It’s no secret that bipartisan consensus in Washington is exceedingly rare. Yet, the few areas of agreement that do exist are hardly fraught. Foreign policy has historically enjoyed relative harmony between rival factions, especially in regard to the practice of diplomacy. Both the anti-imperialists of the left and the small-government isolationists of the right implore that diplomacy is inherently good, and its pursuit will yield peace without fail.

This is an incredibly dangerous idea. Somehow, the nation’s best and brightest seem to lose hold of fundamental truths understood by our school children. One such truth reveals that a house of straw or sticks will readily crumble when confronted by a big, bad wolf. American attempts at deals, treaties, and other negotiations frequently resemble such haphazard constructions. Too often, diplomacy is treated as either a check-box to feign due diligence or a lauded goal in itself. Both cases make conflict more likely.

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Fate, as we all know, is a fickle thing. It demonstrated this as Senator John McCain, a veteran and politician whose character and wisdom have inspired Americans since the 1960s, fought his last good fight against brain cancer on Saturday. The announcements of his passing occurred almost exactly as I listened to the last few minutes of the audiobook of his memoir, The Restless Wave. The epilogue, narrated by McCain himself, was an emotionally exhausting piece of poetry that evoked tears as well as intense reflection on what makes a life well-lived. As students return to campus to embark on another chapter of our lives, the courage, compassion, and restlessness of the late hero illuminates a path to face our own fate as future leaders of our society.

John McCain will be remembered as an unfading figure of modern American history, and his life will long be heralded as nothing less than extraordinary. Though, in his own words, McCain remarkably stresses how ordinary he is.

Read the full article at The Texas Orator.