Tony Perkins Slanders the Troops
Thu Nov 02, 2006 at 05:43:39 PM PDT
Sitting here tonight, watching "Hardball with Chris Matthews." Matthews had on Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. He asked Tony about the impact of Kerry's gaffe the other day and Perkins didn't miss the chance to level slander against "liberals."
Tony Perkins: "Many of the liberals just don't have an understanding of how there are people that have such commitment to this country that they would volunteer to defend the ways and the ideas of this nation. And I think those two issues—those two issues—bring back into focus for social conservative what's at stake here. . . . [Y]ou can put those in power who really have no appreciation for the core values of America and then of course you get activist judges."
These remarks were uttered as a rhetorical response against the Democrats. These remarks were uttered in the same breath as a denigration against John Kerry for a gaffe. Perkins' remarks are an even bigger insult to the troops than Kerry's words—even if Kerry had meant the mangled statement as uttered.
I'm a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, I fought in both Panama and the first Gulf War. And I am a liberal. Or at least I am not a conservative—not anymore, not after the perversion of language that has been inflicted on upon the idea. But of course, in your narrow worldview, anyone who is not a dyed-in-the-wool Republican sycophant signed on to the NeoConservative movement must surely, by your reckoning, be a "liberal." If that is so, then I am, indeed, a "liberal."
And there are numerous liberal-minded veterans running as Democrats for office against rubber-stamp Republican incumbents; people like Tammy Duckworth, Jim Webb, Bill Winter, Jay Fawcett, Herb Paine, A.J. Sekhon, Bill Durston, Charles Brown, Jim Brandt, John Rinaldi, Dennis Spivack, Joe Roberts, Dave Bruderly, Jack Changon, Bob Bowman, Jim Nelson, John Laesch, Dick Auman, Phil Hare, Tom Hayhurst, Mike Weaver, Ken Lucas, Kenneth Stepp, Andrew Duck, Jim Marcikowski, Tim Walz, George Weber, Jack Truman, Duane Burghard, Craig Weber, Rich Sexton, Bob Johnsonm, Jack Davis, Eric Massa, Richard Siferd, William Conner, Hal Spake, Joe Sestak, Patrick Murphy, Chris Carney, Phil Avillo, Lee Ballenger, William Griffith, Bill Morrison, Dan Dodd, Charlie Thompson, David Harris, Ted Ankrum, Roger Waun, and Al Weed.
Shame on you, Mr. Perkins, if you have any. How dare you suggest that these veterans, having served in their country's defense in the military, and now seeking to serve their country in its government, don't undertand what it takes to serve? How dare you declare that they do not have an "appreciation for the core values of America"?
Have you served in our military, Mr. Perkins? Have you sat long, cold nights in the middle of nowhere, in a defensive position, choking down a cold MRE, ignoring the sand or dirt that has fouled your meal? Have you pushed yourself to the point of physical exhaustion yet found it within you to take one more step, one more mile, when the only comfort is that another minute has passed closer to being able to finally rest? Have you manned a radio in the middle of the Panamanian jungle, isolated, helplessly watching the life of a comrade slip away while he tells you that he can't feel his legs, his arms are going cold, his breathing gets shallower and shallower, and his eyes eventually close? Have you walked point through Kuwaiti and Iraqi towns, on a combat patrol, half terrified from fear of being shot or blown up? Have you sweated so profusely in the desert heat, under full pack and gear, that the only thing preventing your body from shutting down was sheer will?
No? Well, I have. As have hundreds of thousands (if not millions) other Democrats and people who disagree with an ideology that has left us with a stinking, rotting, disease ridden carcass of a government.
Fuck you Tony Perkins. Fuck you. And fuck your religious values and ideological blindness for suggesting that people failing to adopt your narrow view of the world are somehow incapable of understanding the values and ideals upon which this country was built. Have you no familiarity with John Locke, Roger Williams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and innumerable other ideological Founding Fathers?
Fuck you, Tony Perkins. "The troops" you wish to support are more than those military personnel squirreled away in Iraq, safely out of earshot from your lies and slander. The troops are those of us who have served, who have lived the object lesson of civic duty, who understand that ideals are more than mere words, mouthed for the sake of political advantage.
The only solace I take from your screed tonight is that by this time next week, you and your ideals will be on their way to the trashbin of history.
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