Soldiers: New Swing Voters (Another reason they're scared of Clark)

[John_H]

I don't recall this Washington Monthly article getting much attention in the national press.

AMERICA'S NEW SWING VOTERS

"For over two decades, the bond between the GOP and the U.S. military has been getting stronger. Since the invasion of Iraq, that may be changing...

This section of coastal Carolina is staunch GOP territory, with Rush Limbaugh on the radio and flag decals--American mostly, but a few confederate--on the back of the pick-up trucks....Six months ago, you simply didn't hear anything against Bush in Jacksonville, and if people had doubts about the war in Iraq, they kept them to themselves.

But these attitudes have begun to change. The local newspaper's editorial board, which has been vocally pro-Bush throughout his administration, ran an editorial at the beginning of October criticizing the administration's policies on Iraq, and suggesting that the campaign could end in a Vietnam-like quagmire. Soldiers' wives ask reporters why their husbands are still being sent off to Iraq, to face car bombs and chaos, months after the president said the war was over. Returned reservists, who saw their return dates pushed back again and again while they sat in a chaotic war zone, call the same radio station to say they didn't sign up for this sort of treatment, and they won't be reenlisting. If pressed, most people you talk to around here still say they'll support Bush. But their faith in him, and the GOP powers in Washington, has been rattled..."

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0311.wallace-wells.html

Think Ol' KKKarl isn't thinkinhg about the dem primaries in the South? Think he hasn't counted those Florida absentee ballots? Think he's not scared shitless about losing West Virginia and maybe even North Carolina?

Think this is yet another reason why he's currently got his hoes out in full attack mode against Clark?

People can and should pick their candidates for a host of reasons, but if beating Chimp figures high on your list of priorities, read this article.

[jiacinto]

1. Good point

But given how many people here have a knee-jerk hatred of the military and think all sodliers are "baby killers" it may be hard to reach them.

[Shakespeare]

5. Carlos, that is simply NOT TRUE.

There is a very small number of people on this site who are anti-military, and even for them I wouldn't go so far as to say they have a "knee-jerk hatred" for the military. To say "but given how many...." implies that a significant segment of the DU community is anti-military, and that is just simply not true.

You do yourself a disservice by making such a broad and outrageous statement, because it causes people to not take you seriously. You can't support that statement with any evidence, and you need to stop repeating it over and over and over.

[kodi]

6. yes it is, i have seen it myself, repeatedly

the most viruent anti-clark posts have as a central premise that the military are not to be trusted since all that they are trained to do is kill.

that you ignore this is none of my business, but to deny it flies in the face of the numerous posts i have seen that state such.

the lack of discrimination by many on this site about US soldiers versus their missions in iraq and afghanistan is pretty repugnant.

[Shakespeare]

16. SHOW me - plus, you're confusing two completely different points.

That somebody doesn't want a military man for president because they find the military mindset dangerous to the direction of the country is NOT THE SAME THING as what you call "hating the military." And as far as even those posters are concerned, if I estimate generously, I can think of only 15-20 at the MOST who hold such an extreme view--and that's out of a community of 35,000. Just because a few people are very vocal on a point with which you disagree does not mean that a significant segment of the DU holds that view, and it's outrageous that you keep suggesting that.

Did you even take a logics class in college, Carlos? I'm very serious about that question--you propose some of the most logically indefensible positions here that I've ever seen.

If you're going to spout that kind of nonsense, then BACK IT UP by linking us to specific examples of what you're talking about. Until you do that, your position is logically and intellectually bankrupt.

[Shakespeare]

20. A little bump for Carlos.

I ignore nothing, and again, I wait for your response to my post above. You are no better than Hugh Shelton demeaning Wesley Clark's character, and then refusing to go into detail. You cannot keep leveling these absurd accusations about "people who hate America" on DU, and then not back it up with a single link for evidence.

It's a smear, Carlos, and you need to either back it up or knock it off.

[John_H]

10. Only a handful

and nearly all of the one's I can think of won't be voting Dem anyway.

But for the majority of liberals who also support the military, there is an added benefit: Clark can run with the mainstram on social issues--and the mainstream is liberal as Moore points out--while still appealing to "swing" voters.

[Walt Starr]

14. Clark is currently my top choice

Of course, everybody else in the field is now a close second.

[jiacinto]

2. Good point

But given how many people here have a knee-jerk hatred of the military and think all sodliers are "baby killers" it may be hard to reach them.

[el_gato]

7. well when you repeat that to yourself over and over

it's easy to believe carlos

but there is a big difference between understanding teh true nature of the military industrial complex and views about rank and file troops

I wish you could understand that.

[sendero]

18. Gee-zus

You know, a typical Republican dirty trick is to take a statement made by the extremists in our party and cast it as a mainstream position of the party.

It sucks when they do it, and it sucks when you do it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. IT is time people on the left realize

that those soldiers are needed and that they need us too

Look my hubby is in the Navy, for not too much longer thankfully, but
the things I hear is that troops are not happy, to put it midly, we
are their voice, but only if we choose to be their voice

[jiacinto]

4. it's kind of hard

when some people here have a knee-jerk hatred for the military.

[el_gato]

8. how many times areyou gonna repeat that

[CivilRightsNow]

9. How many times are you gonna ask him if he is gonna repeat it?

just curious.

[el_gato]

11. as many times as he repeats it

[Tinoire]

12. Carlos never gets tired of repeating himself. Just activate ignore

if it gets to you.

Those of us who were in the military or still are know how ludicrous his statement is but what the hell, it seems to make him so happy.

[Tinoire]

13. This is funny. I was in the military and never would have voted for Clark

the simplistic leap that soldiers can't think and that they'll automatically vote for a General is, well, too simplistic.

[John_H]

17. So you reject the notion that a soldier might be more likely to vote for

a fellow soldier than another candidate?

[HFishbine]

15. Rove

has his "hoes out in full attack mode against Clark?" Must be a set-up. They must think he'd be the easiest to beat.

[retyred]

19. They must think he'd be the easiest to beat.

The easiest to beat bush, you noticed it too?



retyred in fla
“good night paul, wherever you are”
So I read this book