Thursday was Thanksgiving. It occurred to me Monday that I’m most thankful for at least one guy I hardly ever agree with, and all his comrades.
I’m talking about veterans, who’ve been at the sharp end of bad leadership from both sides of our partisan divide.
I could mention many a veteran other than the over-used example of Sen. Tom Cotton, but he happens to illustrate my point very well.
Everybody knows the senator gave up a Harvard-educated law career to join the U.S. Army. He risked his life. Now that’s the ultimate risk, so don’t take what I’m about to say as belittling that.
He also gave up what he could have earned in those years. He made the financial sacrifice — something far too few of his admirers are willing to do. They want both war and tax cuts.
Yes, Cotton risked his life — but the lesser sacrifice was not a risk. It was a certainty.
Note also that the senator, having survived his tour of duty, will always have had a Harvard education. His future is virtually assured. Imagine how much we owe those who range from the merely successful to those who are barely scraping by but who answered their country’s call anyway. Now think of the survivors of those who gave everything.
Thank you, and God bless your families.
You have suffered under bad leadership for a very long time, but things are changing for the better. I’m cautiously optimistic that the Red and Blue teams are finally figuring out that neither a big stick nor speaking softly works without the other.
In the Speaking Softly Party, Democrats by and large aren’t nearly as defensive as they used to be that there’s a lack of a clear direction in the Middle East. They recognize good intentions and an openness to all options aren’t getting the job done. They seem to have learned that you shouldn’t declare a red line unless you’re willing to impose some consequences when somebody crosses it. Hillary Clinton’s Iraqi war vote doesn’t weigh nearly as heavily in the Democratic primary as it used to.
There’s also noticeably less servility to political correctness. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but a very liberal magazine advised its readers to stop mocking Republicans over their Syrian refugee paranoia. Admit that, however unjustified, people are scared and have a right to have their concerns recognized, the article advised. You never would have seen such an article posted so prominently a few years ago in a liberal outlet.
There’s a growing awareness that people who hate you don’t hate you less when you’re carefully polite.
Meanwhile, over in the Big Stick Party, awkward discomfort greeted the presidential campaign of W’s brother. The “We were right all along!” movement flopped. Jeb Bush backed up so fast from that, he almost ran into himself. If Bush III outlasts this primary, it will only be because of his family’s donor base. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s unconstitutional nonsense about closing mosques only hurts his chances of ever moving into the White House.
The Big Stick Party just may have learned that clear direction is only a good thing if you pick the right direction. Force only works when applied to the right target, and finding the right target’s the hard part.
Most important of all, both sides’ dream of a quick, lasting fix to make us relatively safe from terror fades more with each passing day. Disillusionment is the most important first step to doing anything right, as it often is.
All this was pretty clear a long, long time ago. A lot of people who should be alive today are dead. But peace and safety are things we cannot get and keep by making any one-time sacrifice of those who are willing to pay that cost for us. The home front is realizing there’s a war going on, it will never end, and they bear responsibility for its direction. Now all that’s needed is for the home front to realize they’re going to have to pay for this, too.
Winston Churchill probably never said “Americans will always do the right thing after exhausting all alternatives.” He would have been right if he had, though. We’ve exhausted a lot of alternatives since Sept. 11, 2001.
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Doug Thompson is a political reporter and columnist for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected] .