(RNN) – Sen. John McCain is lamenting the polarized political climate and urging the American people to reject hyperpartisanship in his upcoming memoir.
McCain, who is battling brain cancer in his home state of Arizona, also writes that his current Senate term will be his last, according to an excerpt from "The Restless Wave," which Apple News published Monday.
"This is my last term. If I hadn't admitted that to myself before this summer, a stage 4 cancer diagnosis acts as ungentle persuasion," McCain writes. "I'm freer than colleagues who will face the voters again. I can speak my mind without fearing the consequences much. And I can vote my conscience without worry."
In July, McCain was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He returned to Congress in the fall while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments. In December, he returned to Arizona to continue with his treatments and to start physical rehabilitation.
He was discharged from the hospital last week after undergoing surgery for an intestinal infection.
Late Saturday, Ben Domenech, a writer who recently married McCain’s daughter Meghan, tweeted: "John hugged me tonight. He asked me to take care of Meghan. I said I would." The tweet has since been deleted.
In his book, McCain emphasizes the importance of compromise in governance.
"There is no other way to govern an open society, or more precisely, to govern it effectively," he writes.
He decries the lack of civility in Washington, writing that "whether we think each other right or wrong on the issues of the day, we owe each other respect."
He also has some strong criticism for President Donald Trump, condemning his "reality show facsimile of toughness" and the way he "has declined to distinguish the actions of our government from the crimes of despotic ones."
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