We'll need every vote we can get this November. Talk of a "cakewalk" is misguided and potentially fatal. When we look at every vote, that means the pro-military vote too. Historically, we've let the Right say that supporting our troops means voting Republican. I propose a new meme for November: If you're pro-military, you're against the war.
Message to swing voters:
If you're FOR the military, you're AGAINST the war.
I don't know if someone is already repeating this like a mantra, but I haven't heard it yet. If I'm just late to this party and it's been diaried or been done, let me know and I'll put my shoulder behind that wheel. But here's how months of reading on this site crystallized into one simple thought.
If you're FOR the military, you're AGAINST the war.
Those words came to me while i was reading this diary yesterday. Thinking about Clinton's tragic vote in favor of the war, I was reminded of the amazing VetVoice diaries, the unforgettable stories of testvet6778, and the heart-wrenching IGTNT diaries. (If you haven't read the IGNT diaries, please do so now. We call this a "reality-based" community, and those diaries bring reality into sharper focus than anything else I've seen.)
And I recalled this eye-opening diary about phone-banking for Obama, which laid bare the simple conversations that can sway potential voters, one at a time. It's the framing, stupid. The simple but memorable things we can drop into conversations - leavened with a great deal of listening too, of course - that stick in people's minds and may ultimately swing them.
If you're FOR the military, you're AGAINST the war.
I grew up in Canada, identifying myself pretty strongly as a pacifist and a liberal. I assumed, in my ignorance, that most military people were hawks. It was only when I met soldiers and veterans personally, and heard them talk about what serving this country meant to them, that I started to be curious about military culture and institutions.
As so eloquently conveyed by the veterans who blog here (links above) and elsewhere, the military is not a machine, it's people. It's a community. As former USMC Commandant Jim Jones once said "we don't man equipment, we equip men."
Let's make it clear to independents and swing voters that if you care about the military, your only choice in this election is to vote for Democrats.