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McCain (L) accepts the Liberty Medal from Joe Biden. Photo: Matt Rourke / AP
In a speech accepting the National Constitution Center's Liberty Medal on Monday night, Sen. John McCain took aim at "spurious nationalism" in U.S. foreign policy, in remarks clearly intended as a repudiation of President Trump's worldview.
"To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain 'the last best hope of earth' for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history," he said.
More from McCain:
"We live in a land made of ideals, not blood and soil. We are the custodians of those ideals at home and their champion abroad. We have done great good in the world. That leadership has had its costs but we have become incomparably powerful and wealthy as we did. We have a moral obligation to continue in our just cause, and we would bring more than shame on ourselves if we don't. We will not thrive in a world where our leadership and ideals are absent. We wouldn't deserve to do so."