The Real Original Maverick

John McCain and Sarah Palin love to call themselves "mavericks", but have you ever wondered where the word maverick comes from? Well, there once was a Texas cattle rancher named Samuel Maverick who refused to brand his herds. Those unmarked cattle were referred to by other ranchers as mavericks and the word eventually became a description for someone who is independent minded, a lone dissenter, a non-conformist or a rebel.

Samuel's grandson Maury Maverick contributed more than anyone to the now commonly accepted meaning of the word maverick when he served two terms in Congress (1935-1939) where he led a bloc of progressive Democrats who supported Roosevelt and the New Deal and even sought to push them to the left. In 1935 the Washington Herald labeled this posse of liberals “The Mavericks.”

Today, the Maverick family wants to take back their name that has been hijacked by the McCain campaign.

On the website RealOriginalMaverick.com Maury Maverick's granddaughter Fontaine Maverick is quoted as saying the following:

It didn't bother us when Ford Motor Company used the Maverick family name for their new car. We didn't care that Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun was named Maverick, and we were amused when Madonna used our name for her record label. It is part of the American vernacular. But when McCain and the media placed it in a political context, using the maverick label as the centerpiece of his presidential campaign, each and every member of this family was appalled. We continue to be.

Maury Maverick was part of FDR's New Deal administration, which came into power in 1932 in time to literally save this country from the Great Depression with bold innovations and bold moves. John McCain has voted with Bush administration 90 percent of the time. It is this administration, and these Republicans, who are mostly responsible for bringing this country to it's knees with its foreign policy and it's economic policy. McCain is the antithesis of what we need to pull us out of this terrible situation.

I find it really interesting that the word McCain and Palin choose to use to describe themselves so frequently has its origins from a liberal Democrat whose descendants are not happy at all by a Republican's use of their family name.

As supporters of the Democratic candidate Barack Obama, whose values are much closer to their family tradition, members of the Texas family oppose the co-opting of their name to promote the current Republican Presidential ticket.

During the first two debates alone, John McCain and Sarah Palin used the word "maverick" 17 times. So, the next time you hear McCain or Palin use that word to describe themselves, remember where it came from and how the original Maverick family feels about their use of the term.