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Arizona Sen. John McCain may have sewn up the Republican
nomination, but he still has many GOP critics in his own
party who accuse him of infidelity to the party on issues
that range from immigration to campaign finance reform.
Further, they complain, he gets kid-glove treatment from
the fawning Biased Liberal Media, because he is portrayed
as a maverick Republican
rather than, say, as a
renegade Republican.
Both maverick
and renegade
denote someone
who doesn't go with the flow, but their connotations are
certainly different. Maverick
implies independence,
whereas renegade
suggests betrayal.
The words we choose do matter, especially in a political
season. That's why the campaigns all employ spin
specialists -- to apply favorable phrasing to a given
event. Thus the recent actions of the Federal Reserve can
be described as either a bailout for billionaires
or
an effort to maintain the viability of our capital
markets.
Back to maverick.
I knew it as a term that
originated in cow country, and had heard it used to
describe one of those ornery steers that refused to
associate with the herd at fall roundup. But the word has a
history that makes it hard to determine just what it should
mean.
Like boycott,
silhouette,
and
sandwich,
maverick
is an eponym -- a word
that comes from someone's name. In this case, the
authorities all agree it comes from one Samuel Augustus Maverick, who lived from 1803 to 1870.
A native of South Carolina and a graduate of Yale, he
eventually settled in Texas, where he practiced law, served
in the legislature, and acquired thousands of acres where
he ran cattle, mostly in the San Antonio area.
Unlike most stockmen, Maverick refused to brand his cattle. Thus, as one version goes, any unbranded critter was jokingly called one of Maverick's. By 1872, a maverick was any unbranded livestock, and was presumed to be free for acquisition by the first outfit to slap on a brand.
So we go from major landowner's unbranded livestock to
some beef on the hoof that's free for the taking. And by
1890, the Century Dictionary defined maverick as a Western
term for anything dishonestly obtained, as a saddle,
mine, or piece of land,
and that to maverick
was
to take possession of without any legal claim.
That's hardly a compliment, and it doesn't fit with the current use of maverick to describe someone who doesn't always follow the herd. Perhaps that sense comes not from Sam Maverick's cattle, but Sam Maverick himself.
After all, everybody else branded cattle, but he didn't,
and that sounds like something a maverick
might do.
As a member of the Texas legislature in 1861, he supported
Gov. Sam Houston in his opposition to secession despite its
popularity; that, too, is something a maverick
would
do.
But when it came to a vote at a special convention to decide on secession, then Sam Maverick, like the vast majority of Texas delegates, supported leaving the Union.
Not exactly the act of a maverick even if he was a Maverick, but this may explain why the term could fit McCain well, given how he's been on both sides of the Bush tax cuts, Jerry Falwell, the Confederate flag, and assorted other issues.
This Maverick definition of maverick appears in no dictionary, but it's something to think about the next time you hear of a maverick politician -- the term might not be intended as a compliment.
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