Friday, October 27, 2017

Military should protect American from militarism


   

     The 2018 midterm election is a year away, and fundraising letters pour into my inbox like a firehose blasting into a bucket.
     Most get ignored. A few I glance at, just to register their breathless urgency: THE LIBERALS ARE TRAITORS! GIVE ME MONEY NOWWWW!!!!
     But one plea, from our neighbor to the north, stood out. Let me, without biasing you as to why, present an email received Wednesday from Fmr. Captain Kevin Nicholson, USMC.
     The letterhead reads: "Marine. Outsider. Conservative."
     The email begins:

Neil,     I’m a proud U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a proud conservative from Wisconsin running for the United States Senate to neutralize the threat of Senator Tammy Baldwin’s liberal extremism.     I joined the Marines because I saw a threat to America and wanted to do everything I could to protect the country I love.     I was deployed to the deadliest place in Iraq just weeks after my first son was born. My team worked to combat the growing threat to democracy around the world.
I can't print the entire message. It ends:
     It’s time to Send In The Marine.     Semper Fi,     Kevin Nicholson, Conservative Republican for US Senate     P.S. As a proud U.S. Marine Corps veteran, I answered the call to serve my country when the threat was abroad. I’m now ready to answer the call to protect my country from the threat in our own backyard.
     Anything stand out? Maybe the same thought occurred to you as occurred to me: "This guy's a Marine."

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16 comments:

  1. That "conservative, outsider, Marine" used to be a pro-choice Democrat. It seems opportunistic of him to switch sides, and pit a new image of himself against Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin's first female senator, and the Senate's first openly gay member.

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  2. bad look indeed. thanks for having the courage to say it Neil . though I have no quarrel with a veteran running or getting elected. I hope they have more to present in their favor than simply having served.

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  3. Amen. We should respect vets. We should not fetishize them. Thank you, thank you, for noting how the GOP demonized a genuine war hero, John Kerry, to promote a guy who used the National Guard to escape serving. And of course Trump, a draft dodger, never misses a chance to demean McCain.

    Trump people are incapable of grasping Sinclair Lewis' admonition that "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

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    1. to be fair both parties do this .

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    2. Comparing the sins of the Democrats to the sins of the Republicans in the Trump era is like comparing jay walking to axe murders.

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  4. Good article, Neil and interesting info, Tony.

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  5. I agree, Dennis. We are in deep doo doo.

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  6. This calls to mind Joe Walsh's agonized complaint during his losing re-election campaign against Tammy Duckworth that her military service was all she talked about, real heroes don't talk about their service, etc. I suppose Walsh will be tweeting critically about this Nicholson character any day now.

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  7. The Marine outsider is going to neutralize a threat. Brings to mind another Marine outsider who has been in the news this week.

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  8. Most apt. Gene Lyons also had a good column on the adulation of generals in today's S-T. I worked for a series of general officers over a 20 year period. They were all smart, well educated and probably more experienced in the ways of the world than the average business CEO, having served in quasi-diplomatic posts and high level Pentagon offices involved in the political hurly burly. That said,they all put their pants on one leg at a time, and I'm not sure the experience of generalship would give them all the right mindset for democratic governance. As it doesn't seem to have for General Kelly. I think of a comment made by a retiring Sargent Major about a break in his Army career when he returned to civilian life and found he didn't like it: "There's folks out there ain't nobody in charge of."

    I will enter the Sinclair Lewis quote in my Mish Mash book, near what Doctor Johnson famously said about patriotism and scoundrels.

    Tom

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  9. I was a fan of John Kennedy when he was alive, but when Richard Nixon got into trouble, I was glad that Kennedy was no longer President, because he probably could have used the Armed Forces to extricate himself from any difficulties whatsoever. And though I'd like to think that Kennedy wasn't as conniving and unscrupulous as Nixon, I think the record shows otherwise.

    john

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    1. tate--???

      What part of "the record" shows Kennedy to have been as conniving and unscrupulous as Nixon? When did he try to cover up a break-in?

      The only thing close to "unscrupulous" I can remember Kennedy doing is the Bay of Pigs. But if surreptitious military operations count as "unscrupulous" in your book, all I can say is you set a pretty high bar for scruples.

      Maybe I'm forgetting something. If so, please enlighten me.

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    2. Hyperbole maybe. And mixing apples and oranges in equating Kennedy's sexual misadventures with Nixon's nefarious deeds, but that's the way I felt in 1972.

      john

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    3. Oh. Well, I think adultery is certainly distasteful, but Kennedy's didn't harm the country as much as Nixon's shenanigans did IMO.

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    4. My point was that had Kennedy been faced with Nixon's situation, i.e. resign or be impeached, he would have had a 3rd option because of his popularity. Let us hope that Trump's popularity wanes sufficiently that he won't be tempted to a military option when his hens come home to roost.

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    5. My point was that had Kennedy been faced with Nixon's situation, i.e. resign or be impeached, he would have had a 3rd option because of his popularity. Let us hope that Trump's popularity wanes sufficiently that he won't be tempted to a military option when his hens come home to roost.

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