Mavericks to McCain: Cut it out
By Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin
POSTED October 10, 2008 | 12:05 AM
Brand loyalty
It was a TV show in the fifties and sixties, it was a Ford car in the seventies, it was Tom "Top Gun" Cruise in the eighties, and for months now, John McCain has made it his presidential nickname: maverick.
We all know the word's meaning as an independent person who does not follow the pack, but upon learning the history of the word, the McCain camp may want to reconsider their usage.
The word maverick traces to the Maverick family of Texas, who are something of a Texas Democrat's version of the Kennedys. Yeas & Nays spoke with Julia Maverick, widow to Maury Maverick, Jr., and found the family is not happy with the campaign's "incorrect" usage of the name. "I don't think he's a maverick," Mrs. Maverick said. "I don't think he deserves the title because he's conformed to Bush's ideals. A maverick is a nonconformist." And she should know -- it was her husband's great-grandfather for whom the word was coined.
In the 1860s, Samuel Maverick was an indifferent herder who refused to brand his cattle. When cowboys would see his unmarked cows wondering the countryside, they'd say, "Oh that's a Maverick." For generations following, the men of the Maverick family became the most well-known liberal activists in Texas politics. What would McCain say if he knew fellow "Maverick" Maury Sr. allowed the Communist Party to hold a speech at the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium that started a riot, or that "Maverick" Maury Jr., worked for the ACLU and as a lawyer represented conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War? According to Mrs. Maverick, these are the kinds of actions that "define a maverick."
It seems the family's biggest confusion is not that McCain links himself to a liberal family ("We have some Republicans in the family now" admits Mrs. Maverick) but that he hasn't done anything very "mavericky."
"What has McCain done to call himself maverick? I want to know why he calls himself a maverick," Mrs. Maverick asked. "Because he talks to Democrats? In that case, everyone's a maverick."
And it doesn't stop at McCain. His partner on the "Maverick Squared" ticket gets the same treatment from the family. In fact, Mrs. Maverick was ready with a knock-knock joke:
Knock, knock?
Who's there?
Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin who?
Exactly.
8 Comments
Reader Comments:
POSTED Oct 10, 2008
john.c.gamble@gmail.com: "Great article. I no longer hate the word "Maverick.""POSTED Oct 10, 2008
kharmaisis@yahoo.com: "My favorite article this week! I also no longer will cringe when i hear the word Maverick; I will most likely now chuckle. Great stuff. "Exactly""POSTED Oct 11, 2008
misanthropytoday@misanthropytoday.com: "you stupid liberals cringe when you hear the word maverick? i cringe when i see your stupid comments"POSTED Oct 11, 2008
divadyblik@yahoo.com: "Excuse me misanthropytoday. But why is it that a right-winger when he doesn't have a decent argument or anything helpful to say always seems to want to through mud. The only thing it adds to the discussion is a display of your deficiencies."POSTED Oct 12, 2008
a@a.com: "I don't like McCain, but this article is just stupid."POSTED Oct 12, 2008
alan8297@aol.com: "I don't see what Samuel Maverick's descendant's have to do with it. They aren't him. They don't necessarily share his opinions. They've never even met the guy....so why would we value their opinions on the definition of the now, well-known word?"POSTED Oct 12, 2008
tomhanna@tom-hanna.org: "It shows his deficiencies to "through mud"? What exactly does that mean? Assuming you meant "throw mud," that seems ironic given that this whole article is basically mudslinging. It's certainly not anything like a good argument against McCain."POSTED Nov 17, 2008
: "Word etymology shows no restrictions -- words evolve independent of origin. Did the Maverick family dislike the TV western "Maverick", or all the western wear shops with "Maverick" in the name? Julia Maverick sounds like a goofball, and who cares what she thinks -- liberal or conservative? I thought DC Examiner readers were smarter than name calling each other on some of these emails above."