Veterans and Political Partisanship Just Don't Mix

Political partisanship in this country has descended to a level reserved for those who insist they are right, even when the facts speak against them.  The result is that political debate has become political shouting matches, and the gift of the Internet means that any yahoo with an opinion will voice it. 

What is particularly disturbing is the venomous and vituperative tone such opinions have taken on.  One envisions an editor or a writer pounding the keyboard, while foaming spittle flies onto the monitor screen.  It is not really opinion any more, it is screed. 

And both sides are extremely guilty. 

Inference and innuendo has now been replaced by outright accusations that result from Internet hearsay.  In other words, somebody made a WAG [Wild A**ed Guess] about someone, and sent it whispering down the lane of the Internet. 

Albert Einstein wrote, "It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs."  He is correct.  But the active word in play here is "validity".  Owners and editors of Internet Sites are not News Reporters [though even that term has become something different these days], or News Editors.  They write "opinion pieces" and make them out to be breaking news stories of terrible things done by members of the political opposition…and no argument is tolerated…"it’s the truth about those hypocrites!  It comes from reliable sources…inside sources!"

Actually the national news media does a fine job of sniffing out the foibles of our elected and appointed officials, thank you, further sliming is wholly unnecessary.  

Besides, what is gained by such smearing on the part of the Internet writers?  The reputation that they can dig deeper than the media can?  To what end?  A scandal is a scandal, and no matter what, the other party will get caught doing the same thing — or worse! 

But when this is done by an organization with the best interests of the Veteran supposedly at heart, something has gone horribly wrong.  The late, great American philosopher and humorist Will Rogers once called politics "applesauce."  But he also wrote, "The more you read and observe about this politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that’s out always looks the best."  We think Rogers is dead on target.  We also believe that when it comes to Veterans neither party stands on high ground.  Indeed, both parties treatment of Veterans, and that is treatment by partisans of both parties in Presidential Administrations, Federal Court Appointees, and in Congress, is absolutely abysmal.

We have three Federal Holidays memorializing and Celebrating American Veterans and their accomplishments, yet not one single administration [with varied and few exceptions] has done anything to stop the degrading slide in governmental esteem toward the American Veteran.  Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt made the Doughboys of WW I wait 18 years before they got their Veterans Bonus money, a hideously insulting tactic from which the current day "Delay, Deny until they die!" comes from.  The Veterans waited fourteen years, marched on Washington DC and were brutalized by Army troops under the Command of General Douglas MacArthur.  It took four more years before Franklin Roosevelt was given the opportunity to make things right, and give the men their bonuses.  Despite pleas from his wife Eleanore, he still vetoed the legislation which Congress, then in an election year, overrode!  For those keeping score that is three Republican Presidents, one Democratic President, and one Republican General. 

Are you starting to get our drift here?  On a more modern note, we note that President G. H. W. Bush advanced and signed the Agent Orange Act of 1991, one of the positive exceptions.  It did not take a march on Washington to do this, but from the end of the Vietnam War era, to 1991, Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan were in office…three Republicans and one Democrat who over a twenty year period, ignored the Agent Orange issue. 

Then in 1993, The Clinton administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs began dismantling the Agent Orange Act of 1991 by declaring, without a shred of scientific evidence, that the Air Force was not eligible for presumptive exposure to herbicides because, hey, they flew over it, and  therefore did "…not serve in Vietnam."  Clinton, a Democrat, was followed by G. W. Bush, a Republican who implemented a Clinton VA Legal precedent that did the exact same thing to the Navy: "You did not serve IN Vietnam."  Bush’s successor, Barack Obama has not changed the policies or mindset of the Department of Veterans Affairs one inch to the positive.  Indeed, shortly after Obama took office in January two policy clarifications were issued further restricting the Blue Water Navy Veterans from possible benefits under the Agent Orange Act of 1991, and currently that same Obama Department of veterans Affairs is fighting a disinformation war in Congress against HR 2254, the Agent Orange Equity Act of 2009, which would undo the Clinton, Bush, and Obama changes and restore the benefits that were once paid to those Veterans. 

