John McCain (1936 - 2018) Tribute List

Senator John McCain died on August 25, 2018 at the age of 81 after a long battle with brain cancer. McCain served in the US Navy as a bomber pilot, and survived several years in Vietnam as a prisoner of war. After retiring as a decorated war hero, he rose to national political prominence in the US Senate. He was defeated in two presidential bids, and was known as both a "non-nonsense" conservative and will be remembered as a figure of moral courage and bipartisan leadership.
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  1. apparatchik
    a communist who was a member of the administrative system of a communist party
    Russia has now become a nation fueled by petro-dollars that is basically a KGB apparatchik-run government. ― First Presidential Debate, September 26, 2008
  2. capacity
    capability to perform or produce
    Courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity to act despite our fears.
    ― John McCain
  3. consensus
    agreement in the judgment reached by a group as a whole
    Our political differences, now matter how sharply they are debated, are really quite narrow in comparison to the remarkably durable national consensus on our founding convictions. ― First Amendment Awards Dinner, November 18, 2004
  4. dormant
    inactive but capable of becoming active
    The tea partiers are a great addition. The tea partiers have invigorated a base that has been dormant for a long period of time. We're going to have a broad array of different views in our Republican conference, and I think it might be more interesting than any I've been in in a long time. ― John McCain
  5. formidable
    extremely impressive in strength or excellence
    Ironically for someone who had so long asserted his own individuality as his first and best defense against insults of any kind, I discovered that faith in myself proved to be the least formidable strength I possessed when confronting alone organized inhumanity on a greater scale than I had conceived possible. ― John McCain
  6. humility
    a lack of arrogance or false pride
    Courage is the enforcing virtue, the one that makes possible all the other virtues common
    to exceptional leaders: honesty, integrity, confidence, compassion and humility.
    - “In Search of Courage” September 1, 2004
  7. ideology
    an orientation that characterizes the thinking of a group
    I voted for Justice Breyer and Justice Ginsburg. Not because I agreed with their ideology, but because I thought they were qualified and that elections have consequences when presidents are nominated.
    - Third Presidential Debate, October 15, 2008
  8. integrity
    moral soundness
    Courage is the enforcing virtue, the one that makes possible all the other virtues common
    to exceptional leaders: honesty, integrity, confidence, compassion and humility.
    - “In Search of Courage” September 1, 2004
  9. liberate
    grant freedom to; free from confinement
    Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone.
    ― John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
  10. malcontent
    a person who is unsatisfied or disgusted
    The core political values of our free society are so deeply embedded in our collective consciousness that only a few malcontents, lunatics generally, ever dare to threaten them.
    - First Amendment Awards Dinner, November 18, 2004
  11. rancor
    a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
    The only way you approach politics and seek elective office is to move forward. For me to look back in anger or with any rancor would be a mistake.
    - News conference, May 10, 2000
  12. realpolitik
    politics based on practical rather than moral considerations
    There is always an element of realpolitik that has to be present in the conduct of any nation's national security affairs. At the same time, we have to also have a balance between realpolitik and Wilsonian principles of freedom and democracy and human rights. - Interview with Spiegel, February 6, 2011
  13. repudiate
    refuse to acknowledge, ratify, or recognize as valid
    Every time there's been an out-of-bounds remark made by a Republican, no matter where they are, I have repudiated them.
    - Third Presidential Debate, October 15, 2008
  14. spurious
    plausible but false
    To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain 'the last best hope of earth' for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic... ― John McCain
  15. wretched
    deserving or inciting pity
    War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.
    - Speech to the American Red Cross, May 6, 1999
Created on Fri Sep 29 20:14:53 EDT 2017 (updated Mon Aug 27 09:27:30 EDT 2018)

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