Before we say anything else, let's exercise some humility and recognize the humanity here:  Rest In Peace, John McCain.  You were a true war hero and an outstanding American politician.  Our deepest sympathies go out to your family, friends, and colleagues.

Not that it's all about me or even the slightest bit about me, but John McCain exemplifies as well as anyone else the evolution of my political views.  After eight years of Clinton, who I personally detested even though I had no particular quarrel with his politics, I supported McCain's run for President.  I self-identified at the time as a "Republican," even though my actual Republican friends were deeply suspicious of my subscription to The New York Times, my lack of hostility toward gays and immigrants, and my acceptance of the science of climate change.  I was probably a RINO in their opinion, but I still voted for John McCain in the Georgia primary, and was disappointed when George Bush eventually got the nomination (even though I went on to vote for Bush over Al Gore in the general election).

But after eight years of Bush and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, my politics turned.  Since I already had one foot in the social liberal circle, it wasn't hard for me to vote against Bush in 2004 and eventually embrace full-scale progressivism.  

By 2008, when John McCain ran for President again, this time against Barack Obama, I was a full-throttle Democrat and thought McCain was the absolute worst.  I despised him and everything about him, everything he said (although I did admire that one time when he stopped a woman's rant at a campaign rally and said that no, Obama was not a muslim).  He may have still been an honorable man in my view, but I thought he had sold his soul to the party, particularly in his pick for a vice-presidential running mate.  A mere eight years after I voted for him in the primary, I came to think he was the worst thing that could possibly happen to America.  

I wondered att h time if after eight years of Obama, the contrarian in me would drift back to the right and I'd become a Republican (or RINO) again, but that did not happen.  

But after not even two full years of our current "President" - I despise even saying his name, and don't recognize the legitimacy of his election to office (he lost the popular vote and only won the electoral vote by committing felonies with the aid of Russian and other foreign powers) - I look back at John McCain with a fond nostalgia. Sure, I may have disagreed with him, but I never thought he was bat-shit crazy (that would have described his running mate but not him).  During the Obama era,  he came to represent the best of informed, non-partisan thinking (on a couple of occasions, his vote alone saved Obamacare) and showed why the country needs a two-party system to arrive at the best ideas and solutions for our many problems. I might not have agreed with him on everything or even most things, but I never doubted his patriotism or that he was advocating what he truly believed was the best for his country.

I don't know if we'll ever see his kind in American politics again.