Lacking so far in the examples is any discussion of Congress and the Courts.  In the case of the Courts, the record is clear that they seldom rule against the government and for the Veterans.  An exception is the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims that for the past few years has been fighting a pro-Veteran battle with limited scope, as defined by Congressional law. 

As for Congress, their absence in all of this is deafening.  They have sat idly by while the Administrations of both parties, and courts, have abused and misused Veterans laws to the point of an extremely adversarial attitude toward Veterans. 

In case anyone missed it, the point here is that party simply does not matter when it comes to Veterans Affairs.  What matters is not even whether Democrats or Republicans are in office, but simply who holds the power…that is, which individuals are in the White House, the Speaker’s chair, and the floor and caucus leaders in the House and Senate.  That is all that matters.  Why?  Because there is absolutely nothing partisan about treating Veterans the way they should be treated by the Government.  And, conversely, there is absolutely nothing partisan in the way the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the US Government currently treats its Veterans. It transcends partisan politics.   

Party affiliation is, and always has been irrelevant when it comes to Veterans Issues, no matter what your Congressional, Senatorial, or Presidential candidate says. 

And if the elected officials of our country are not careful, [and their history shows them to be careless about this] continued mistreatment will cause enlistments to dry up when young people see that Veterans more often than not do not get treated the way they should by the Government.  Who, then, will fight the nation’s wars? Draftees?  That worked in WW I, and WW II, and in Korea, but it failed miserably in Vietnam…so miserably that the Pentagon went to an all-volunteer Army for the post-Vietnam Wars and actions. 

We have said here repeatedly, ”It is a stain on this nation’s honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."  Indeed, dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs is likely a cause and/or aggravating factor in Veterans PTSD illnesses.  That is not a joke, it is a reality.  The veteran faces a "hamster wheel" effect of denials, appeals, remands, denials, appeals and remands, etc. that can take as long as ten or more years to resolve.  Imagine, a sick and dying Veteran being forced to go through the same arguments over and over while the DVA plays games with his claim.  It is depressing, humiliating, frustrating, enraging, and when it happens repeatedly is a likely stressor for PTSD.  And no, this is not an exception; it has become the norm, especially for cases that are not direct combat wounds.  There are far too many "anecdotal stories" for the problem to be anecdotal. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs mindset is a house built by both parties in a truly long term bi-partisan effort.  Eschewing partisanship when talking Veterans Affairs is the honest thing to do, and raises the level of discourse above the level where we are now, which is wholly and totally ineffective.  After all, do we not all pledge to leave no one behind?  Then why ruin the reputation of an organization with constant partisan smearing and invective? 

Do folks really think politicians don’t read what the major Veterans websites say? 

A friend once told me "The Veterans worst enemy is another Veteran."  When we are sidetracked from the larger issues this comes into play.  When egos are involved, this comes into play.  When partisanship is involved, this comes into play.  All Veterans should be focused on the issues, not the parties or even the individual shortcomings of those in office or, especially, those who are out of office. 

Don’t spit on the door step before you enter or you won’t be welcomed.

Finally, a comment about general partisanship: partisan invective may not be intended to destroy a political party, but a consequence could be just that.  Then guess what?  The result is one party rule.  Like German National Socialism in the 1930s to 1945.  Like Soviet Communism almost all of the 20th Century, like we see now in Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, North Korea, and China.  That is one party rule.  The destroyed party becomes simply, "the opposition," never getting voice in the government, or the press, never having a say in how the nation is governed.   Are we really trying to change the President’s title to “Dear One”? 

Anyone who favors that is not a Patriotic American.  Any Veteran who desires that end shames not only his own service, but the service of all others who have gone before him. 

There is no good reason for radical extremism in politics.  Zealotry, and that is what it is, is self destructive to its own end.   It is long past time to put away the invective and rhetoric and restore a semblance of decency to our national discourse.  Let’s start with restoring civil discourse to Veterans affairs and issues.  We can accomplish much more that way that is positive for Veterans, and therefore, for the nation. 

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation’s honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."– VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Bush Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"–VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." —President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."–President George Washington

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