Prediction: When John McCain Dies

Graveside Service for Lt. Col. (ret.) William Hellkamp in Section 55, Arlington National Cemetary

John McCain hasn’t been present in the Senate since before Christmas. People his age, with his kind of brain cancer, usually live for a year or so after diagnosis.

[UCLA Neuro-Oncology, How Our Patients Perform : Glioblastoma Multiforme]

He’s dying. 

I can't help but think about how this is going to play out as we live through Season 2 of The Trump Show. The early episodes this season have featured a great storyline, with high school kids raised on social media using it to turn the tables on the Tweeter-In-Chief on the issue of Gun Violence. But we know a giant plot point is looming, we just don't know when it will arrive.

When it does, I've got some predictions:

• The news media is going to go bonkers. John McCain's funeral will be covered like the Wedding of Charles And Diana. The narrative will be that John McCain was the last of the old, good GOP, a party that respected norms and tried to run the government with competence.
• Every possible way to say "Trump=bad, McCain=Good" will be explored. [Similar to: NYT: Mourning Nancy Reagan And The Dignity of An Era.]
• This angle will be reinforced by the various Trump supporters and “conservatives” who, one way or another, will metaphorically boo John McCain the way they boo heretics at CPAC. [NYMag: A selection of things booed at CPAC (first on list: John McCain).]
• There will be a public squabble between Meghan McCain and Trump, probably over the funeral arrangements. [Like so.]  
• Trump will want to speak at the funeral and then later, when it’s clear he’s not invited, he will say he never wanted to.  
• Joe Biden, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsay Graham will ultimately be the ones who speak. But the press will say that Cindy McCain stole the show.  
• There will be calls to have Obama involved, but he will stay out of all the drama by attending without speaking.
• Vox will run a “Who speaks at political funerals” explainer.  
• There will be an argument of how feminists should feel about Meghan McCain. [A little like: All The Times Lena Dunham's Feminism Has Let Us Down.]
• Someone at Mischief Of Faction Blog will go through all the ways McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Law was a total disaster, weakening parties and bringing on the age of the Super Pac, but they’ll get it wrong at a fundamental level and present it as a mixed bag. [Example from The Atlantic in 2003 that makes me want to punch the journalist in the face until he bleeds. The article suggests the "push for reform" came from the air, when in reality IT CAME FROM YOU ASSHOLES IN THE PRESS. YOU, SPECIFICALLY, MADE THIS MESS YOU FUCK-FACE. Note 1, below.]
• Our Revolution/Leftists will draw a faulty syllogism based on conflating the mainstream news media with "Democrats" or "The Democratic Establishment":

1. Establishment Dems are fawning over John McCain.
2. John McCain was guilty in the Keating Five scandal.
3. The Keating Five scandal was about Savings & Loans.
4. Savings & Loans are basically banks.
5. Therefore, John McCain was a corrupt lover of big banks.
6. Therefore, Democrats love big banks.

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Notes:

1. The Atlantic article quotes great arguments like the ones below but then acts like Democrats ignored them for no reason:

To Meehan's surprise, four fellow Democrats (he won't say who) then gave obviously coordinated speeches opposing the bill, each citing a different practical reason: the bill would make it harder for the Democrats to get out the vote; it would disproportionately hurt the Congressional Black Caucus (because its members, many of whom represented poor districts, relied more heavily than others on get-out-the-vote funds from the party); it wasn't constitutional; it would hurt the labor unions, curbing their ability to use funds from members' dues to run television ads for candidates they supported.