Leadership Quote by John McCain

McCain’s line weaponizes a fake Mao quote to do two things at once: mock authoritarian sloganeering and puncture the saccharine optimism Americans are routinely sold in moments of crisis. “It’s always darkest before it’s totally black” is a twist on the motivational cliche (“before the dawn”) with the punchline reversed: no dawn is coming. The comedy lands because it’s structured like folk wisdom, delivered with the cadence of reassurance, then yanked into bleak fatalism. That sudden turn is the point.

The Mao attribution is the sharper blade. McCain isn’t citing the Chinese revolutionary; he’s using Mao as a shorthand for the kind of ideological certitude that pretends history is on your side. By putting nihilism in Mao’s mouth, McCain satirizes propaganda’s confident tone while also signaling his own refusal to traffic in comforting lies. The implied target isn’t China so much as any system - including American political messaging - that treats people like they need bedtime stories to swallow hard realities.

Coming from a U.S. politician, the joke has extra voltage because it violates the job description. Candidates are supposed to offer light at the end of the tunnel. McCain, a public figure defined by war, captivity, and a reputation for blunt talk, uses gallows humor as credibility: I’ve seen darkness up close, so don’t ask me for inspirational posters. The subtext is both warning and inoculation: expect things to get worse, and don’t let the language of hope become a substitute for thinking.