General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why do we buy into the worship of the military? [View all]Vogon_Glory
(9,086 posts)The military.
The reason that Democrats and many progressives see to it that they are seen respecting the military goes back to the Reagan area and before.
During the Vietnam War era, certain (genuinely) far left and anti-war protestors took it upon themselves to attack American service members, particularly those returning from Southeast Asia, as baby-killers and war criminals. There werent very members of this lunatic fringe and their views werent very popular, but they got noticednot just by the right wing activists and politicians but also by the mainstream media.
The right wing and Republican activists eagerly created the meme that all liberals and Democrats hated the military, were unpatriotic and Un-American and started gleefully started swinging that cudgel with abandon. That was one of the memes that cost a lot of mainstream Democrats in the Plains and in the South and its still sometimes used today.
Those Democrats whose political careers survived learned their lesson: NEVER, EVER be seen as trashing the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines of the US armed forces.
You like being governed by Republicans? I dont.
Do you want Donald Trump to get re-elected President and have the Republicans regain control of the House Of Representatives and gain an iron grip on the US Senate? I dont.
Thats also why whenever guys of my vintage and mindset see some well-meaning but clueless progressive grumble about our respect for the military and implies that its worship, were inclined to wonder what sort of fool would raise that question, particularly at a time when the future of our representative republic teeters on the knifes edge as a functioning democracy or falls into oligarchic tyranny.
Sorry, but I dont want to give Donnie and the rest of the corrupt, rotten Republican have access to those political cudgels again.
I suggest that if you want to see GENUINE military worship of the sort that upsets you, look at old Soviet military marches through Red Square or the marches honoring theumhonor and glory of the Chilean military in the post-Pinochet era.
I dont think that the US falls into that category.