Senator Lindsey Graham’s abrupt and untimely death sent shockwaves throughout Washington and the Beltway establishment as well as the larger mainstream media, the pundit class, bloggers, and reporters. Indeed, many individuals across the political spectrum wasted no time weighing in on the late senator’s legacy. Bipartisan condolences and commemorations in addition to personal platitudes were abundantly showered upon the late politician.

Within many segments of the Black community, when an individual passes on, people are often reminded to let the dead rest in peace, as if death should nullify a lifetime of reductive and untoward if not outright scurrilous behavior. Personally, I am a dissenter of such a doctrine because I believe that one should tell the truth - tell it like is (or was), take no prisoners, and pull no punches about the dead, no matter how unpleasant such truth may be. In essence, KEEP IT REAL!

Yes, no doubt, there are more than a few individuals who are genuinely mourning for the late senator and undoubtedly viewed him as a good colleague or close personal friend, as former President Joseph Biden recently declared. Of course, there is no problem in sending condolences to his sister and extended relatives, but as I stated, it is crucial not to allow the truth to be sullied by political tradition coupled with pomp and circumstance.

The reality is that Graham’s legacy comes down to one major factor: When he had the opportunity to stand on political principle like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and precious few others of his Republican colleagues did, rather than standing up and retaining his prior stance of politically challenging Trump and decrying his multitudes of unhinged political sins, he decided to examine how the GOP winds were blowing, take a self-serving detour, and embrace the specter of Trumpism and the intensely racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and xenophobic politically exclusionary world of MAGA. To be blunt, like many politicians, he sacrificed his principles for political access, power, and political expediency.

In 2015, Graham was Trump’s fiercest critic, declaring Trump “unfit for office.” He avidly encouraged his fellow Republicans to denounce the loquacious entrepreneur who had never held public office and had zero political experience. Indeed, he even paraphrased Trump’s campaign rhetoric by announcing, “You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.” So much for maintaining political principles. One can only wonder what the late John McCain would have thought of his extremely close colleague’s political 180 turn?

Remember January 6, 2021, the day Trump sent a mob of his unhinged thugs upon the US Capitol like rabid wolves as they broke windows, injured and murdered police officers, and attempted to murder then Vice President Mike Pence, thus closing the chapter on the previously proud tradition of the peaceful and orderly transfer of power? It appeared that Graham was disgusted by such carnage. It’s a proud old American boast about the peaceful transfer of power, and by jiminy, Lindsey Graham was finally fed up! His outrage was so apparent that he stated on the house floor, “All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.” So much for political sincerity. Several weeks earlier, after Trump was defeated in November 2020, Graham contacted the then Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger, inquiring if lawfully registered mail-in ballots in some counties could be dismissed! Abominable!

The bipartisan avalanche of selective amnesia to depict Graham as a congenial and amiable fellow who was never confrontational, even with those with whom he was politically at odds, is perversely disingenuous. Displayed as a minor political anomaly is the checkered image of a person who during the last decade of his existence, politically sold his weak soul to President Trump and emerged as his most avid supporter, defender, and sycophant.

This was also the same Graham who unabashedly voted against LGBTQ+ rights despite the long-standing rumors of his closeted sexuality. In a recent appearance on The Daily Beast podcast, author Michael Wolff, commented that everyone in Washington knew Graham was gay. He also said he suspected Trump was using that knowledge as leverage over him. His fellow South Carolina senator, Tim Scott, who also steadfastly opposed gay rights, has persistently faced such rumors.

First, to me, “is he, was he, or wasn’t he?” assertions are legitimate yet simultaneously also irrelevant. The fact is that both Senator Graham’s and Senator Scott’s sexuality is their business and no one else’s. Second, with all due respect to both senators, I could not care less about their sex lives. Where such an issue does become relevant is when such politicians are publicly denouncing such groups of people or vote in favor of legislation that harms the community of people of which they are part and are engaged in activities associated with that group of people whether overtly or covertly. Anyone engaged in this “do as I say, not as I do” sort of rank hypocrisy is fair game and deserves to be exposed.

Sexual preference aside, bestowing undeserved accolades on Graham is dishonest and disgraceful. To be sure, his death is a sincere loss to his loved ones. Nonetheless, it is not a justifiable reason to redesign his life history by reconstructing his true, authentic, disturbing legacy, specifically, the hard right MAGA stance he all too eagerly adopted during Trump’s presidencies.

After Trump was reelected in November 2024, like many of Graham’s fellow Republicans (and some Democrats and political independents for that matter), Graham saw the writing on the wall. Viewing how elected Republicans would sheepishly follow Trump’s commands, he chose to align himself with the Commander-in-Chief instead of challenging him. Seemingly overnight, Graham went from being Trump’s rabid foe to his loyal sycophant. To be sure, he has plenty of company on the conservative right.

When a New York Times reporter asked Lindsey Graham about his abrupt transition several years ago, he commented he “just made” a choice. Indeed, the late senator made a conscious choice to sell his soul for political gain and relevance while sacrificing his integrity. Hopefully, history will remember and accurately depict such a flawed and politically unprincipled, compromised and disappointing character and legacy.