Consequences

There was a time that Senator John McCain projected himself as the “maverick” of the Republican Party, an independent thinker ready to let go of expediency and the party line to address issues in a pragmatic way, such as immigration. Then the senator ran for President of the United States and it all changed. I was thinking about Senator McCain and the immigration bill that he co-sponsored and then he disavowed so he could stay far enough to the right to get the Republican Presidential nomination. Would the current troglodytic immigration law passed in his home state of Arizona have happened, had the immigration reform bill passed? I assume that the good people of Arizona wish to respect the fundamental principles of community that this country was founded on, but were pushed into some action, however reactionary, to address the problems that the state faced as a result of illegal immigration. Is this an unintended consequence of pandering to achieve what became an impossible dream? Would it have been less impossible, had he been able to maintain his principles? But why is he supporting the Arizona legislation now? If he is trying to get even further to the right to fight off the threat from his right, he‘s in danger of falling off the spectrum altogether and becoming a symbol of all that is wrong in what ought to be a noble profession.

Perhaps McCain needs to go back to being a “maverick;” take up the problem of immigration reform again and bring some sanity back to his home state, if not the country. Maybe it is his best chance at re-election.