Allow me the privilege
of copying and pasting the essence of one of our best Democratic
candidates who both served in Iraq and is also a Rhodes Scholar. It is a
bit lengthy but I ask you to read it because elections matter and it is
important. I will have a short comment about it below. Please feel
free to share.
Pete Buttigieg got this question from CNN's Jake Tapper: "If elected
President, you would have the most military experience of a
commander-in-chief since George H.W.
Bush, who fought in WWII. Barack Obama didn't have any military
experience. Does it matter? It's certainly an important part of your
biography, and we honor it, but does it matter as a part of your resume
for President that you serve?"
Pete: "I think so. I don't mean to say that you have to have served in the military to be eligible to run, but I do think that it brings a lot of perspective. First of all, again, you can never lose touch with why politics matters, with why it matters who's sitting at that desk. When you have had the experience of writing a letter and then putting it in an envelope marked 'just in case', and putting it where you know your family can find it, and packing your bags and leaving, you have a sense of the gravity and the weight of the decisions that are made in the White House. But there's something else about serving that I think the generation of George HW Bush and JFK experienced, which is that it brings you together with other Americans. When I got into the vehicle - a big part of my job was just driving and guarding vehicles on movements around Kabul, or occasionally between Kabul and Bagram. You know, when somebody got in my car, my vehicle, they didn't care whether I was a Republican or a Democrat, they didn't care if I was going home to a girlfriend or a boyfriend. They wanted to know if I was doing my job well and if I could keep them safe, and we learned to trust each other with our lives, even though our politics and our lives back home were so different. And I think we need to get back to that. It shouldn't require going to war to get that. But one reason I'm a big believer in expanding opportunities for national service is that we need more common experiences, in this world that's divvied up into Twittersphere bubbles and ideological echo chambers, we need more of those experiences that can bring us together even when we have nothing in common except the fact that we're American."
Pete: "I think so. I don't mean to say that you have to have served in the military to be eligible to run, but I do think that it brings a lot of perspective. First of all, again, you can never lose touch with why politics matters, with why it matters who's sitting at that desk. When you have had the experience of writing a letter and then putting it in an envelope marked 'just in case', and putting it where you know your family can find it, and packing your bags and leaving, you have a sense of the gravity and the weight of the decisions that are made in the White House. But there's something else about serving that I think the generation of George HW Bush and JFK experienced, which is that it brings you together with other Americans. When I got into the vehicle - a big part of my job was just driving and guarding vehicles on movements around Kabul, or occasionally between Kabul and Bagram. You know, when somebody got in my car, my vehicle, they didn't care whether I was a Republican or a Democrat, they didn't care if I was going home to a girlfriend or a boyfriend. They wanted to know if I was doing my job well and if I could keep them safe, and we learned to trust each other with our lives, even though our politics and our lives back home were so different. And I think we need to get back to that. It shouldn't require going to war to get that. But one reason I'm a big believer in expanding opportunities for national service is that we need more common experiences, in this world that's divvied up into Twittersphere bubbles and ideological echo chambers, we need more of those experiences that can bring us together even when we have nothing in common except the fact that we're American."
My Comment: To have a chief executive who
has not only the ability to fight but the ability to empathize with the
heart of his/her nation that liberated Europe nearly 75 years ago; a nation and its military which was
staggered by the carnage of what our men saw with incredulous eyes
and then freed with the help of a commander in chief whose values
convinced a nation that democracy was worth fighting for. Those values
are the thread that weaves the common quilt of America. A president,
yes, needs a hard fist, but also needs a soft heart. This man has it
all. A Rhodes scholar brilliant but the understanding of the working and
middle class too. He has the ability to rise out of his own being and
relate to the experience of others especially those who understand what
it is like by an accident of birth not to have been born into riches or
if he has then the ability to relate to those who have not. I would
vote for him in a heartbeat.
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