Why do Republicans go after their opponents’ military records? In 2004, the “Swift Boats Veterans for Truth” went after Democratic candidate for president John Kerry over his Vietnam War military record. Next up was John McCain, a navy pilot whose plane was shot down over hostile territory in Vietnam. McCain was captured and held as a prisoner of war for more than five years. In 2015, Donald Trump went after McCain’s military record. The irony is Trump had secured for himself four college deferments and, later, a medical draft exemption. Donald Trump attacked McCain by saying something like, “I like people who weren’t captured.”
Currently, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the Democratic vice presidential nominee is being attacked by Republicans. JD Vance, the Ohio senator and Republican nominee for vice president, is attacking Walz’s 24-year military career. What gives? In the words of Joseph Welch, the lawyer who in 1954 asked then-Minnesota Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the hearings on un-American activities, “At long last, have you no decency?”
— Mike Grew
Anchorage
Have something on your mind? Send to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Letters under 200 words have the best chance of being published. Writers should disclose any personal or professional connections with the subjects of their letters. Letters are edited for accuracy, clarity and length.