Requiem for an establishment

Senator John McCain's funeral was a landmark event. Someone wrote that it resembled a massive tweet against Donald Trump as eulogies by politicians and pundits were laden with innuendoes aimed at the American president.

Others saw an effort by the US establishment to fight back against Trump's antics and ever-sliding political standards. The speeches by former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama bore the hallmarks of a different America that is very serious about its global role and which recognizes that, tough as it can become, the political game comes with certain limits that must be respected. All that was what McCain most probably had in mind as he organized every detail of his funeral many months prior to his passing. After all, everyone was present at the ceremony but Trump.

Others have a different interpretation of events. It has been said that the...