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Posted On: 12/04/2020 8:56:11 PM
Post# of 124747
Not gonna happen……
Adm. Steve Abbot Trump says the military will vote for him. But he lost their support long ago.
Trump treats the armed forces as just another entity he can manipulate for political purposes. That's alienated the troops and the top brass alike.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s...cna1245542
So now the 2020 election is a completely different ball game for military and veteran voters. The president recently commented that the troops love him, but the Pentagon brass don’t.
So why is it that Trump is losing the military vote now? Since 2016, several major trends have helped turn the tide. The first is the treatment by the administration of our friends and allies, most notably the disparagement of NATO and its leaders. The second is the president’s relationship with autocrats and dictators.
Many active service members and veterans found Trump’s interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin both troubling and puzzling. What would cause the president to say he trusted Putin more than his intelligence professionals? And what did the president accomplish in his chummy relationship with North Korean despot Kim Jung Un other than a more unstable environment in East Asia?
I served Republican presidents who had principles. Trump doesn't, so I'm backing Biden.
More recently, there’s the mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic by the administration and its devastating impact on military families. Additionally, there are the orders Trump gave the military to act on his personal behalf when he used force to clear protesters from Lafayette Square on June 1 so he could have a photo-op on the steps of St. John’s Episcopal Church, accompanied by Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Milley later apologized for his involvement after the incident was roundly criticized by several senior retired military officers.
And, as presaged by his attacks on McCain, the president’s derogatory comments about our soldiers and sailors have only gotten worse. Last month, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported that Trump called Americans who died in war “suckers.”
When the commander in chief was scheduled to visit an overseas American military cemetery, he mused to an adviser, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” before canceling his visit altogether.
So now the 2020 election is a completely different ball game for military and veteran voters. The president recently commented that the troops love him, but the Pentagon brass don’t.
His words reflect an attitude that the military is just another entity he can manipulate for political purposes, further harming the traditional relationship between the president as commander in chief and our nation’s military leadership and forces. In the vernacular and at its core, Trump is attacking the foundation of the civilian-military relationship.
All this is to say that Trump’s actions toward our service members have not gone unnoticed, neither by civilians nor by military personnel. Polling confirms just that.
Our nation needs a leader who respects our military and understands the great sacrifice of our servicemen and women, not one who thinks of them as “losers.”
Veterans and active-duty members of the military are intelligent, well-informed and capable of making their own decisions at the ballot box. I, for one, have decided that we need a new commander in chief. That’s why I signed onto a letter with more than 200 other retired generals and admirals endorsing Biden for president.
Many of us have decided that Trump has crossed a line. Our nation needs a leader who respects our military and understands the great sacrifice of our servicemen and women, not one who thinks of them as “losers.”
Adm. Steve Abbot Trump says the military will vote for him. But he lost their support long ago.
Trump treats the armed forces as just another entity he can manipulate for political purposes. That's alienated the troops and the top brass alike.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s...cna1245542
So now the 2020 election is a completely different ball game for military and veteran voters. The president recently commented that the troops love him, but the Pentagon brass don’t.
So why is it that Trump is losing the military vote now? Since 2016, several major trends have helped turn the tide. The first is the treatment by the administration of our friends and allies, most notably the disparagement of NATO and its leaders. The second is the president’s relationship with autocrats and dictators.
Many active service members and veterans found Trump’s interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin both troubling and puzzling. What would cause the president to say he trusted Putin more than his intelligence professionals? And what did the president accomplish in his chummy relationship with North Korean despot Kim Jung Un other than a more unstable environment in East Asia?
I served Republican presidents who had principles. Trump doesn't, so I'm backing Biden.
More recently, there’s the mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic by the administration and its devastating impact on military families. Additionally, there are the orders Trump gave the military to act on his personal behalf when he used force to clear protesters from Lafayette Square on June 1 so he could have a photo-op on the steps of St. John’s Episcopal Church, accompanied by Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Milley later apologized for his involvement after the incident was roundly criticized by several senior retired military officers.
And, as presaged by his attacks on McCain, the president’s derogatory comments about our soldiers and sailors have only gotten worse. Last month, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported that Trump called Americans who died in war “suckers.”
When the commander in chief was scheduled to visit an overseas American military cemetery, he mused to an adviser, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” before canceling his visit altogether.
So now the 2020 election is a completely different ball game for military and veteran voters. The president recently commented that the troops love him, but the Pentagon brass don’t.
His words reflect an attitude that the military is just another entity he can manipulate for political purposes, further harming the traditional relationship between the president as commander in chief and our nation’s military leadership and forces. In the vernacular and at its core, Trump is attacking the foundation of the civilian-military relationship.
All this is to say that Trump’s actions toward our service members have not gone unnoticed, neither by civilians nor by military personnel. Polling confirms just that.
Our nation needs a leader who respects our military and understands the great sacrifice of our servicemen and women, not one who thinks of them as “losers.”
Veterans and active-duty members of the military are intelligent, well-informed and capable of making their own decisions at the ballot box. I, for one, have decided that we need a new commander in chief. That’s why I signed onto a letter with more than 200 other retired generals and admirals endorsing Biden for president.
Many of us have decided that Trump has crossed a line. Our nation needs a leader who respects our military and understands the great sacrifice of our servicemen and women, not one who thinks of them as “losers.”
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