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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   25097 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 25, 2023

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To be fair to the Democrats, they had no moral reason to fight fair after Kerry got swiftboated in 2004.

Weird example. Kerry was a worse candidate than Hillary, and he hoisted himself on his own petard by trying to run as a war hero when he was anything but. There was nothing shifty about swiftboating, unless using a candidate's own words and actions against him is now somehow sus.

He at least actually served in Vietnam, but he got railroaded by the campaign team that was fighting for a guy who spent the war safe in the US. Whether Kerry was a war hero or not I don't know, but Bush didn't even show up to the war.

Kerry was a better candidate than Hillary, and by the fundamentals, is the best 'losing candidate' (not counting 2000 for either side) in recent political history. Remember, the War wasn't unpopular yet, the economy was still fine, and Dubya still barely won. Honestly, the GOP should've seen that as a problem back then that John Kerry almost beat them, as opposed to treating it as a mandate and trying to privatize Social Security.

trying to run as a war hero when he was anything but

I can't believe I'm leaping to Kerry's defense, of all people, but based on my memories of reviewing his service record, he's much closer to war hero than pretender.

They really did him dirty.

I’ve just read the Swiftboat Vets article on Wikipedia and their own website. I can see where both sides made points and both left out details. One point which seems pertinent to me is how the Swiftboat Vets group claims they include people who were his peers and superiors, while the vets who joined Kerry’s campaign tour were his subordinates. But never having served myself, I can’t evaluate the events some fifty years ago other than as a civilian citizen hearing everything thirdhand or worse.

I don’t disparage vets for their service, but Kerry did after he got back, and that’s the part I can’t fault the Swiftboat Vets for emphasizing.

I mean we're talking about the same John Kerry that threw his Vietnam medals over the Whitehouse fence but magically had them back to display on his office wall in Congress, right?

Did the majority of the mainstream media join in the swiftboating, or was it just basically Fox News, talk radio and right-wing blogs?

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