10/23/08

McCain’s military record doesn’t guarantee veterans’ votes

By Jennifer Smolen

As a combat veteran, I resent the rhetoric that John McCain and Sarah Palin are spewing, politicizing the senator’s military service. I also resent the opinion letters from veterans who want you to think that 1) the only people who make up a relevant military demographic are retired service members of historic generations or active duty soldiers, or 2) that all veterans are Republicans or McCain supporters. Not true, on both counts.

There are thousands of citizen soldiers and  military reserve personnel who have served at home and abroad for this nation of ours. We fought the same fight, for the right of each citizen to vote, even for the right of fear mongers like McCain/Palin and their supporters, to express themselves, no matter how errantly, divisively, or underhandedly.

Secondly, studies show that deployed service personnel, those who know the inside story of these two modern-day, irresponsible wars, have donated to the Obama campaign at a rate six times those who have donated to the McCain campaign. I’ll let you interpret why previous or assumed McCain supporters would contribute funds to Obama’s campaign and not McCain’s.

The fact is that our foreign policy has been handled like it’s a joke for the last 8 years. Our government’s standing among foreign nations (and our own citizens) is pathetically decreased, and our communities are starved for the chance to come together and leave behind partisan, divisive, nasty politics. McCain actually supported those misguided policies, as are evident from his voting record, and his appalling low-road campaign style. I am only one among many thousands of other past and present military veterans, combat and otherwise, who support Obama and Biden this year. We are commissioned and enlisted, active, National Guard, and Reserve, military families and spouses as well, who stepped up to activate in our nation’s defense. We are proud and eager to vote for Barack Obama.

I want to be proud to represent my country again, and I cannot be proud of the way John McCain and Sarah Palin are representing our country. John McCain was a prisoner of war. He served his nation honorably, according to most reports. But that doesn’t mean he is automatically our best option for president, nor that I support him blindly because of his service to country. Furthermore, I am an educated woman and--let me be crystal clear-- Sarah Palin does not represent me.

McCain supporters have argued in recent letters that Washington voters and veterans are disenfranchised. What Washington do they live in? I and community organizers nationwide and in Washington state, military vets among us, feel anything but disenfranchised, and have quite a different take on the issue. The differences are staggering between the two campaigns, in regard to the depth and breadth of supporter involvement in the workings of the campaign itself. Obama leads the way as an organizer. Again, he has chosen to work for the people/with the people, while John McCain tells us how much he cares for the veterans and tries to convince us he won’t bring a virtual third term of George W. Bush.

McCain supporters have also argued that the voters should be basing their votes on a comparison of the candidates’ voting records, as if by doing so, we’ll all see clearly that McCain/Palin is the best choice in November. This doesn’t help their argument any more than the “disenfranchised” hypothesis does. Barack Obama and Joe Biden voted in the Senate for “GI Bill 2008,” as this new version is called. Sarah Palin and many other governors endorsed it from their perspective. The bill was also endorsed by such legendary nationwide organizations as the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), American Legion, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) and Disabled American Veterans (DAV).

According to the official Senate roll-call vote, one-third of the yea votes that ultimately passed the bill were from Republicans. John McCain, however, is recorded as “not voting.” What can we learn about a candidate who campaigns on his past military service and his love and devotion to fellow veterans, but who doesn’t even cast a vote for the biggest military appreciation and recruitment tool since 1944?

Votes supporting a woman’s right to use her God-given intelligence to plan her family, and invite a child into this world when she is ready to do so, rather than become a “victim” of unplanned children with an unprepared lifestyle or household budget, is important. That means insurance companies covering contraception is important, as an intelligent common-sense planning option. (Dino Rossi opposes this, by the way.)

Co-sponsoring and passing revolutionary government ethics reform legislation in the U.S. Senate, which Obama did, is important. Working across the aisle to pass legislation for an online government search engine so the people of the United States can track federal money as easily as we can use Google, as Obama passed, is important. Working across the aisle to pass legislation providing tax credits that encourage gas stations to install refueling pumps for E85 ethanol, to start moving us away from foreign oil dependence, as Obama did, is important. And this is real action, not a campaign promise. This is Obama’s record.

This is where I, as a woman voter, small business owner, Iraq War veteran, and active participant in our vast political system, have cast my valuable vote. Snohomish County ballots have been issued. Our time is now. The world is ready for Barack Obama, and we can’t afford to wait any longer.        

Jennifer Smolen
Sergeant, US Army Reserve (2000-08)
Operation Iraqi Freedom Veteran
Marysville