I've been military all my life. 21 years active duty, 26 working as a Department of the Army civilian. When Trump first announced, then said something akin that John McCain was a bad solider because he got caught. I was completely against him. Then Trump added insult to injury by dissing a gold star family who lost their son in Afghanistan, there was no way I ever vote for him. Hillary's disrespectful treatment of the military in the White House during her husband's tenure as president turned me against her. Another one I'd never vote for.
I think from attending my VFW and American Legion meetings back in late 2015 and early 2016 that a decent Democratic candidate had a chance of winning the military, veteran's vote for the first time since LBJ. Before and after those meetings it seemed all we talked about was Trump and his disrespecting POW's and families that had lost loved one's in defense of this country. That is until they nominated Hillary. Then like so many other Americans, it was a case of disliking Hillary more than disliking Trump.
Regardless, I never equated how one votes with patriotism. How or who one votes for I do equate to partisanship, to party affiliation. To personal likes and dislikes or the candidates, for candidates who meet your ideals and against those who don't along with many other reasons. But never patriotism. I can't stand Republicans accusing Democrats and Democrats accusing Republicans of hating America because of a difference in politics or party affiliation.
If you think those who vote for Trump are unpatriotic, that's your opinion. It's isn't mind. So we'll just have to agree to disagree there. As for Trump himself, I view him as a thin skinned, feud creating, egotistical, obnoxious, schoolyard bullying opportunist. Perhaps Trump always planned to run for the presidency, you ever look at his political party history? For all of his early life and during the Reagan presidency, Trump was a Democrat. During Bill Clinton he was a Republican. He actually ran for the Reform Party nomination in 2000 becoming a member of that tiny party. During G.W. Bush he was a Democrat again, reverted to being a Republican in 2009, then an independent in 2011 and finally for the third time a Republican in 2012. In short, Trump has been a Republican three times, a Democrat twice, independent twice and a member of the Reform Party once. I find that interesting.
Again, you are misinterpreting me. You said "If you think those who vote for Trump are unpatriotic, that's your opinion."
First, I never shied away from saying it's my *opinion*, but this said, no, I didn't say it the way you are depicting. I mentioned a *subset* of Trump voters as unpatriotic: the ones who know perfectly well that he is profoundly damaging America, but couldn't care less, and still vote for him for some sort of silly reason like spiting the liberals. Yes, THAT's unpatriotic. I never said in any of my posts above that simply voting for Trump is unpatriotic.
And again, I'm not making of this a party issue. I said, Trump is not even a real Republican. He is an opportunist who will join whatever group he feels will confer him an advantage, like you demonstrated. We are in agreement.
Now, the funny thing is that you're so outraged at my "unpatriotic" comment, but look at your own signature! You berate those who put party ahead of country, which is another unpatriotic trait. So conceivably those who vote for Trump just because he has an R to his name, are acting in unpatriotic manner if it means putting party ahead of country. You just didn't utter the word unpatriotic, but putting something else ahead of country is what being unpatriotic is. Huh, we're not so different in our opinion, are we?
You seem to have taken offense because you are a military man and YOU introduced the idea that the majority of the military voted for Trump. Then, YOU agreed that with his opinion of POWs and Gold Star families, it's hard for you as a military man to support him... And I'd add, Cadet Bone Spurs is a draft dodger. That's how the HUGELY honorable Tammy Duckworth, a veteran maimed in combat who chose to be a combat woman when most women are spared of combat (therefore, a hero), refers to Trump.
So, we might agree that the honorable members of our military who voted for Trump, did so naively and not realizing how evil the man is, and now probably see it after he turned against POWs and Gold Star families.
I fully expect his voting popularity among military people to drop significantly from 2016 to 2020.
And many thanks for your 21 years of active duty service. I mean it. I'm not paying lip service to this like some do. Like I said, I profoundly respect our military. By the way, with growing disgust for the way our veterans are treated, I volunteered for seven months to help our veterans in one of the VA hospitals, just as a way to say thanks. I did it for as long as I could, and only stopped when I moved away to another city that doesn't have a VA hospital.
My son won a national award in recognition for his pro-bono legal work on behalf of veterans, when he won a difficult lawsuit against the DoD on behalf of veterans who had been unfairly treated; didn't charge a cent for his numerous billable hours, and diverted the entire settlement to the plaintif veterans, not willing to take the cut he was entitled to. He did it out of his good heart, not expecting any reward, and was surprised when he was nominated for the award, and even more surprised when he won, since he thought he was doing nothing more than his obligation, as inspired by his father (me); when as a young lawyer he asked for my opinion on how to best allocate his pro-bono work, I said, remembering the fact that unfortunately I had to stop volunteering at the VA, "why don't you help our veterans?" He thought it was a great idea and jumped right onto it, with the above result. I'm proud of him for it.
So, don't for a minute think that I don't respect and uphold our military.
We may have more to agree with, than to agree to disagree.
