Of Pledges and Pins

A few days ago, I was listening to yet another up-and-coming Republican candidate talking about the GOP's new "pledge." I think the one thing that set me off more than anything else was that one of the central tenants, according to this woman, was "supporting the troops." As if the Democrats, when the Congress voted to approve the "funding" for both wars, wasn't supporting them.

Support for the troops seems to be one of those catch phrases like "family values" that means both everything and nothing in American Politics. It's something that bothers me, as a former officer, because that support is supposed to be for people like me: my friends, classmates, and colleagues who still wear the uniform. And to hear the idea of support for them bandied about like a high-five or a thumbs-up just makes my blood boil, especially when it comes from Republicans.

Do you want to know why? Too bad; I'm gonna tell you anyway.

It's because the Republican Party. Does. Not. Support. The. Troops.

Do you f*cking hear me???

THE GOP DOES NOT SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!!

IN FACT, IT IS A CENTRAL THEME OF THEIR ENTIRE CAMPAIGN NOT TO SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!! AND IT HAS BEEN FOR YEARS!!!

Now, I realize that's a pretty outrageous statement to a lot of people, but I will explain:

Supporting the troops is supposed to mean more than just wearing a flag pin. It should mean that the nation chooses to share in their fight, if not by sharing the danger, than at least by shouldering some of the burden.

Historically, the way this country has shown such support during wartime has been by raising taxes. Yes, I know; taxes are evil, yada yada. But let's be blunt: If you are not willing to pay taxes to support young Americans going off to war, what the hell are you willing to pay taxes for??? Bond drives are fun; without them, Marines with medals wouldn't get to marry movie stars (rest in peace, General Carl), but invariably, taxes have gone up in war. But not this time. During the Bush administration, the GOP cut taxes. Effectively, the so-called conservatives of the Baby Boomer generation, most of whom had "other priorities" than putting on boots during Viet Nam (i.e., Bush/Cheney/Boehner/Hannity/Limbaugh), said to all those GenX and GenY men and women going overseas:

"We think that the fight against terror is important enough for you to die, but its not important enough for us to pay higher taxes. In fact, we don't think its important enough for us to even pay the same level of taxation the country saw when Clinton was in charge. So we're cutting taxes. And as far as financing this war, well, we will borrow the money from China and engage in deficit spending, so that YOUR generation can worry about it, assuming you come home alive. We're going to let you figure it out; just don't even think about cutting our social security checks."

This is a bigger slap to the face of those veterans than anything some hippie did in an airport forty years ago. At least that only involved the veteran being stuck with a bill for dry cleaning; this is a bill for John Boehner's social security checks --which I doubt he's not going to cash on 'principle'-- that our generation gets stuck with.

And this is the party that puts in their pledge that they support the troops.

Hasta.