Pressler writes: "As a combat veteran of two tours in Vietnam with twenty-two years of service as a Republican member of the U.S. House and Senate, I endorse President Barack Obama for a second term as our Commander-in-Chief."
Former Senator Larry Pressler, Republican of South Dakota. (photo: Jim Luce)
Why I, a Former GOP Senator, Will Vote for Obama
09 October 12
s a combat veteran of two tours in Vietnam with twenty-two years of service as a Republican member of the U.S. House and Senate, I endorse President Barack Obama for a second term as our Commander-in-Chief. Candidates publicly praise our service members, veterans and their families, but President Obama supports them in word and deed, anywhere and every time.
As a Vietnam vet, one of the reasons I support President Obama is because he has consistently shown he understands that our commitment to our servicemen and women may begin when they put on their uniform, but that it must never end.
This decision is not easy for any lifelong Republican. In 2008 I voted for Barack Obama, the first time I ever voted for a Democrat, because the Republican Party was drifting toward a dangerous path that put extreme party ideology above national interest. Mitt Romney heads a party remaining on that dangerous path, proving the emptiness of their praise as they abandon our service members, veterans and military families along the way.
What really set me off was Romney's reference to 47% of Americans to be written off - including any veteran collecting disability like myself, as a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) veteran.
Behind closed doors with his donors, Romney made clear he'd write off half of America - including service members and veterans - because, as he said "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility for their lives." But there's no greater personal responsibility than to wear your country's uniform and defend the rights we all enjoy as Americans. We don't sow division between "us" versus "them." The Commander-in-Chief sets the bar for all to follow and fight for the entire country. Mitt Romney fails that test. As a veteran I feel written off.
Just as revealing is what Romney actually says publicly. As a former Foreign Service Officer, I find it offensive that Romney, Congressman Paul Ryan and their Republican Party are politicizing the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other brave Americans who lost their lives in Libya. Being Commander-in-Chief requires a resolve and steadiness that's immune to politics and fear mongering. Mitt Romney fails that test.
And along with high-profile Republican surrogates, Romney and Ryan are pandering to election-year politics rather than focusing on pending cuts to military spending. Strategy should drive our military priorities, not party purity.
We are a nation at war - the longest war in our nation's history - and we must remember the sacrifice that so many have given for the protection of our country and our values. That's why it's so surprising that Republican nominee Mitt Romney has given five speeches on foreign policy - and will be giving another one today - and has yet to outline any plan to end the war in Afghanistan or bring our troops home. That's unacceptable for anyone running to be Commander-in-Chief.
President Obama ended one war, is ending another and meeting our national security needs with support of our military leaders. He's laid out a clear plan that would reduce the deficit and prevent the mandatory military spending cuts that no one wants. But today's Republican Party, including Ryan who voted for the deal that would trigger the cuts, is willing to bring our country's defenses to the fiscal cliff - just so a multimillionaire doesn't have to pay a single extra penny in taxes. And the real lack of leadership? Failing to own up to your role in racking up a record debt from two unpaid wars and two massive unpaid for tax cuts. Mitt Romney leads the party that fails this leadership test.
And as former member of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and Chairman of the then Commerce Committee, I came to know the federal budget in detail. I'm disappointed that just as our troops are returning home after a decade of war, Romney and Ryan might gut by up to 20 percent investments in the Department of Veterans Affairs - and even suggest privatizing the veterans' health care. Again, they would short change our national security and the education, health care and employment benefits our veterans have earned and deserve just to cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
Let's be clear, Romney and Ryan would be disastrous for America's service members, veterans and military families. Public praise rings hollow when you fail to mention an ongoing war in accepting your party's nomination to be president, or veterans in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a so-called jobs plan or in a budget that should be a blue print of our nation's values.
Meanwhile President Obama recognizes our sacred trust with those who serve starts when they take their oath and never ends. He's enacted tax credits to spur businesses to hire unemployed veterans and wounded warriors. He implemented and improved the post-9/11 GI Bill, the largest investment in veterans education since the original GI Bill over sixty years ago. He's proposing a Veterans Jobs Corps that would put returning service members to work as police officers, firefighters and first responders. As part of his achievable plan to keep moving our country forward, the President would use half the savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to help pay down our debt and invest in nation building here at home, putting Americans back to work - including our veterans - fixing our roadways and runways, bridges and schools.
And something that hits close to home, President Obama also secured the largest increase in VA investments in decades so our veterans get the care and benefits they earned, like treatment for PTSD and traumatic brain injury. As someone with service-related PTSD, I meet with younger veterans weekly to help them through the treatment and transition to a productive civilian life. It makes a difference for them knowing their President has their back.
That's the difference in this election. In word and deed anywhere and every time, President Obama never forgets that standing by those who serve is the heart, soul and core value of this country. As a life-long Republican, I stand by him as he stands by all of us, putting national allegiance ahead of party affiliation. I endorse President Obama for reelection in 2012.
