In a normal election, we would be rubbing our hands gleefully and anticipating the harm to Trump among his patriotic base. But this is not a normal election, his base is dismissing his disparaging words about the military as just so much 'fake news'. And they are sticking with him as he tramples everything they claim to hold dear. And the military brass stands beside him, closed mouth.
But I am angry, I am sad, and I am thoroughly disgusted. And I am tired of feeling this way. I am so very tired of this knot in the pit of my stomach. Tired of waking every morning to some other vile and foul utterance from this man. Just when you think he cannot possibly stoop any lower, he surprises everyone with something even worse.
The report in The Atlantic of Trumps attack on the military had hit too close to home for me. My husband served in the Marine Corp in WWII. He was not a loser and he was not a sucker. He chose to enlist in the waning days of the war, when the number of eligible men had been exhausted, and no more able men could be found. His mother reluctantly signed for him, and he spent his 18th birthday on Guadalcanal. But because of his sacrifice, men like my father, much older, could stay home with his family. And work for the war effort building military vehicles.
My husband never talked about his two years in the Marines, he had signed up for the duration and six months, all of it served in the Pacific. There was a box, that I gave our son after my husband died. It contained his medals and commendations. As far as I know, my husband never looked at them.
When the war in Viet Nam was raging, my brother, inspired by his brother-in-law, also joined the Marines. He was in college and he had a deferment. But three of his high school buddies enlisted, and so for what ever reason that boys go off to war, my brother felt he must go. He is not a loser; he is not a sucker. Of the four boys who went off together, two never came home. Their names are on the Memorial Wall. A third boy came home with one leg and one arm. And my brother? Well to look at him he survived just fine. But if you look closely, you can see something is gone from his eyes.
My brother was a sweet, shy, innocent kid who never even had a date until I fixed him up for his senior prom. He excelled in math and science, and the Marines sent him to electronics school, and trained him to repair the Hueys and fighter jets. He was assigned to an air base inside the DMZ. He worked all day, and paced the barracks floor all night praying that the constant shelling that rained down on the base, would not level his barracks as it had the barracks around him. While he was in Nam, our mother died and he could not get home until weeks after the service. With the exception of those two weeks, He spent 46 months in that hellhole. He mustered out, alone, in San Diego. The Marines gave him his medals and put him on a train home to Chicago.
For months, he awoke screaming, in a cold sweat, every night. In the fall he returned to college but his demons only got worse, and he turned to drugs. Finally he joined a VA group and they helped him. He managed to finish his BS and went on to get a MS and a PHD in plant genetics. But Viet Nam never left him. It destroyed his first marriage. To this day, loud noises make his heart race, and the fourth of July festivities fill him with dread. He suffers with intestinal problems associated with the chemicals used in the war zones. Yes, he came home in one piece physically, but the sweet boy who went to war never returned. In his place is a broken human being, who was finally declared 95% disabled five years ago. It allows the VA to treat him for his depression and myriad of physical problems. But if you ask him, he will tell you he is not a loser.
I cannot imagine how the families feel whose sons, brothers, and fathers never came home. To have them called losers and suckers must be like losing them all over again. And yet there are some who still defend this monster of a human being. Those who chose not to believe what they hear with their own ears. His denigration of John McCain, his berating of the military men who served in his cabinet and were unceremoniously dismissed. His hounding of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman - a decorated veteran who served valiantly - the man who testified to what he heard the president say on the phone. And most egregious of all, using the US military like toy soldiers, as though they are his personal army, to play with.
This is a man who is bent on destroying our democracy to retain his hold on the presidency. He is sowing the seeds of doubt in our election process that has served us since the founding of the country. There have been printed ballots since 1888, Trump has voted by mail in the last four election cycles at least. And if Trump can convince enough people that the election is fraudulent, he can send it into the courts. But the Constitution says if there is no elected President and Vice-president, by noon on January 20th, the Speaker of the House becomes President. Can you say Madam President Pelosi?
I'm just sayin'
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