The flag at half staff for John McCain
The flag at half staff for John McCain

When Senator John McCain died on Saturday, August 25, 2018, America’s flag was flown at half-staff that day and the following day. On Monday morning, the flag was raised and the American media went berserk. They related the fake news that the protocol has always been for the flag to be flown at half-staff upon the death of all principal figures of the government until the funeral. The Trump administration’s decision to raise the flag was in accordance with the nation’s official code for flying the flag at half-staff.

Chapter 1 of Title 4 of the United States Code is the US federal law on the American flag. Section 7 regulates the position and manner of display of the flag, and Paragraph 7(m) governs the flag when flown at half-staff.

The flag is to be flown at half-staff upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government, various other officials and dignitaries, as well as in the event of the death of a member of the Armed Forces. Per Paragraph 7(m), the flag shall be flown at half-staff:

30 days from the death of the President or a former President; 10 days from the day of death of the Vice President, the Chief Justice or a retired Chief Justice of the United States, or the Speaker of the House of Representatives; from the day of death until interment of an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, a Secretary of an executive or military department, a former Vice President, or the Governor of a State, territory, or possession; and on the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress.

In other words, the flag should be flown at half-staff from the day of death until interment for a Supreme Court Justice, a Secretary of an executive or military department, a former Vice President, or a Governor.  For a Senator, it should be flown at half-staff on the day of death and the following day, as President Donald Trump ordered for Senator McCain.

The media loved McCain because he provided cover for the left. He frequently referred to the media as his base. Other than defense, his key positions were indistinguishable from the left. His idea of reaching across the aisle was to capitulate to Democrats. The bipartisan groups he joined promoted the policies of Democrats; not Republicans. 

McCain is best known for the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Senator Russ Feingold was among the most leftist senators of that time. This law and others like it have significantly damaged American politics; helped rich liberals influence US politicians to promote radical left-wing agenda generally hated by Americans, like open borders; and enabled the Soviet-type political prosecution waged against Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc., and other horrendous political prosecutions over the years, including the ongoing sham campaign finance case against one of President Trump’s personal lawyers.

In 2005, McCain joined the “Gang of 14,” a bipartisan group of Senators that fought to preserve the filibuster after Senate Republicans threatened to end it in response to Democrats’ blocking repeatedly President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees.

McCain also joined the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” in proposing a 2013 immigration amnesty bill, despite having run for re-election in 2010 on a promise to “build the danged fence” along the US-Mexico border. The bill died due to huge conservative opposition in the House. 

When McCain came up with a campaign finance reform that helped rich liberals like George Soros to influence American politics, when he promoted a massive amnesty bill for illegal migrants, when he criticized Republican Presidents, or did anything that was perceived to be against Republicans, the media covered him with fake admiration.

The proof that the media’s affection for McCain was not real was that when they had a chance to support him both times he ran for president; they cast him aside. To the media, he became like every other Republican: A target to be destroyed. After the 2008 presidential primaries, when Barack Obama got the Democratic nomination and McCain got the Republican’s, the media attacked McCain relentlessly for competing against Obama.

McCain controversially decided in 2008 not to attack Obama for his deep ties to the racist and anti-Semitic Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor and the leader of the congregation he attended for two decades. McCain also overlooked Obama’s longstanding alliances with many anti-Semites (Rashid Khalidi, Louis Farrakhan, etc.), and other extremists like Bill Ayers, the co-founder of a communist revolutionary group that conducted a campaign of terrorism in America. McCain also defended Obama at McCain’s events, whenever Obama was accused of being a Muslim. Whereas Obama’s sympathies lie with Muslims.

The swamp has politicized McCain’s death. The fake reverence for McCain now is an opportunity to savage Trump; setting up fake comparisons between Trump and McCain, and showing Trump deficient on all measures. In 2008, Democrats and the media tore McCain to shreds and declared him insufficient on every measure. They advised voting for Obama because McCain was in poor health and would more than likely die in office!

On McCain’s death, President Obama stated: “John McCain and I were members of different generations, came from completely different backgrounds, and competed at the highest level of politics. But we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher - the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed. We saw our political battles, even, as a privilege, something noble, an opportunity to serve as stewards of those high ideals at home, and to advance them around the world. We saw this country as a place where anything is possible - and citizenship as our patriotic obligation to ensure it forever remains that way.” 

In 2008, Obama did not see McCain as a steward of any ideal. He and the Democrats intimated McCain was a war criminal, with his friend George W. Bush, who lied to the American people, dropped bombs on civilians and killed millions.

Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights icon, accused McCain of stoking hate, likening the atmosphere at his campaign events to those of George Wallace, the racist ex-Alabama governor. McCain urged Obama to repudiate Lewis’s comments to no avail. After McCain died, he became a hero again to Lewis: “Senator John McCain was a warrior for peace. He will be deeply missed by people all around the world.” According to the same Lewis during the 2008 campaign, McCain was not a warrior for anything but hate, hostility and racism.

Many Republicans do not consider McCain to have been a praiseworthy politician. He criticized his own party, his own party’s policies, and his own party’s presidents, while promoting many radical left-wing policies of the opposition, and allowing Obama to walk all over him in the 2008 campaign and beyond.

In 2015, McCain was deeply critical of Trump, who had entered the race for president on a platform of combating illegal immigration. Election night 2016, after the Democrats’ blue wall of inevitability was destroyed (it was a media illusion), Trump became the true maverick, while McCain merely played one on TV.

McCain had been adamantly in favor of repealing Obamacare, until Trump was elected and wanted it repealed.
McCain’s dramatic, decisive vote against Republicans’ effort to repeal Obamacare in July 2017 was widely perceived as motivated by personal revenge against Trump, because Trump succeeded where he failed. McCain had been adamantly in favor of repealing Obamacare, until Trump was elected and wanted it repealed.

When McCain was diagnosed with the cancer, he could have honorably retired so the people of Arizona would have been adequately represented, instead he selfishly held onto his seat and missed crucial votes for his party that holds a slim majority in the Senate.

In the closing days of his life, Senator McCain indicated that he did not want President Trump to attend his funeral. He also wanted Sarah Palin, the ex-Alaska governor who served as his running mate when he ran for president in 2008, to be excluded from the funeral, but he wanted the opposing ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden to be invited, with Obama scheduled to deliver a eulogy.

It is highly unusual for the President of the United States to be banned from the funeral of a sitting United States Senator.

John Sidney McCain III served as a United States Senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death on August 25, 2018, aged 81. He previously served two terms in the United States House of Representatives, and was the Republican nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 election, which he lost to Obama. He often attacked Republican Presidents and Republican policies, but generally embraced Democratic Presidents and Democratic policies.

He served in the United States Navy from 1958 until 1981. He began as a sub-par flier who was at times careless and reckless; two of his flight missions crashed and a third mission collided with power lines. His aviation skills improved over time; however, he tended to “push the envelope” in his flying.

He was assigned to a bombing campaign during the Vietnam War. On October 26, 1967, he was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam when he was shot down by a missile. Although he was seriously wounded and injured, his captors refused to treat him. They beat and interrogated him to get information, and he was given medical care only when they discovered that his father was an admiral. Nevertheless, he was subjected to a program of severe torture. He remained a prisoner of war until his release on March 14, 1973.

The flag was at half-staff for John McCain. He will be remembered for his heroic endurance in the Vietnam war, but his battles with his own party will not be missed. 

Dr. Sheyin-Stevens is a Registered Patent Attorney based in Florida, USA. He earned his Doctorate in Law from the University of Miami.