Maverick Is a Not a Nice Word

In this season of electioneering, we are anxious observers of and listeners to those skilled in weaving tapestries from words. Hanging tapestries to inspire us with their deviltry, coquetry, malapropistry, the bedazzling of words which no longer mean what they were invented to mean, and hence might induce us to determine that the utterer knows not of what he speaks. The tapestry weavers delight in one-word titles which give glow and luster to a candidate:

• Senator Biden is OLD-GUARD.
  
• Senator Obama is for CHANGE.
  
• Governor Palin is a REFORMER.
  
• Senator McCain is a MAVERICK!
  

Take MAVERICK. McCainians delight in the tapestry woven with that word, to the extent that they take the tapestry down from the wall, tie it onto a pole and march through town, swinging splintered pole and tattered flag wildly, cheering as they go, PUT COUNTRY FIRST! Their Maverick did. Always did?

But, should they seek an anointing less nervous, more accurate, other familiar terms might have embroidered a different tapestry:

• PATRIOT
  
• HERO
  
• POW
  
• NAVY MAN
  
• FIGHTER PILOT
  
• HOME-OWNER
  
• STRAIGHT TALKER
  

 

How come? Well, let's ask ourselves what does "Maverick" mean? Is it a nice word, calling up a cowboy with a tall white hat? Like Gary Cooper in "High Noon"? Clint Eastwood in "High Plains Drifter?" John Wayne in "Red River"?

Take MAVERICK out of the OED and see whence it came, how it was used, what it really means, and what one who wears its brand could actually be.

OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY

maverick, n.
Also mavorick. [Samuel A. Maverick (1803–1870), a Texas cattle-owner who left the calves of his herd unbranded.]

1.U.S. In the cattle-breeding districts, a calf or yearling found without an owner's brand.

2.transf. A masterless person; one who is roving and casual; an independent person; an individualist; applied spec. in the U.S. to a politician who will not affiliate with a regular political party. Also attrib. in sense 'independent, unattached'.

b. 'Western U.S. Anything dishonestly obtained, as a saddle, mine, or piece of land' (Cent. Dict. 1890). Hence maverick. (a) trans., 'to seize or brand (an animal) as a maverick; hence, to take possession of without any legal claim; appropriate dishonestly or illegally' (Cent. Dict.).

(b) intr., to stray or wander like a maverick. 1883 in Amer. Speech (1958) May 141 The Indians stole them and the Texans 'mavericked' the unbranded. 1910 W. M. Raine Bucky O'Connor 203 It hadn't penetrated my think-tank that this was your hacienda when I came mavericking in. 1948 J. K. Rollinson Wyoming Cattle Trails 139 The artful practice of burning or working over brands was resorted to, with honest mavericking as a side line.

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MAVERICK may not be a glorious title for a man seeking the presidency over so many years, so relentlessly, so ambitiously. It may well be quite apt for one seeking the presidency so ruthlessly, with such a mean and nasty snarl in tongue and eye.

Mavericks don't run with the herd, can never lead, have to stomp and twist through sage brush, dodge prairie-dog holes and snakes in the desert, all alone, with no herd behind, maybe another maverick or two, until they stumble, fall, unable to rise again, breathing heavily as they watch a filly gallop by, blindly, ideologically, deeper into the canyon without outlet.

If, perchance, we examine more closely the OED's definition of "maverick" as a verb, there might be some concern about a maverick taking "possession of without any legal claim, . . . dishonestly or illegally."

And when the verb is used intransitively, "to stray or wander like a maverick," we may very well shudder.

Do we see an old man, stumbling with difficulty, deep inside the forest of friendly alliances, not knowing whom to trust, whom to ask for troops?

Do we see him in a desert, circling ceaselessly, parched by hot winds, as he fancies that the oasis in the mist is an Al Qaeda camp and calls for a preventive strike?

Do we see this wandering maverick as the leader of the greatest, most powerful nation on earth?

Leaders not only put country first, they put themselves right out in front to lead that country. Leaders do not stray. Leaders never wander.
    
If, also perchance, we come to see that the current holder of that office is himself a maverick out of Texas, whence mavericks came autochthonously, we would not dare allow another maverick to keep on keeping on doing the same.

There are nicer words in a more appealing tapestry: CHANGE, with the help of the OLD-GUARD.

Words?

• The awesome power of words.
  

Tapestries?

• Woven beauty that hangs on walls.
  

Mavericks?

• Alone. Wandering. Masterless.
  

Leaders?

• We can tell a leader by the way he walks, the way he stands. The way he picks things up and holds them in his hands.
  

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