This is ridiculous:
“So I think we got a real glimpse here of the anti-military attitude that prevails on the political left in the United States.”
The speaker, Gary Bauer of the group American Values, wants to takes John Kerry’s statements and make a conclusion about the “political left”. Even Republicans should think this is moronic. Why not just say that the Left hates their mom and likes to smother puppies?
In regards to Kerry’s comments — they are not untrue! It is a fact that the military is composed largely of people from lower than average incomes and without, in most cases, higher education. Your average platoon is not full of PhD’s. This notion is not one that is disrespectful or anti-military, it’s a fact.
Kerry made a gaff and he should apologize profusely. It was a bad joke, prone to misinterpretation and he shouldn’t have said it. But it is hardly a big deal and it is an obvious political tactic that the Right is trying to make it one.
lolife 
I have wondered if he really was trying to attack the president or if he actually meant what he said. I do believe it may have been a slip of the tongue but given his history and this general perception, however misconstrued, that the left is anti-military, it fit a pattern. You can’t deny that. Politics is a blood sport and perception is reality.
I also think that most of the right-wing bloggers, commentators, blow-hards, etc. either know or suspect that Kerry actually mispoke but as soon as the blood is in the water, the frenzy is on. You can’t criticize the right for this without criticzing the left. They both do it with equal gusto. It’s like a sporting event where your team benefits from a bad call, the coach is never going to come up to the ref and say “um, yeah, that was actually a fumble and we’re going to let the other team have the ball.” It’s just not going to happen.
Which brings me to the point I want to make. A very large percentage of the electorate, enough to make a difference, doesn’t pay attention to the details. They are only aware of the shit that blasts it’s way to the surface (this is why the media is so powerful and why I get so angry that they are left-biased) such as the Foley scandal, or the Swift Boat, or Monica Lewinsky, or the John Dean scream. And this inconsequential bullshit ends up affecting the outcome of elections because there are not enough informed people to counter-balance the ignorant. If there were, we would get real news about real issues with real facts.
The media (left and right) know this and thats why that latch onto it. That’s why more people know that Kerry said that people in the military are stupid than know that Korea is coming back to 6 party talks, or the nuances of the Missouri stem cell bill, or whatever it is that actually matters. And this is also why, as a pratical matter, it doesn’t matter whether Kerry meant what he said. Perception becomes a false reality and the ignorant believe it.
And this is also why we get inane, meaningless campaign ads. They only influence the ignorant and intelectually lazy.
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That’s the thing, dude, I don’t think we disagree about much here. It is well known that the military has a large percentage of hispanics and blacks, two demographics that (unfortunately) have lagged in income and education. I know there are many, many exceptions and a lot of military families and such.
I meant to say what I said and I don’t think it is something that is disrespectful. Kerry did not mean to imply what you found so deeply offensive. You guys are reacting to what he accidently said and I believe him that it was not what he meant. Had the joke come out right you guys could just be pissed that he insulted the president. He did not intend to insult the military. Even me, who did say what I meant, do not intend to insult the military.
Also, I’ll probably need to blog it separately, but I, as an individual, am not perfect and the USA, as a country, is not perfect and it is not anti-American whatsoever to be humble, contrite and honest about the harm we do cause in the world. We DO and you are blind if you don’t see it.
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Oops, in my last paragraph I meant to say that I do think you are misinformed.
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Awe, c’mon, I thought I was going to unleash a better shit-storm than that! 🙂
I’m not the only one guilty of sweeping statements around here, don’t make me go back and grab some of your more outlandish and generalized statements about the righties and bushies and retards.
Let me be more clear, the far left such as the Pelosis and Michael Moores, and Barbara Streisands, and Dick Schumers and Ned Lamonts of the world are anti-military and in some cases anti-American (in the sense that they think America is a bad country responsible for most of the problems in the world) and some of them want to be our leaders and all of them want to influence who is.
I do not think you personally are anti-American or anti-Military but I do not think you are misinformed about the quality of the entrants into the all-volunteer American military. Especially after 9/11 the amount of college educated and college graduates that joined the military went way up. Also people from middle-class and upper middle-class backgrounds joined the military instead of going directly to college. What about Pat Tillman, a colege graduate, a multi-million dollar a year pro football player? He certainly had other options! These people joined not because of financial hardship or racial inequlaity, they joined because they wanted to “do something important” and they felt they had a calling and because they love their country. That is why Kerry’s comment was deeply, deeply offensive. I grew up in the military, my dad served for 23 years. He didn’t have to join, he was not stupid, or undereducated, or lacking in other opportunities. This is also true of almost all of the people I knew when I traveled the world as a dependant of the US Air Force. I do think that some of the far-left people cannot imagine why a perfectly intelligent, upwardly mobile, educated person would join the military. Fact is, millions and millions of guys just like my dad jopined up because they wanted to, not because they had no other choice.
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I agree that people leave the military in great shape educationally speaking, in many cases. I also think we have one of the finest, if not the finest, military in the world, in terms of education, training and equipment. So, at least one liberal cannot be put in the box you are trying to put us in.
My statement (not Kerry’s) was that when people sign up for the military they are often high-school graduates at best and often from the lower end of the income scale. This is my understanding and as far as I know it is not false.
So, to me sweeping statements like This is where the left’s ignorance of the finest military force any nation has ever put on this earth makes them unfit to lead this country in these times are completely false and suspicious as hell in terms of being entirely politically motivated. You guys LOVE to accuse us of being anti-American and anti-military and it is bullshit.
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The liberal contempt (yes, contempt) for the military is well documented and pervasive.
Mark Halperin (Political Director of ABC News) not only admits the MSMs left leaning bias but also their contempt/dislike of the US Military.
The following exchange between Hugh Hewitt and Mr. Halperin is illuminating
HH: And so everyone that you work with, or 95% of people you work with, are old liberals.
MH: I don’t know if it’s 95%, and unfortunately, they’re not all old. There are a lot of young liberals here, too. But it certainly, there are enough in the old media, not just in ABC, but in old media generally, that it tilts the coverage quite frequently, in many issues, in a liberal direction, which is completely improper. And it goes from the big and major like CBS’ outrageous story about President Bush’s draft record right before the 2004 election, to the insidious and small use of language describing Nancy Pelosi’s liberal policies and ideas different than they would Newt Gingrich’s conservative ones.
The folowing is from later in the interview.
HH: And these liberals…you know, Terry Moran on this program said…Terry Moran on this program from ABC, your colleague…
MH: Right.
HH: …said that the media hates the military, has a deep suspicion of it. Do you agree with that?
MH: I totally agree. It’s one of the huge biases, along with gays, guns, abortion, and many other things.
This is just one, quick example of the lefts bias and if I had more time, I could find you many others, starting with John Kerry in 1972 totally trashing the military with untrue and unfounded statements to his more recent comments of the military “terrorizing poor Iraqi women and children.”
And the reason his statement is untrue at it’s root is that military personnel, on average, are more educated than the general population. The military has higher high school graduation rates, higher attendance and graduation from colleges, and more advanced degrees than the population as a whole. Soldiers in Iraq are actually taking college classes via distance learning while they are serving. If you want me to find the studies that back this up, I’ll gladly do so when time allows but it is a hard fact. This is where the left’s ignorance of the finest military force any nation has ever put on this earth makes them unfit to lead this country in these times.
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excellent point. I watched him say it and understood he would be taken out of context but I also thought “not very nice but what part is untrue?”
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