John McCain’s funeral was a bit disconcerting. John McCain was an American hero during the Vietnam War. His bravery and fortitude cannot be overstated. There are many, too many, American heroes of war. I wish for less war so our men and women would not have to suffer the injuries and hate and indignities of war, but I am thankful and grateful for each and every one of them for their sacrifice for all Americans.
John McCain went on to be a politician. Politicians are not automatically heroes, in fact they are very rarely heroes.
The wall to wall news coverage, and the proclamations of who was invited and who was not was over the top. This was all contrived and planned prior to Senator McCain’s death and he obviously had a hand in the planning.
Why are politicians so self-aggrandizing? It is said that politicians are servants for the people, and I say nothing is further from the truth.
John McCain failed American Conservatives by continually putting his ego ahead of the will of the Americans people in order to spite President Trump. Because of John McCain, and sometimes one or two others, we still have the train wreck of Obamacare.
Everything he could vote against that would have moved America ahead, he did, if it was the opposite of what the President wanted.
Politicians are no longer servants of the people. They serve themselves. They vote themselves different retirement systems than the rest of us have. They have healthcare programs that are not available to all Americans. They vote themselves raises at will. They make a good salary and millions of dollars on the side in numbers of ways, ethical and unethical. They feather their nests with family members and friends, with jobs and deals and contracts. They have cars and drivers and many perks the rest of us don’t get.
But they have forgotten why they are there; for us, for you and for me; to do the work of the people that put them into office.
Instead, they do what they want with the belief that we Americans are too stupid to make our own decisions. In California, the people don’t want the bail process to end, they don’t want felons released, they don’t want sentences commuted for death row inmates, they don’t want the Bullet Train, they don’t want outlandish gas taxes, they don’t want homeless on the streets or illegals breaking their backs with handouts, but politicians do these things despite what the public wants.
John McCain did not do his constituents right when he moved far left in his last couple of years and hurt all of us with his votes. When he knew he was ill and could not effectively do his job, he did not step down so that we could have the representation we deserve.
John McCain was a war hero, and he was a politician. Why he was sent out with the ceremony afforded beloved Presidents and Monarchs? There were many that loved him, of course, but no more than any of us love those who we cherish who pass. To me, the self-aggrandizing of a politician who was a good man, but who also had a side of him that was petty and that held grudges and was willing to go against those of us who counted on him to fulfill the role we elected him to fulfill is overdone. John McCain made a good life from the American people, but he failed to allow us that same privilege when he would not stand with us that stood with him.
To act in death as though he deserves more recognition than so many great Americans who pass on every day is offensive. 
To have his death and ceremonies be used as platforms to insult our President insults all Americans. To have John McCain announce ahead of time that the President of the United States is not welcome at his funeral, nor is Sarah Palin, is petty and diminishes him in the eyes of many. The democrats were quick to jump on that bandwagon and make the funeral political, suddenly John was their best bud.  
Politicians are there to serve the people, but they no longer do that. It is self-interest that is the law of the land, it is backstabbing, traitorous to the people that they serve, self-enrichment, and political bias, not heroism.
The soldier in the trench, the firefighter in the inferno, the police officer on the street, the doctors and nurses in the ER, and the numerous Americans that commit random acts of heroism every day of their lives that are my heroes. 
I had many years of respect for John McCain, but I lost it in the last few. To make such a spectacle of a politician tells me they have forgotten why they are there. To go quietly with the love of family and friends would have been powerful. To turn over the office would have been right for the people he served. To serve the people despite personal biases would have been the high road.
The ugliness that lives in the political world deserves no celebration. Politicians thwarting the will of the populace is despicable. Politicians enriching themselves and their friends at our expense is unethical. Politicians legislating soft on crime laws that put the rest of at risk in so many ways is unthinkable. The hypocrisy is really over the top. 
We need term limits and need them now. Perhaps then true political heroes will emerge and do great things in their limited times of service. Until then, please spare us self-aggrandizing week long eulogies and funerals, love people while they are still here to receive it, honor those every day that are heroes in your life, and live well.
Image: ANDREW HARNIK – ASSOCIATED PRESS