GOING UNDERCOVER
A funny thing happened recently when I signed up for comment posting privileges Daily Kos, the left-wing nutcase blog, and began posting comments. My first post was around Christmas, when I commented that people should go to a "progressive" church and wrote "God bless you." Someone commented on my comment, saying only "Who is this guy?" Apparently they were surprised that someone would have a positive interest in religion and visit that website.
My second post was more nefarious. I commented on one of the "fighting Dem" stories, which feature liberal veterans running for office. I noted (consistent with liberal values, I might add) that people who have served in the military should not hold public office. After all, anyone who would willingly go slaughter innocents, kick in doors in the middle of the night, and sexually assault random females in Iraq (like all the other troops) is not particularly "progressive," and therefore should not play a role in the Democrat party. The regulars were not pleased. The first response said "Do you want us to lose?" (Never mind that the principle that veterans shouldn't serve in government is totally abhorrent.) Other posts followed, basically calling me an out of touch "revolutionary" (which is now apparently passe). I responded that Adolf Hitler served in the military before holding public office (he was also a vegetarian, by the way), and that this proves the point that you can't trust military hawks in positions of power. After that, the other posters flagged my comment for the "parent," who thereafter prevented me from posting and erased all my previous posts.
I acted as an honest liberal, and now I'm banned from Daily Kos for life. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
My second post was more nefarious. I commented on one of the "fighting Dem" stories, which feature liberal veterans running for office. I noted (consistent with liberal values, I might add) that people who have served in the military should not hold public office. After all, anyone who would willingly go slaughter innocents, kick in doors in the middle of the night, and sexually assault random females in Iraq (like all the other troops) is not particularly "progressive," and therefore should not play a role in the Democrat party. The regulars were not pleased. The first response said "Do you want us to lose?" (Never mind that the principle that veterans shouldn't serve in government is totally abhorrent.) Other posts followed, basically calling me an out of touch "revolutionary" (which is now apparently passe). I responded that Adolf Hitler served in the military before holding public office (he was also a vegetarian, by the way), and that this proves the point that you can't trust military hawks in positions of power. After that, the other posters flagged my comment for the "parent," who thereafter prevented me from posting and erased all my previous posts.
I acted as an honest liberal, and now I'm banned from Daily Kos for life. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
posted by Jeffrey | 10:57 AM
2 Comments:
If I might...
Kennedy was a liberal, and a WWII vet. Sure, he wasn't perfect, by any means, and partly responsible for Vietnam, but there you go. There have been plenty of examples, I think, of both noble and ignoble military veterans. Simply casting all servicemen in the same light is like saying that ALL human beings are uniformly good or bad, and it's the same kind of thinking that created such deep divides in the Vietnam Era.
I, myself, am a serviceman, and a proud liberal. Now, I can't say that my ideology doesn't conflict with my orders sometimes, but that's my burden, and my duty to reconcile. I will not be brainwashed, any more than I will be made to feel guilt for serving. Sometimes we must engage the institutions we oppose on their own grounds, so that when we leave them, we may better understand what about those institutions needs to change.
Am I going to make this a career? Probably not. Am I proud to have served? Yes. Have I become more liberal because of my service? Absolutely. I don't believe that denying servicemen the chance to hold public office is necessarily consistent with liberal values. Rather, I believe it's consistent with only ONE interpretation of liberal values, and it goes directly in the face of that most venerable of liberal principles: tolerance for all.
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