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Comments
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Perhaps than Folks would wake up and put an end to the nonsense and our corrupt system of profiteering, endless wars, obfuscation of real facts or actual fairness/justic e? The Legitimate Rape of our banking and agricultural systems is leaving us environmentally and economically bankrupt. Nuclear power and weapons are causing much misery and illness.
Perhaps if it gets bad enough, people will change?
The time is NOW to choose love, and to demand change for a sane future. The alternative is a race to the bottom and allowing thugs to govern.
Romney makes a comment about Big Bird and the whole country goes into panic mode over cutting funding. The total is $445 Million for PBS which amounts to 0.01% of the budget or ONE Penney out of every $100. It is also how much is wasted in Afghanistan every few hours. BUT, not a WORD is said about the BILLIONS, and BILLIONS that Wall Street gets every year due to the loop holes the totally bought and paid for politicians have written into law. New QE3 gives $45 BILLION a month to banks to help with their crooked mortgage loans. Wouldn’t want them to lose even a penny on their risky loans, after they paid the company executives Millions in bonuses – just pass the losses off to the imbeciles that pay taxes.
Have been waiting 25 years for the Green Party to stop being elite and get really involved... Independents I understand and have hoped for but Americans just do not get it that we can have more than two parties...so when you can convince America to get rid of the other two, let me know. I cannot wait another 25 years.
quote]
How can this be the initial comment to such an inspirational and courageous stand by a Republican against his party's destructive policies? Are we so tone deaf in our Democratic echo chamber that we can't be moved by his clarion call for change in the Republican ranks? Have we become so one-sided that we cannot celebrate when a our flag is so cleanly unfurled? I am disappointed with this comment that I find unwelcomingly cynical.
Precisely my sentiment - I am surprised at the first off-the-subject several comments. Thank you vicnada, I agree.
It is also funny how no one ever has the proof of their being somewhere else. Bushie baby proved that, but then Daddy was his mentor and Daddy was too busy making money selling arms, drugs whatever else probably information
If Romney is thinking about going toe-to-toe for resource hegemony with China, another gaping hole then must be his lack of knowledge about needed domestic infrastructure and transport policy innovations allowing for less call on imported resources...
Instead of Naval Tonnage, why does Romney not verbalize water resource engineering to recharge aquifers as described in the massive NAWAPA projects?
Facing Peak Oil and upward oil price trajectory, transport shortcomings in the United States stem from overzealous removal of railway connections and branch feeder lines. These rail closures were hurriedly effected as the US Freeway system came into service through the Nixon and Reagan administrations , Alaskan oil helping justify the process of railway line extinction.
Please Mssrs. Obama & Romney, be sure to include generic railway savvy people in your circle as you formulate ways and means of assuring ability to step back from Muslim oil and being hostage to the World oil market price/supply squeeze.
Romney was on a religious mission? Is that what one calls draft dodging if one's cult is big enough? What was 5-deferrment Cheney's excuse?
We are in a perpetual state of war because neocon's, too good to fight to their country, see lowering taxes while bleeding off money for wars in order to run up huge budget deficits as a way to to downsize a government they hate.
We always have money to throw at greedy wastrels and for foreign wars but never enought to spend on those who pay the freight and those maimed in the service of their country. It is difficult to accept that half the population is swayed by policies that have ruined us and will continue to do so while vulture capitalists destroy education, offshore jobs, conceal tax returns, hide profits in the Cayman Islands and let our vaunted infrastructure crumble.
Since when did economic treason and tyranny become the American way simply because greedy swine wrap themselves in a flag they are too good to fight for?
Seems to have started around 1981, but really got rolling in 2001.
I think it actually got started during and after WWII when the upper class figured out just how much money they could make fighting the scourge of Communism and socialism. Ike figured it out and warned us all in his parting speech to the nation. And it did not take the Military Industrial Complex very long to kill the next President that wanted to keep us out of profitable boots on war in Vietnam... since then I think every one of them have known the potential consequences of confronting the MIC directly and have been careful enough to at least let them make weapons at our expense even if we'll never, ever use them.
What a great comment, so true and well stated.
Thank you.
Now we need you to make these same statements all over the Corporate-Contr olled Media and show up at campaigns for Progressives (have some real impact, do something).
Quote:...Not to mention the non-military, non-millionaire citizenry who would also be edged into non-existence via the promised cuts, de-funding, and deregulation central to the Ryan-Romeny-Rov e-Rand (4R) party , should it win the auction and acquire the U.S.
We could wake up with Mitt the Flip 'severely' in charge, playing President - learning RL on the job. (Repealing Obama Care on Day 1?) Maybe he'd remind England that they don't know how to organize an Olympics, hold a press conference from a "clean coal" mine, praise farmers & Monsanto corn and then call his friend Netanyahu to say the deal is on: "I like firing at people". Back to Poland to remind Lech Walesa that unions are the root of all evil, then home to Caymans to feed the dog and rotate the cars & cash. Then a UN appearance to explain things.
