I never demand that any person should agree with me one hundred percent. My husband and I will have been married fifty eight years in October and while we are mostly in sync with our beliefs there are some points of disagreements here and there. It is unlikely that I would ever find someone with whom I have no differences of opinion. 

I am always wary of judging people. I try to abide by the advice that I should judge not lest I be judged. I am as imperfect as any other human that has ever walked on this earth. Even my heroes like Abraham Lincoln had moments of weakness that seemed out of character. I know the we humans mostly do our best to be good people but that our definitions of how that should be vary widely. 

I don’t usually care what an individual’s political beliefs are unless they support racism or cruelty. I have never found a politician running for office with whom I totally agreed. Over my lifetime I have watched Democrats and Republicans lead this nation and most of the time I simply rolled with whomever was in charge as long as I did not detect criminal behaviors. I had great concerns about Richard Nixon even as he also did some very good things. When I learned of his lies and dirty tricks I felt certain that he needed to be removed from office. 

There have been moments when I was conflicted over who the better person was in our presidential elections. When Barack Obama ran against John McCain I could not help but notice what an heroic and honorable man McCain was. I actually believed that we would be okay as a nation with either man at the helm. I was especially impressed when John McCain insisted that Obama was a good man when a woman accused Obama of being evil.

When I heard the full story of McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam I was in awe of his honor. Over time I saw him again and again following his conscience and doing the right thing even when it went against his Republican party. I liked that about him so when I saw him with his friends Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham I felt that those three amigos represented what was best about our American system of governing. They did not always agree with each other but they were able to get along and work together for the betterment of our nation. 

Eventually John McCain died and Joe Lieberman retired but I still remembered the delightful way that Lindsey Graham had behaved during the times before Donald Trump came along. I disagreed with him on many issues but I saw him as someone willing to work hard and in tandem with the Democrats to make our nation a better place. I heard him speak of Joe Biden, a fellow Senator, as one of the nicest people he had ever known. Back then Lindsey Graham was the kind of leader that I thought I would want to be, fair and honest.

When Trump first came into the picture Lindsey Graham warned us about the danger of electing a man whose boasts showed him to have little character. He was adamant that Trump would bring an end to the United States as we had known it. Once again I admired Lindsey Graham for his willingness to speak what he believed to be the truth even though I disagreed with many of his political beliefs. 

I have to admit that I felt betrayed when Lindsey Graham eventually left his former self behind and bowed to Trump even after condemning him over the horror of January 6, 2021. The rapid turn around confounded me. To this very day it makes little sense to me. It seemed so out of the character that I had believed represented Lindsey Graham. It felt humiliating to me and so I essentially just wrote Graham off as yet another hack willing to to anything to keep his power. 

When I awoke on Sunday morning to find that Lindsey Graham had died I was shocked but I also felt deeply betrayed by the man that he had become in his final years. I suppose that I will never understand how or why anyone can change so dramatically as he did. Instead of standing his ground like Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney in opposing Donald Trump he bowed down and humiliated himself. In the process I lost my respect for him but also quietly wondered what had driven him to change. I suppose that more than anything I felt sorry for him. The demise of character that overtook him reminded me of the story of Benedict Arnold who had once been one of the great characters of the American Revolution. His fall from grace became synonymous with being a traitor and so it seemed to be the fate of Lindsey Graham.

I never wish ill on another person and I will not judge Lindsey Graham one way or another but I will grieve his change of heart that will never understand. Perhaps he wrongly believed that he had to go along with Donald Trump or be sent away by the voters thus losing any influence that he might have had. Whatever his reason it tainted his legacy forever and that is truly a shame.