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In this Oct. 21, 2008 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., standing with his wife Cindy, encourages his supporters to stand up and fight for America at the close of his address during a campaign rally in Bensalem, Pa.
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John McCain and the GOP, R.I.P.

AP Photo/Stephan Savoia

John McCain and the GOP, R.I.P.

President Biden’s speech marked the five-year anniversary of two profoundly important deaths affecting our nation: the passing of Arizona Sen. John McCain, an American patriot and hero, and the official demise of the Republican Party (“Biden offers dire warnings about Trump,” Sept. 28).

McCain will be remembered for many things, but perhaps most important was his refusal to renounce America and abandon his fellow soldiers while being tortured in a North Vietnamese prison. His resolve and fortitude not only enabled him to endure the barbarous treatment suffered at the hands of the enemy in wartime but to also accept and embrace his fate when diagnosed with a lethal brain tumor later in life.

When Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, virtually all Republicans in Congress traded their dignity for subservience — but not McCain. His refusal to fall into lockstep with Trump’s policies out of fear of retribution by a budding autocrat was a profile in courage and a turning point for the Republican Party, which, due to self-imposed impotence, was no longer worthy of the appellation “the party of Lincoln.”

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Jim Paladino
Tampa, Fl.

First Published: October 1, 2023, 9:30 a.m.

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In this Oct. 21, 2008 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., standing with his wife Cindy, encourages his supporters to stand up and fight for America at the close of his address during a campaign rally in Bensalem, Pa.  (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
AP Photo/Stephan Savoia
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