VIDEO: John McCain Tries To Explain To Ted Cruz How Democracy Works
This afternoon, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) offered a civics lesson to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and other conservatives pursuing a scorched earth approach to defunding Obamacare. That is, sometimes, when you're in the minority, you lose:
We fought as hard as we could, in a fair and honest manner, and we lost. And we lost, one of the reasons is because we were in the minority. And, in democracies, uh, almost always, the majority governs and passes legislation.
McCain's remarks followed Cruz's 21-hour speech urging the Senate to block any bill keeping the government open that does not defund Obamacare.
McCain also added that "elections have consequences" and Republicans should "respect the outcome" of the 2012 election, in which Republicans campaigned on repealing Obamacare but could not defeat Obama:
I campaigned all over America for two months, everywhere I could. And in every single campaign rally I said "we had to repeal and replace Obamacare." Well, the people spoke. They spoke, much to my dismay, but they spoke and they re-elected the President of the United States. No that doesn't mean that we give up our efforts to try to replace and repair Obamacare. But it does mean elections have consequences and those elections were clear, in a significant majority, that the majority of the American people supported the President of the US and renewed his stewardship of this country. I don't like it, it's not something that I wanted the outcome to be. But I think all of us should respect the outcome of elections, which reflects the will of the people.
Acknowledging that losing elections can lead to the implementation of policies you dislike might seem like common sense, but it is a hotly contested notion among conservative activists. Earlier this month, McCain hinted that he will retire when his term is up in 2016, which leaves him freer to dispense #realtalk like this.
McCain also said comparing Obamacare to the Nazi threat, as Cruz did during his long speech, "does a great disservice" to Americans who fought against the Nazis, such as his father and grandfather.