There are two US Senators representing of the State of Arizona who have been challenging the republican President Donald Trump whenever he does wrong. Senator McCain is hanging in there despite the fact that he is fighting for his life while being treated for brain cancer; and Senator Jeff Flake is stepping up to the plate even though he knows with a certainty that he will be challenged from the right the next time he runs for any elected office. The question is, when the US Congress returns to work on September 5, 2017, which republican legislators will be following their lead.
Here is the rest of the story on Senator John McCain…
On September 1, 2017, Amber Phillips of the Washington Post penned the following report, We are not his subordinates’: John McCain’s rallying cry to the GOP resistance.”
Excerpts:
The senator has publicly disagreed with Trump on renegotiating NAFTA (“facts are stubborn things”), on whether to bring back waterboarding (“The law is the law. We are not bringing back torture in the United States of America”) and on Trump’s choice of Rex Tillerson for secretary of state (“There’s also a realistic scenario that pigs fly,” McCain said when asked if he’d vote to confirm Tillerson). And, of course, there’s Russia. While Trump has blasted the parallel investigations in Congress and at the FBI as a witch hunt, McCain has gone on TV alongside Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to ask for more.
“After McCain won the Arizona Republican primary a year ago, it took him precisely one day to ditch Trump.’
“It also makes sense that McCain would speak out now. On Tuesday (9/5/17), Congress comes back from its summer break and faces a mountain of work to keep the government open and avoid a potential government default. Trump, a total wild card, has the power to derail negotiations, budget experts warn, by demanding that any budget have a down payment on his border wall.”
“A week ago, Trump went to McCain’s back yard and, without mentioning the senator by name, expressed his exasperation with McCain’s “no” vote that helped kill the Obamacare repeal.”
“McCain is also in a season of speaking his mind more than usual. Over the summer, he announced that he had a deadly form of brain cancer. Not even a week later, he came back to the Senate to vote against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and to give a no-holds-barred lecture to the other 99 members about how their pride, partisanship and secretiveness have broken Congress.”
“In that speech, he opened the door for this week’s op-ed, a more direct break from Trump:”
“We are an important check on the powers of the executive. Our consent is necessary for the president to appoint jurists and powerful government officials and in many respects to conduct foreign policy. Whether we are of the same party, we are not the president’s subordinates. We are his equal!”
“McCain is not the first congressional Republican to step out in front of the president and throw his arms up. A month ago, Flake published and heavily promoted a book that casts Trump as the manifestation of a conservative movement with its head stuck in the sand.”
“To carry on in the spring of 2017 as if what was happening was anything approaching normalcy required a determined suspension of critical faculties,” Flake wrote, “and tremendous powers of denial.”
“What does this all mean? Well, two senators from a rising swing state ditching Trump doesn’t a revolt make.”
“A new Fox News poll shows McCain’s weakness with the very Republicans he’s speaking to. He has a 55 percent favorable rating among registered voters, but he’s underwater with Republican voters: 44 percent approve of him, while 52 percent don’t. (Meanwhile, 65 percent of Democrats have a favorable view of McCain.)”
“Who knows if there will be more senators to follow McCain and Flake’s lead. But if there are, we could look back on their anti-Trump arguments, laid out seven months into Trump’s presidency, as one of the turning points.”
Gronda Morin 
Gronda, McCain is doing some of his finest and most needed work. As more of the story becomes apparent, those doubting Republicans will turn in his favor. Setting aside the Russian investigation, just in the past few days:
– the UN Human Rights leader has called Trump on the carpet for attacking the media
– the UN also said that contrary to what Trump has said, Iran is complying with the nuclear accord
– Business and the House Speaker has told Trump not to repeal the Dreamer’s Act
– Trump told Mexico we don’t your help in Texas, but you could pay for the wall – saying it plainly, don’t help people, help me
This is the man who occupies the White House. Each of the above statements tells this man he is opinion is not very well grounded. Keith
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Dear Keith,
You are spot on! Guess what the latest news reporting is? Officials are begging, literally begging for skilled immigrant labor as many are saying that rebuilding in South TX would become much more difficult without them.
Hugs, Gronda
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What perplexes me is the US doesn’t have skilled domestic labor to rebuild? Of course we do, however, no American will work for minimum wage doing heavy construction like immigrants would. It is a conundrum, perhaps Trump can chip in with his (supposed) billions and MAGA lol.
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Dear !EarthUnited,
You nailed the problem. If reconstruction is done with American labor only, it will be a much more expensive proposition. Texas is a republican state. Lots of the peoples will have to pay out of pocket to get repairs done and they will have to pay much more monies.
How long do you think it will take to backtrack on a lot of their anti-immigration thinking.
Hugs, Gronda..
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Without immigrant labor, the construction, food picking and food preparation industries would collapse.
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Dear Keith,
Republicans in TX will be facing a major dosage of reality. First, there are times that investment in government pays off and second, the state needs those same immigrants that they have been dishing.
Hugs, Gronda
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I probably don’t agree with much Senator Macain says but
Dignity, fortitude and courage.
What more can you ask for from your politicians?
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Dear Roger,
I have not agreed with him on much either. But right now, I love him as he is a major thorn on DDT’s posterior.
I also do admire him for his service in the military where he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for several years.
When DDT was in campaign mode, he made the foolish mistake of attempting to disparage Senator McCain’s military record. Sen. McCain has simply returned the favor.
Hugs, Gronda
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Oh now I’m started.!!! 😈 😈
That incident really angered me.
I remember full well the odious and crass remark made by that creature now in the Whitehouse about heroes.
So this indolent overweight over-privileged, draft-dodging person of negligible character is an expert on anti-missile evasion techniques in the late 1960s; knows how to avoid and survive in a hostile nation and make his way back to a US base????
Honest to Crimminy, I’ve seen more attractive things blocking my drain!
I’ve heard more intelligent statements coming from cubicles in public toilets!
Err…I’m going stand in the rain for a while to cool down.
(Sorry; I’ve been away for a few days, heavily involved in re-write of a novel, I’m a still a bit ‘artistic’)
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I wondered some months ago who would show a “profile of courage”. I’d just about given up, then Senator McCain stepped forward and the shoes fit. Bless him. 🙂 — Suzanne
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Dear Suzanne,
And I bet Senator McCain is enjoying playing this role as a thorn in the hide of DDT. At this point, when he is fighting for his life, he’s got nothing to lose.
Thanks a million times over for your support and for this reblog.
Hugs, Gronda
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Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
A true ” profile in courage”
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