Legacy of a hero of legislature: John McCain dies at 81

Matt Dollard

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., died Aug. 26, one day after announcing he stopped treatment for an aggressive brain tumor he was battling for over a year.

A statement by former president and political opponent Barack Obama and a Snapchat filter that read “American Hero: John McCain” were among the many examples of politicians and lay-people from both sides of the political aisle who honored the 81-year-old’s lifetime of service.

Professor of political science Jeremy Walling said the massive response to McCain’s death is a result of decades in the political spotlight.

“He’s a long-standing very well known senator, that has run for president a couple of times,” Walling said. “And he's also a senator that has a really compelling backstory —this naval academy guy who was a prisoner of war. So that alone is enough to attract our attention, but then you have his behavior; his being labeled as a Republican maverick.”

Walling described a “political maverick” as someone willing to wander away and even join sides with the opposite party, or at least be critical of their own side — exemplified, he said, by McCain’s deciding vote against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act in July 2017.

“At a time where we have a lot of bickering and polarization and partisanship, he’s someone who was willing to be bipartisan,” Walling said. “He represents the ideal that some of us wish we could achieve. That we’re willing to go across the aisle and join with the other side and do things for the good of everybody.”

Following his diagnosis, McCain began a leave of absence from the Senate in December 2017. During that time, Walling said, the Senate chamber was likely less affected by the loss of a vote than by the loss of a loud voice.

“That’s where his real absence has been,” Walling said. “In pushing the discourse and shaping policy through his legislative action.”

Walling compared McCain’s medical leave, and the hole left behind after the senator’s death, to the recent retirement of Rickert Althaus, who worked in the Southeast political science department for 28 years.

“This is the first year that I’ve been here that Dr. Althaus hasn’t been in our department, and you notice,” he said. “His presence loomed large. Certainly we notice that he’s not around, and it changes how we think and operate.”

Additionally, Walling noted McCain was considered a thorn in the sides of some political opponents, and his death may allow them to accomplish what he would have objected.