Worth reading

Posted by editorial_views

Posted: November 11, 2008 - 1:38 pm

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This essay on the Politico website by former Navy officer Peter Kauffmann helps explain why Democrats got 44% of the military vote this year in the presidential race, and why a Democrat like Mark Begich could out-poll Ted Stevens in Anchorage's military base district (Ft. Rich-Elmendorf):

Excerpt:

For decades, Republicans have worked to perfect the art of lapel pin patriotism – creating and exploiting iconic imagery for political gain while neglecting the substantive needs of our veterans. We see the devastating effect of this focus on rhetoric over reality in the dismal treatment of our wounded heroes at Walter Reed, attempts to block the new GI Bill, and the Bush Administration’s failure to adequately fund mental health care.

For all the GOP’s patriotic imagery and testosterone-infused rhetoric, the sad truth is that most of the current crop of Republican leaders – Rudy Giuliani; Mitt Romney; Newt Gingrich; Mitch McConnell; John Boehner; etc. – were all of age at the time of Vietnam but avoided serving in the military.

President Bush has almost single-handedly ended the GOP’s lock on veteran and military voters through his tragic mismanagement of the war in Iraq. I have seen the change among active duty members of the military firsthand. Our families have been torn apart by the intolerable rate and length of deployments . . .

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