The Word MAVERICK: a pesky little critter

A word can be a pesky little critter, its meaning sometimes wandering all over the place, its connotation ranging from the positive to the problematical to the downright negative. Words matter, though, and they can, when carefully considered and used, help us to clarify our thinking and decision-making processes as we prepare to go to the polls on November 4.

That’s why I’ve been studying the word MAVERICK, trying to figure out why Senator McCain and Governor Palin seem so obsessed by it.

The word MAVERICK derives from Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803-1870), a Yale-trained lawyer and Texas land speculator, rancher, lawyer, mayor, city councilor, legislator, and judge. According to the Texas State Historical Association’s website, Maverick famously in 1847 left in the care of slaves a small herd of cattle to range freely, unbranded, on Matagorda Peninsula in east Texas, near San Antonio. By 1851 Maverick had amassed almost 140,000 acres of Texas ranch land. In 1854 he and his sons rounded up what had become of those wayward Matagorda mavericks, branded them, and drove them to his ranch, then sold them at a pretty profit in 1856. By 1864 Maverick doubled his west Texas landholdings to 278,000 acres – approximately one-fifth the size of Delaware. The Texas Historical Association website notes that Maverick was “an anti-secessionist in the Civil War and a Texas legislator who worked to ensure equal opportunity for his Mexican constituents, to foster fair and liberal laws for land acquisition and ownership, to develop transportation and other infrastructure improvements, to protect the frontier, and to ensure a fair and efficient judicial system.”

But it’s not the source of the word MAVERICK that deserves our consideration as we head into the last weeks before the election. It’s MAVERICK’s range of meanings that we should attend to. I wish Senator McCain would explain why he as used the word so often and vehemently to define himself in his campaign for the Presidency.

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, a maverick is “2. an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party.” The Free Online Dictionary adds that a maverick is “2. one who refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to a group, a dissenter.”

I can see why Senator McCain appreciates these positive definitions. But they are MAVERICK’s secondary definitions. The primary definitions of MAVERICK, however, are neither positive nor negative. (You probably learned in junior high that dictionaries put secondary definitions second and primary definitions first for a reason.)

Indeed, the value-neutral primary definitions of MAVERICK make branding oneself a MAVERICK somewhat sticky.

The primary meaning of MAVERICK is “an unbranded range animal, especially a motherless calf” (Free Online Dictionary), one “that has become separated from its mother, traditionally considered the property of the first person who brands it” (Merriam Webster Dictionary). Here’s a question for Senator McCain, who surely considers himself an heir to the legacy of the Republican Party: From what traditional elements of that historic brand does he choose to separate himself when he defines himself as a maverick? (The same question applies to Governor Palin, of course, but that’s another matter entirely.)

Another line of questioning for Senator McCain and Governor Palin grows out of one more definition, this one the decidedly negatively connoted entry for MAVERICK appears in the Oxford English Dictionary: “a masterless person; one who is roving and casual."

How will Senator McCain reassure voters who are troubled by the Republican candidates’ apparent lurching from tactic to tactic and position to position, especially at this tense time for the American electorate? What can Senator McCain say to reassure voters that he and Governor Palin are above “roving” approaches to campaigning and policy?

Perhaps before election day Senator McCain will tell us how we will be well served by having a maverick in the White House. Frankly, having a pesky young critter casually roaming about without clear direction and ripe for the taking by the first person who brands it sounds downright dangerous to me.