7/01/2008

Works both ways, part 2

Just So I Am Clear
by David Casper

1992: Unquestioningly support the Draft Dodger over the War Hero
1996: Unquestioningly support the Draft Dodger over the War Hero
2000: Unquestioningly support the Soldier over the Draft Dodger
2004: Unquestioningly support the War Hero over the Draft Dodger
2008: Unquestioningly support the guy too young to fight in Vietnam over the War Hero (and accuse anyone of racism who doesn't do the same)

That's the left's position for every presidential election of my voting-age lifetime. I wonder if they are as confused on the inside as they make me on the outside.

Jay, did you honestly not see that the hypocrisy is on both sides when you decided to write that post?

3 comments:

Other Side said...

Hallucination issues, Dave? Or too much Fred Dooley?

David Casper said...

How am I hallucinating? If the right supported one over the other, as Jay pointed out, in those elections, wouldn't the opposite be true of the left?

For instance:

2004
Republican - George Bush
Democrat - John Kerry

or

Republican - "Draft Dodger"
Democrat - "War Hero"

So,in 2004, as Jay puts it, the right supports the Draft Dodger over the War Hero. In turn, the left supports the War Hero over the Draft Dodger. Now that specific example looks good (for the left), but carrying it out to the other elections it just demonstrates that the hypocrisy Jay cites among the right actually exists on both sides.

Jay Bullock said...

Dave, it's the right that places the value on military service as a prerequisite for the presidency--except when it makes their own guy look bad. The Democrats--until Kerry, anyway--did not emphasize the miliatary credentials of their candidates (think Dukakis, Carter). Republicans did and always have, even going so far as to, at least in memoriam, call Reagan a veteran for his grueling service in Hollywood, CA.

The sole effective strategy against John Kerry in 2004 was the Swiftboat attacks. The Kerry Campaign never recovered, and as soon as T. Boone Pickens's oily money had bought the election, he reneged--twice now!--on his $1m prize for proof that the SBVT were liars.

Today, all Wes Clark has to do is offer a banal truthhood--such as McCain's never leading a squadron in battle--and suddenly All Democrats Everywhere are "belittling" McCain's military service. When the right makes military service sacrosanct, it deserves to be called out when it reverses itself.