{"id":344,"date":"2008-10-12T18:08:10","date_gmt":"2008-10-12T22:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iomaire.com\/?p=344"},"modified":"2008-10-26T10:29:56","modified_gmt":"2008-10-26T14:29:56","slug":"who-is-the-real-maverick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/2008\/10\/12\/who-is-the-real-maverick\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the real Maverick?"},"content":{"rendered":"

John McCain and Sarah Palin style themselves as “mavericks” – I thought you would like to know more about how the word came to be. Then, you can decide if McCain and Palin are mavericks or if they are something else. This article was published in the New York Times<\/a> on October 4, 2008:<\/p>\n

Who You Callin\u2019 a Maverick?<\/p>\n

By JOHN SCHWARTZ
\nPublished: October 4, 2008<\/p>\n

There\u2019s that word again: maverick. In Thursday\u2019s vice-presidential debate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, the Republican candidate, used it to describe herself and her running mate, Senator John McCain, no fewer than six times, at one point calling him \u201cthe consummate maverick.\u201d<\/p>\n

But to those who know the history of the word, applying it to Mr. McCain is a bit of a stretch \u2014 and to one Texas family in particular it is even a bit offensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,\u201d said Terrellita Maverick, 82, a San Antonio native who proudly carries the name of a family that has been known for its progressive politics since the 1600s, when an early ancestor in Boston got into trouble with the law over his agitation for the rights of indentured servants.<\/p>\n

In the 1800s, Samuel Augustus Maverick went to Texas and became known for not branding his cattle. He was more interested in keeping track of the land he owned than the livestock on it, Ms. Maverick said; unbranded cattle, then, were called \u201cMaverick\u2019s.\u201d The name came to mean anyone who didn\u2019t bear another\u2019s brand.
\n<\/p>\n

Sam Maverick\u2019s grandson, Fontaine Maury Maverick, was a two-term congressman and a mayor of San Antonio who lost his mayoral re-election bid when conservatives labeled him a Communist. He served in the Roosevelt administration on the Smaller War Plants Corporation and is best known for another coinage. He came up with the term \u201cgobbledygook\u201d in frustration at the convoluted language of bureaucrats.<\/p>\n

This Maverick\u2019s son, Maury Jr., was a firebrand civil libertarian and lawyer who defended draft resisters, atheists and others scorned by society. He served in the Texas Legislature during the McCarthy era and wrote fiery columns for The San Antonio Express-News. His final column, published on Feb. 2, 2003, just after he died at 82, was an attack on the coming war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Terrellita Maverick, sister of Maury Jr., is a member emeritus of the board of the San Antonio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.<\/p>\n

Considering the family\u2019s long history of association with liberalism and progressive ideals, it should come as no surprise that Ms. Maverick insists that John McCain, who has voted so often with his party, \u201cis in no way a maverick, in uppercase or lowercase.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just incredible \u2014 the nerve! \u2014 to suggest that he\u2019s not part of that Republican herd. Every time we hear it, all my children and I and all my family shrink a little and say, \u2018Oh, my God, he said it again.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a Republican,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s branded.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John McCain and Sarah Palin style themselves as “mavericks” – I thought you would like to know more about how the word came to be. Then, you can decide if McCain and Palin are mavericks or if they are something …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[122,121],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}