For the younger folks: Kerry got some seriously badass medals for his military service in Vietnam. People who had been on the same boat as he did, but at a different time, worked with the Republican party to claim that he hadn’t really done what he did. The press ate this up, and distributed it widely, costing him public support and likely the election.
“Avoiding a Tour in Iraq” Walz: Serves 20 years, participates in Operation Enduring Freedom, awarded the Army Commendation Medal, retires honourably, re-enlists for another 4 years after 9/11 and finalizes retirement due to running for office fully achieving a rank of Master Sergeant.
“lucky to escape any real fighting” Vance: Corporal but really a glorified publicist (coined ‘Sergeant Scribbles’ in the article lol), earns the datta-boy Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal. After discovering there ain’t no couches in the marines he leaves the service after only a single 4 year tour.
Clearly a viable and totally-not-wierd attack vector for Vance 🙄
Although it helps with alliteration, Vance never made sergeant and left as a corporal (E-4).
Lol, how is Vance saying this about him? And with a draft dodger as his partner.
“After graduating from Middletown High School, Vance joined the US Marine Corps, where he served from 2003 to 2007 as a combat correspondent in a non-combative role, including a six-month deployment in the public affairs department in Iraq.”
It worked for Kerry who saw and led men in sustained combat versus Bush, who hid from the war in the national guard.
While we should keep making this comparison, do so in public too! But don’t be surprised if the media keeps amplifying this.
Also, Walz had his retirement set before the unit knew it was deploying. That’s not something you can typically take back, another sergeant major would already be lined up for the position. So to say he “avoided” is a complete lie. Vance knows this too.
I don’t remember much of the Kerry campaign, but didn’t he lean into his service record? The stolen valor argument is much weaker seeing as Walz has never claimed he’s seen active combat.
Regardless, it’s incredibly disappointing to see reputable news outlets bat for Trump just because the Dems have two ever so slightly left-leaning people on the ticket.
They are clutching at straws. Every step the Democrats have taken since Biden decided to withdraw from the race has tripped the Republicans out. They had no game plan for that contingency, and they are still several steps behind and frantically playing catch up. They are falling back on their old negative handbook tactics. Hopefully they don’t work. Because that Swiftboat Vets thing against John Kerry was really stupid. The only thing that was more stupid back then was that so many idiot voters believed it.
ETA: Some of these newspapers / media outlets are really freaked out, but only about Walz. They were fine when it was just Harris because she’s very moderate. Her choice of Walz (which was a smart choice because it reinvigorated liberal voters towards her) is the thing that they are stressing out over, because of the (tax) implication.
There’s a documentary about it because the Swift Boating was such bullshit.
Several of the swift boaters themselves recanted after the Questionable Victory of GeeDubz part II.
Can’t find the documentary, here’s a relevant article:
On Friday, the group, who served with Mr. Kerry in Vietnam, sent a letter to T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire Texas oilman who helped finance the 2004 attack advertisements, taking him up on a challenge he issued last November: that he would give $1 million to anyone who could disprove a single charge the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth made against Mr. Kerry.
. . . Mr. Pickens did not reply.
So Mr. Kerry’s veteran allies took up the cause. In a 12-page letter — with a 42-page attachment of military records to support their case — they rebut not one but several of the accusations of the Swift boat group.
The veterans offer to go through Mr. Kerry’s record and the video with Mr. Pickens “page by page, frame by frame.” And they demand an apology, to them “and to the American people.”
Of course, none of this is new. Extensive news media accounts undermined the Swift boat charges in 2004, pointing out that some of the Swift boat critics had written statements in Vietnam lauding Mr. Kerry for extraordinary bravery in the incidents they later said he made up. One critic had himself received a medal for heroism during a hail of gunfire he later claimed Mr. Kerry had concocted to win his third Purple Heart.
But that did not blunt the political impact.
Ah yes. Texas scumbag T. Boone Pickens, the Musk of his day, funded the whole smear campaign.
And it’s a reminder that republiQans do not give one good goddamn how true something is or not. If it has “political impact” they’ll use it.
The Republicans have never given a single shit about veterans, they just like the flag waving and faux patriotism. They nominated the guy who consistently insults veterans, calling those who fell in war “losers”, and the rest of their elected officials consistently starve the VA so that veterans can’t receive the care they were promised.
Like everything else the Republicans claim to “support”, it’s in name only, and no substance. They only support their billionaire overlords, and the orange fuhrer himself.
It’s equally weak because it’s all bullshit. The problem is that the press isn’t willing to assess truth on this kind of thing, and then center that.
Remember Kerry was miligned by much of the veteran community because he protested against the war in Vietnam. The swiftboat claims helped to fit into a narrative that his service record was flawed, especially against GWB’s controversial record with losing flight status with the Air National Guard.
Bezos trying to keep his tax loopholes I see
This doesn’t work very well when the top of your own ticket features someone who didn’t serve in the military in any capacity whatsoever and probably has the thinnest skin of any US president in history.
To be fair, George W. Bush’s proxies successfully ran the original swift boat attacks on Kerry even though he served in the Air National Gaurd while Kerry fought in Vietnam. Not saying it’s an exact one to one comparison, but it wouldn’t be the first time a veteran managed to smear someone who actually served.
I think people operate on a belief of fairness that obviously does not actually apply in real life. Bush was a draft dodging rich kid and Kerry actually got injured and awarded for heroism, but media manipulation made Kerry’s service an issue. That Trump is a big sack of lumpy turds isn’t going to save us from hypocritical false attacks being drummed up because the media wants excitement.
Bush did have the advantage of having pictures of him flying fighter jets in an era when the mainstream pretty much worshipped anything to do with military hardware. IIRC he even flew a fighter jet and landed it on the carrier for that infamous “mission accomplished” photo op.
Even though the times have changed a bit, I bet that Trump would get a boost if he could fly a fighter jet. Not sure if he’d even be safe to be a passenger on one unless they kept the throttle at like 20%.
But as long as Vance is out there lying on the campaign’s behalf, accusing a 24 year vet of “stolen valor” and “lying” about his service, anyone would be remiss not to note that Vance himself never saw combat. He spent his six months in theater as essentially a reporter. He was a public affairs specialist who spent his time writing articles about how Marines spent their days on base. In other words, a sort of Sergeant Scribbles, if you will. Actually corporal, but it doesn’t flow off the pen as nicely.
Corporal Couch-fucker
