Conservatives Love Talking About Honoring Veterans, But with an Unmistakable Political Agenda
As readers of this blog are all too aware, I waste a fair amount of time reading the social media profiles of MAGA cultists. I do this because I am morbidly fascinated by people who think of Donald Trump as superhuman when it has been established indelibly that he is sub-human.
I also have ADHD, so I spend way too much time delving deep into the scuzzy corners of the internet that I should ignore or stay away from.
Finally, I hate-read the online trails of Donald Trump superfans because it’s a rich source of blog topics.
Yesterday, for example, I went down a Facebook rabbit hole that eventually led to a meme proudly proclaiming, “We the People Declare June Veteran Appreciation Month.”
I found that confusing. Wouldn’t a patriot like the gentleman above be exhausted from spending thirty-one consecutive days appreciating the holy living fuck out of soldiers?
I have good news for this gentleman and everyone else who takes to Facebook to complain that there are months devoted to Pride and Black History but none for the brave men and women who risk their lives to pursue our foreign policy objectives.
There IS a whole month devoted to appreciating the military. And it just passed!
John McCain, whose military service Trump has consistently insulted, proposed a National Military Appreciation Month in 1999 that passed unanimously. Ninety-three Senators voted yes, and none voted no.
Why not do both?
May was chosen for National Military Appreciation Month because it includes Military Spouse Day, Memorial Day, Loyalty Day, and Armed Forces Day.
That’s a hell of a lot of appreciation! I hope soldiers appreciate how appreciated they are.
If the gentleman proposing June as Veteran Appreciation Month was genuinely concerned about ensuring we don’t forget the contributions of our armed forces, then he would obviously know that a month like the one he is proposing already exists.
But this flag-waving America-lover specifically wants June to be Veteran Appreciation Month for a very predictable reason: June is Pride month.
The maroon who posted the meme clearly thinks that it is wrong for the LGTBQ community to get their own month for being bold enough to live their truths in a world where homophobia is still rampant when soldiers have ostensibly been screwed over.
This half-wit wants the military and the LGTBQ to fight and for soldiers to win.
Oh, won’t someone think about the soldiers?
You see a lot of that on the right. Patriots are VERY concerned with the soldiers not being celebrated enough but often in a very specific, loaded context.
The Conservative mind is forever pitting soldiers, police officers, and firemen that they consider real heroes against people they see as wrongly celebrated, most notably the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and celebrities. Republicans revile our pathetic, empty obsession with celebrity, which explains their worship of Donald Trump.
I can’t count how many times I’ve seen a tater post about how no undocumented immigrant should receive a penny from the government when there are unhoused veterans.
This is another false dichotomy rooted in part in the collective delusion that when someone crosses the border illegally, Ed McMahon's ghost rewards them with a house, car, education, and an oversized novelty check for at least ten thousand dollars.
Conservatives can appreciate the fuck out of the military. They don’t need a special day or month to do so. Saying “people should help unhoused veterans” is basic human decency, but sneering about how all the money they imagine goes to undocumented immigrants should go to veterans instead is an empty political statement, the right-wing equivalent of virtue signaling.
It’s a false dichotomy epitomized by the kerfluffle that occurred almost a decade ago when Caitlyn Jenner won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs.
Caitlyn Jenner is a terrible human being, but it took real courage to come out as trans late in life in an often transphobic and cruel world. And Jenner is a legendary athlete with a whole bunch of gold medals she won for the United States. One could even say that Jenner served her country with pride by triumphing on a global stage for the red, white, and blue.
Many people were enraged when Jenner was given an award for courage. So a false rumor spread that Jenner won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, and Noah Galloway, a veteran who lost an arm and a leg in combat in the Iraq War and later became an inspirational speaker and Dancing with the Stars alumni, was the runner-up.
There is no runner-up for the Arthur Ashe Award. But Conservatives pretended that there was for the exhausted and exhausting imaginary battle between “real” heroes who fight in wars versus a wealthy celebrity and proud member of a transphobic party that isn’t about to go easy on her just because she’s on their side and appears to be only slightly less transphobic than the average Trump voter.
There’s nothing wrong with honoring soldiers, but Conservatives end up disrespecting the warriors they claim to revere by cynically using them as pawns to promote their political agenda.
Nathan needs teeth that work, and his dental plan doesn't cover them, so he started a GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-nathans-journey-to-dental-implants. Give if you can!
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