@SenSchumer: Don't rename Senate office building for divisive war advocate John McCain

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has proposed to rename the Russell Senate Office Building to the McCain Senate Office Building. There are more appropriate ways to remember John McCain. The Senate office buildings are for everyone. We can name other things for McCain, things that would be more appropriate than a Senate office building used by everyone, including Americans who oppose unconstitutional and endless wars. If Schumer’s proposal is adopted, that’s a legacy for decades. If we’re going to rename the Russell building, Paul Wellstone would be a more appropriate choice. Wellstone voted against the Iraq war, even though he was up for re-election and feared doing so could cost him the election, and Wellstone died in the line of duty, in a way, killed in a plane crash on his way to meet voters in rural Minnesota.

On war and peace, McCain was a divisive figure. On some of the most important war and peace issues of our time, he advocated divisively for more war. He was an eager advocate of the Iraq war. [1] He sang and laughed about bombing Iran. [2] He championed the unauthorized, unconstitutional, biblically-catastrophic U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen. [3] He called Members of Congress “wacko” because they backed the filibuster of John Brennan as CIA director over the unconstitutional drone strike policy. [4] The Brennan filibuster was supported by the ACLU. The filibuster sought to enforce the War Powers Clause of the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution: Congress, not the President, is supposed to decide when to use military force. Those are the people McCain derided as “wacko”: people who oppose unconstitutional and endless wars. McCain called people protesting Henry Kissinger’s role in war crimes “low life scum.” [5] Decades after the Vietnam War, John McCain insisted on referring to Vietnamese people as “gooks.” [6]

Many Americans who lost friends and family members in U.S. wars, or who organized and protested against these wars, don’t see John McCain as representing our America. We don’t want to be at war everywhere all the time. We also pay taxes and vote. The Senate office buildings belong to us too. Senator Schumer should take us into account before naming a Senate office building for John McCain.

References:
1. “McCain's record on Iraq: eager to attack,” Alexander Lane, PolitiFact, August 21st, 2008, https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/aug/21/barack-obama/mccains-record-on-iraq-eager-to-attack/
2. “Jesting, McCain Sings: 'Bomb, Bomb, Bomb' Iran,” Don Gonyea, NPR, April 20, 2007, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9688222
3.“Five Democrats Join John McCain to Arm Saudi Arabia’s War on Yemen,”
Michael Sainato, The Observer, 6/14/17, http://observer.com/2017/06/democrats-trump-administration-arms-sale-saudi-arabia-yemen/
4. “McCain calls Paul, Cruz, Amash ‘wacko birds’,” Rachel Weiner, Washington Post, March 8, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2013/03/08/mccain-calls-paul-cruz-amash-wacko-birds/
5. “John McCain tells protesters at hearing: 'Get out of here, you lowlife scum',” Associated Press, January 29, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/29/john-mccain-henry-kissinger-protest-lowlife-scum
6.“John McCain Wasn’t a Hero,” Branko Marcetic, Jacobin, 8.27.2018,
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/08/john-mccain-was-not-hero-obituary-war-racism-sexism