now living through.

The Republican Choice

How a party spent decades making itself white.
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Jimmy Carter and The Myth That Gave the Iowa Caucuses Their Political Power

What does winning in Iowa really mean?

The Case for Impeachment

Starting the process will rein in a president undermining American ideals—and bring the debate into Congress, where it belongs.
Reagan poses for a photo op after with a stack of tax cut legislation in 1981.

I Helped Create the GOP Tax Myth. Trump is Wrong: Tax Cuts Don’t Equal Growth.

The best growth in recent memory came after President Bill Clinton raised taxes in the ’90s.
An American flag at the Vietnam Memorial on the National Mall.

Ken Burns’s American War

The filmmaker wants ‘The Vietnam War’ to unite America. Can anyone do that under Trump?