Remember how Bill Clinton was always referred to as a “draft dodger”?
Or how we all slagged Barack Obama for not saluting a Marine when getting off the helicopter?[1]
Or how none of us liberals “support” the “troops”?[2]
Hold that thought, because it’s time to play yet another round of IOKIYAR!
The Current Occupant was inspired recently to personally pin a Purple Heart medal onto Army SFC Alvaro Barrientos, where he congratulated the young man, whose leg had been amputated, telling him it was “tremendous.” Just tremendous, not yooge? But I digress.
The Current Occupant’s brain, from my observations, seems to be pretty binary: A/NOT A. There is no B, and Cthulhu help the rest of the alphabet. He sees winning and not winning. The young man won a Purple Heart. He was to be congratulated for winning. Simple.
The idea that perhaps the young man would rather have his leg than the ribbon, that there might be more layers to this man’s experience, that perhaps other words might better express the Commander in Chief’s appreciation for a citizen’s service/sacrifice, never entered the Current Occupant’s brain.
So “Congratulations!… Tremendous!” it is.
Now imagine, if you will, if Barack Obama had handed a Purple Heart to a wounded soldier—let’s say, for the fun of it, a white boy from North Carolina—as if he were getting the immunity idol instead of being voted off the island.[3] Imagine how Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly or god help us Michelle Malkin would have reacted. Imagine the huffing and puffing on the Sunday circus shows from Mitch McConnell or Lindsey Graham or John McCain.
How do you think the rightwing Wurlitzer is reacting to this tone-deaf gaffe?
- crickets
- crickets
- crickets
- dead crickets
- all of the above
Take all the time you need.
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[1] Which, as a civilian, the President is not supposed to do. Reagan, that Great Pretender, was the first to pull that stunt.
[2] Limited to bumper stickers, yellow ribbons, and yelling at hippies. Funding veterans healthcare or GI Bill not included. Prosthetics sold separately.
[3] Imagery used deliberately.