Death gives party funereal feeling

John Mccain, the senator from Arizona who died at the weekend of brain cancer, spent a lifetime making his country proud. As a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he endured ongoing torture and confinement rather than accept an offer to be released before his fellow prisoners. As a member of Congress, he unflinchingly stood for a strong military and an America engaged in world affairs. Mccain was principled and dignified. He could fight hard for what he believed in, but he could also form alliances across party lines and forgive old enemies. He was one of the first lawmakers to advocate normalised relations with the Vietnamese government – and for years he worked closely with Democratic Senator John Kerry, a fellow Vietnam veteran who opposed the war, to achieve the thaw.

Sadly, his death serves as an almost perfect metaphor for the death of the old Republican Party, the one personified in the past 100-plus years by the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. It was a party that believed, like Mccain, that the United States should stand for the advance of freedom abroad and the rule of law at home. It was confident that American commerce could compete with anyone, and that immigration was essential to a growing nation.

We need more leaders to show us true north. Mccain left us a shining example worth following.