Ricochet: We’re Veterans, Not Victims

Most of America is celebrating Veterans Day. But several progressives can’t join the rest of us in giving a simple “thank you” to the millions of men and women who guaranteed our freedoms.

​For example, Salon.com featured an article titled “You don’t protect my freedom: Our childish insistence on calling soldiers heroes deadens real democracy”:

Put a man in uniform, preferably a white man, give him a gun, and Americans will worship him. It is a particularly childish trait, of a childlike culture, that insists on anointing all active military members and police officers as “heroes.” The rhetorical sloppiness and intellectual shallowness of affixing such a reverent label to everyone in the military or law enforcement betrays a frightening cultural streak of nationalism, chauvinism, authoritarianism and totalitarianism, but it also makes honest and serious conversations necessary for the maintenance and enhancement of a fragile democracy nearly impossible.

Written by a walking mullet named David Masciotra, this must have killed at his community college’s open mic night in 1987.

Give David a keytar and he’s the opening act for Dave Koz and Candy Dulfer at Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino. But his style isn’t the only embarrassment. After being roundly mocked for his article on Twitter, he fought back for awhile, then cancelled his account, then came back, then cancelled it again.

​At least Masciotra’s open hatred of the military is honest in its own way. It’s no surprise that a guy too cowardly to keep a social media account open isn’t the biggest fan of this nation’s warrior class. More insidious is the left’s infantilization of our armed forces.

Democrats learned the hard way that burning flags and spitting on returning soldiers only enrages voters. The Left is still trying to undo the political damage from the early 1970s. They still aren’t fans of the military, but know that they have to look like they are. So you get backhanded compliments like this:

Happy Veterans Day. If you’d like to thank a US vet to their face you can probably just google ‘nearest homeless shelter.’ — John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) November 11, 2014

The former replacement co-host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” couldn’t just wish veterans like me a good day. He had to tack on a political sermonette denouncing cruel America while flaunting his superior morality. But Fugelsang clumsily reveals the rhetorical trick today’s Democrats use with the military.

The only way a progressive can praise a veteran is to treat him as a victim.

Fist pumping as female pilots drop ordinance on medieval misogynists is déclassé. Whooping as the Blue Angels roar over a football stadium is too jingoistic. Sure, the SEALs just ventilated Osama bin Laden’s head, but can’t we talk about root causes?

Try as they might, liberals can’t simply praise a patriotic group of honor-bound Americans who secure our constitutional freedoms through violence or the threat thereof. To view our fighting men and women as anything but moral monsters, the Left needs to grant them victimhood. The homeless man who can’t find work, the injured amputee whose nation abandoned him, the woman who got PTSD in a greedy war for oil.

​Look, progressives: you don’t need to look up to veterans; we fought for a free country after all. But we’ll be damned if you look down on us. We aren’t pathetic victims requiring pity from soft-headed, smooth-handed naifs sipping artisanal kombucha on the coasts. If you feel the need to say “Happy Veterans Day, but…” just keep it to yourself.