(Un)happy Veterans Day
If we're not careful, some of us will be veterans of a second civil war.
I’m not in a good mood today. I hate how Mondays always have to feel productive—even when it’s a holiday and there’s no work to be done. I can’t blame myself, though, this is how many Americans structure their lives: Work, weekend (if you’re lucky), work; lather, rinse, repeat; eat, pray, love (or hate—if you’re a Trumper). My own routine is turning into drink, complain, write because I’m too disgusted to eat on most days, too unemployed to work, and too godless to pray. The “love” part is also a struggle: I don’t have a lot of love for my country right now.
Yet, it would be wrong to allow my bad attitude to influence my coverage of the Veterans Day holiday. So, ignore my whining and worrying about creeping fascism and our sinking democracy—let’s celebrate! Sound the trumpets and commence the ritualistic flag-waving. Watch a good war movie. Proudly wear red, white, and blue—even though they don’t look good together, and you have no fucking clue what any of them symbolize (hint: red does not stand for Republican). Paint your face like you’re at a football game. Put up a flag in front of your house to remind everyone which country you live in. Attach another flag to your car window to remind everyone which country you’re driving over. Thank every vet you come across like they just served you a cup of a coffee. (I would bet my favorite rifle that no civilian who goes around thanking uniformed strangers for “their service” could even guess which war they served in.) These are just a few suggestions on how to celebrate. You do you.
I, for one, plan to go beyond lip service and ask military friends and family members what they could possibly see in Donald Draft Dodge, who made up a bullshit “bone spurs” excuse to avoid serving in Vietnam—which could have had the added benefit of preventing Agent Orange from ever serving as POTUS. (The Vietnamese are serious fighters: They aren’t soft-ass Democrats. Trump would have had no chance.) Is this really the kind of leader that people willing to sacrifice their lives for their country want and deserve? If the 2024 election data don’t lie, the answer is yes.
Also, President Bone Spurs didn’t just chicken out when his number was called, he also had the nerve to insult those who answered. Donald Dodge skipped a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetary in France because he allegedly didn’t want to get his (alleged) hair wet and reportedly called fallen war heroes “losers” and “suckers.” Agent Orange denied this, but if you’ve been following him closely, you know it’s on brand. Can anyone picture him reflecting on war veterans’ noble sacrifice with tears in his eyes? I sure can’t. He’s probably more upset that Hitler lost.
Then, there was that time back in 2015, when Underdog Donald was well on his way to hijacking the flailing Republican Party: Trump called the late Senator John McCain a “loser” for his defeat in the 2008 election and, in response to a member of the audience, went on to question McCain’s service in Vietnam: “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”
I thought Donald Douche was finished after this—not finished talking shit but finished as a Republican presidential candidate. I didn’t think veterans, one of the few groups that the Republican Party at least pretends to care about, would stand for it. But they did stand for it: Veterans voted for Trump in large margins. One septuagenarian with a VFW hat was even ready to stand up and fight me at a dive bar for mocking his Fuhrer not long after the attacks on McCain.
Say what you will about the late McCain, he at least had honor.
I hope veterans will come to realize that times have changed: This is not the party of Eisenhower, McCain, or even Reagan. The Republicans are no longer loyal or patriotic in any substantive way. They answer to Trump—not the Constitution or the people—and Trump answers only to himself (and Putin).
While I am grateful for the service of every veteran, I hope they will continue to serve us when and if the time comes to defend the people and the Constitution from “all enemies foreign and domestic” (emphasis mine). The easy way would have been to vote differently, but we lost that opportunity: Now we’re stuck with the hard way.
I just hope I still have freedom of expression on Veterans Day 2025.