We took for granted basic decency and respect, and didn't think Republicans would just toss them out completely.

I remember being mad at him for the 48% comment. Good times.

He was a kind person with conservative values, the type of person the asshole conservatives would hide behind to conceal their real goals. When the open racists and sexists became less popular, they needed to present themselves as reasonable individuals that just value traditional American values. In many ways they did, but McCain, like George HW Bush, still had some liberal values. They believed in winning democratically, unregulated capitalism, and the liberal world order.

While these more principled conservatives wanted to make a weak liberal democracy, they still wanted liberal democracy. They still wanted consent of the governed, but they also wanted a socially darwinian society. They believed in human rights, but only the negative ones. They didn't think people had a duty to help up their fellow humans, only a duty to not let others push them down directly. For them, small government and neoliberalism was their goal, but they had a naive view of what other conservatives wanted.

Trump era fascists are conservatives who don't care about any liberal values whatsoever. They want free markets, but only when it benefits them. They will allow democracy when it helps them win, but abandon it when they lose. They don't want a liberal world order, partially because they don't grasp how well it benefits the wealthy, but also because the rules of the world order limit their preferred methods of unprovoked violence and hard imperialism. Trump will invade any country if he can benefit from it, only avoiding countries that also have fascist aligned leaders, and not wanting to directly fight countries that can fight back.

McCain was usually pretty classy. I disagreed with him on many, many issues, but always respected him.

This is some classy shit. Man was willing to be booed at his own rallies to defend decency.

I think he also would have been a good President overall - much better than any Republican in my lifetime. 2008 was my favorite election ever because both parties put their best candidate forward and they ran a campaign centered on respect (Palin's antics notwithstanding).