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On December 9, 2014, Senator John McCain rose to speak about the newly released CIA Report on the use of torture on Guantanamo Bay prisoners during the George W. Bush administration’s war on terror.

The report laid bare the truth about what the CIA did to gain information from captured suspected terrorists, torture they called “enhanced interrogation.” They failed, of course, because torture never produces reliable information, but the Bush administration defended what it did anyway.

John McCain was a Republican who had nothing to gain by supporting the releasing of the report, except to maintain his personal integrity. He himself had been a victim of torture by the Viet Cong when he was captured after his plane was shot down over Viet Nam. He survived to tell the story, but with permanent injuries that became a living reminder of what he went through for six years as a prisoner of war.

At the end of his speech (Sen. McCain’s full statement on the CIA torture report), this is what Senator McCain said:

“…in the end, torture’s failure to serve its intended purpose isn’t the main reason to oppose its use. I have often said, and will always maintain, that this question isn’t about our enemies; it’s about us. It’s about who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be. It’s about how we represent ourselves to the world.

“We have made our way in this often dangerous and cruel world, not by just strictly pursuing our geopolitical interests, but by exemplifying our political values, and influencing other nations to embrace them. When we fight to defend our security, we fight also for an idea, not for a tribe or a twisted interpretation of an ancient religion or for a king, but for an idea that all men are endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights. How much safer the world would be if all nations believed the same. How much more dangerous it can become when we forget it ourselves even momentarily…our enemies act without conscience. We must not.”

John McCain’s credentials as a philosophical conservative were second to none, but he was also a man of principle who was committed to truth as much as he was advocating for conservative policies. There were lines he wouldn’t cross, and lines he believed the country he served as a Navy pilot and a U.S. Senator should not cross either.

It is no wonder that Donald Trump mocked John McCain for being captured. A man without principles will always fear a man with them.

Trump has no principles. He has no regard for the truth. There are no lines he won’t cross, and no lines he won’t take our nation across in order to serve his own financial and political purposes.

Our enemies act without conscience, as John McCain said, and he warned that we must not. In contrast. Donald Trump would have us mimic our enemies and act without conscience because that is what he does.

How such a man can be a serious candidate for the presidency this year may be the most enigmatic question our nation faces. He stands for nothing we claim to stand for as the United States of America. No one can trust what he says because he lies without hesitation, yet he wants to be President again. 

After he took the Oath of Office the first time he methodically spent the next four years betraying it again and again, and that is what he will do again if given the chance. 

I confess I do not understand how anyone who voted for him once could do so again, or how anyone at all could vote for him this year.

But this election is not about Trump. It’s about us, who we are and who we aspire to be, about how we represent ourselves to the world, just as John McCain said torture was not about our enemies, but about us as Americans.

The people who support Donald Trump are telling us about themselves. Because we know who he is, we know who they are. Do they represent who our country is?

I don’t believe they do, but what I believe matters little. What matters more is that we understand that this year’s election, both for president and Congress and all the way down ballot, is first and foremost a test of our national character, about what is inside us as a people, about the values we hold and the principles we believe and believe in. 

This election, perhaps more than any we have had in our lifetime, will reveal whether or not we exemplify the political values we want other nations to embrace.

This election is more than defending our security, as McCain said about torture. It is “a fight for an idea, not for a tribe or a twisted interpretation of an ancient religion or for a king, but for an idea that all [of us] are endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights.”

Alexander Hamilton said that people get the government they deserve. His hope, with all our founders, was that it would be a government that embodied the great idea that all of us are endowed by God with inalienable rights no one should tarnish or destroy.

That is the government we deserve, and it is up to us to ensure we keep it. That will tell the world what kind of people we truly are, as John McCain’s speech did of him.