Current mood:

calm

Questioning Patriotism
In 2002 Georgia Senator Max Cleland (D) was running for reelection against Republican Saxby Chambliss. At some point, Chambliss ran a TV ad. The piece declared that while US faced threats to its security, Senator Cleland voted 11 times against Homeland Security bill. Problem there was that Bush wanted to have power to fire and hire Homeland Security people as he sees fit (just as it is in the military), while Democrats wanted to give those people protection of the labor unions. Based on this ad, Cleland claimed that Republican question his patriotism.

This is not just a single occasion. As soon as a Republican brings up some Democrat's voting record against CIA funding, or against military funding, or against some homeland defense or any national security issue - Democrat starts screaming - THEY QUESTION MY PATRIOTISM!!!

Actually, this is why Democrats picked Kerry to run against Bush. All his deficiencies - from being The Most Ultra-Liberal Senator to being second Android-American to run for the office - were forgotten. They were relishing the thought of John Kerry denouncing George Bush for questioning his patriotism. I am most sure that's what they were telling each other "hey, guys, imagine how stupid Bush will look like when he questions John's patriotism!" So, they chose Kerry and for many months they could not stop talking about Bush being a deserter. Kerry ended up spending more time talking about his heroism then his Vietnam service lasted.

And, voila - Republican Convention. Zell Miller enumerates the voting record of John Kerry: against this weapon system, against that - turns out, from Abrams tank to Tomahawk missile and Apache helicopter - Kerry voted against them all. He proposed CIA budget cuts right after first terrorists attack on WTC. He voted against allocating money for the armor and weapons for the troops in Iraq. Well, as we know, reciting some Democrat's voting record means... what? well, YOU KNEW the answer! Of course - it means questioning his patriotism.

Strange people. So many times they have been told that their patriotism is just fine. Zell Miller himself explained that and so did others. To no avail. Guys, please, we DO NOT question your patriotism! You can feel perfectly safe in this particular refuge of yours.

We question your judgment. We question your intelligence, knowledge of the facts and history, your decisiveness, your convictions and your integrity. Not patriotism.

P.S. m_p, is this explanation sufficient?