Can we interrupt this nightmare and throw some cold water on the face of those who have not paid attention long enough to notice the nonstop lies & self-contradict ions of the Mittster? Hypocrite-in-ch ief. Positions by etch-a-sketch, uninformed by any notions of public service to THE PEOPLE. He knows the profit$ of war- but will cut support for veterans. "Severely"
What totally disgusted me about Bush, was how he always used the military as a backdrop, when he was making speeches to the nation, and while mouthing that he appreciated their service...he was cutting funding, for their care when they returned from war damaged in body and soul.
When they could no longer serve, they were dispensable, and an inconvenience.
Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Biden are working hard to help Military families. Obama is doing much to improve their conditions. Frankly I think he would like to end the Afghan nightmare now, but you KNOW that the republicans would scream bloody murder, if he did.
I hate war, but IF you wage war, you MUST care for the men and women you send to fight it
This is not a war, X Dane, it's an Occupation. Why are we still there? The original mission was to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. But, just as in Iraq, we're building roads and schools and trying to change how the Afghans perceive us - NATION BUILDING I believe they call it. It's time to come home.
There is no difference between the two
candidates as regards
Kill list/drones
Tar Sand pipeline
Indefinite detention
Arctic drilling
Fracking
violation of 1st Amendment
licking the asses of big corporations
Make this election an election about
moral and ethical issues and vote
Jill Stein/Green Party and look
your grandchildren in the eyes.
There is a substantial portion of the hard right who literally WANT the end of the world to happen in their lifetime because they think they'll be "raptured" and not have to face the consequences.
100% of them vote.
100% of them vote a straight repug ticket.
Repug politicians pander to them. Many repugs are members of this group.
You forgot to mention a few issues:
WWIII involving Iran and Pakistan (then, who knows?)
Social Security
Medicare
Medicaid
student aid
public schools
public infrastructure
THERE IS A HUGE DIFFERENCE.
cont.
If you want a 3rd party you'll need to change the electoral process to make it more like it is in Europe. You'll need a Constitutional Amendment to do this. I'll sign the petition.
Until then, THE ONLY WAY to elect the Green Party is to REPLACE the Democratic Party. The election can be between:
1. Green & Repug
2. Democrat and Repug
3. Repug and a bunch of other little parties who can't work together.
What do you think we can get done in the next 3 weeks?
There's only one way your logic makes any sense from a strategic standpoint. That's if you want President Romney to begin a war with Iran in January.
Otherwise, you're sabotaging our country.
They had 'their agendas' so no one got anywhere, and were ignored. Some great people have been in Citizen Groups, Concerned Groups and stood up and got into local community government, then proceed to State. When these groups have shown what they can do, the American People will start voting. We can have three even five parties.. Or perhaps we will finally just get rid of the two who are becoming way to look a like to me.
One must make Laws, make themselves known before we can get majority to vote for them. Greens, Independents, Libertarians and whomever must remember we are not looking for more elitists, we are tired of one percenters. We want meat and potatoes...sad thing is you have been offered Candidates esp Independents that are such, we ignored because...they were not known. No more gravy, then lets get working on 2016 Now
You mention that horrendous tar sands pipeline. If you believe in science at all, you can NOT be for that. James Hansen, NASA climate scientist, one of our finest, has said that if the tar sands will flow into our country.....IT IS GAME OVER FOR THE PLANET !!!
The republicans have never let up on pressuring Obama to have the pipeline built. He did want to let more studies go forward. I am not totally sure where it stands at the moment.
To the republicans it doesn't matter if the world gets irreversibly damaged, as long as they make a profit, they can take that with them to hell. The tars sands IS DANGEROUS POISON and should STAY under ground.
We have to stop this...
Romney does not care if they follow guidelines. OB is still naivete and thinks that Big Oil will
We just do not pay attention to why Canada is in trouble with it. We do not listen to Bible. Nor do we seem to care about anything...
As much as I would like to do that-make that stand- put myself out of the fray, the need to get my hands dirty, I am going to vote for Obama. because some real people I don't know and will probably never meet will benefit from things he has done and hopefully will keep dong, especially if the Dems control congress and have the guts to use that control! I will of course continue to oppose the drift of fascism, drone war, continuing war, the official history, and many other things I have been opposing for a very long time. but 'Gott Mitt Uns' would deliver this country to the mercies of corporate dismemberment via 'privatization' of every public good and then the only thing holding us together would be our shared misery and the security apparatus to keep us in our places.
Why instead of running for the highest office in the land is Romney not running from the Justice Department? I will say he and his accomplices have certainly not returned the money they stole.Our vets watched as Romney's party lied and have killed off thousands of Americans so Iraq can have a civil war and the Afghan can kill off as many as they can creep up on.Senator help end the war.
There really is ONE intelligent Republican!!!!
He's no longer in office.
So vast is their hatred of Obama that if Romney said he would guillotine (which he will economically) everyone below the 1%, they would still vote for him just to get rid of Obama.
These are the same forces that have been rabid since the New Deal and they have joined forces with the "Rapture Now" crowd. So what we have now is effectively a Capitalist Party of the Taliban on the right.
Thank you for your honesty and courage; most of all, thank you for your integrity. You have made a clear assessment of things as they really are, and you have put the truth above party ideology.
Your voice is authentic.
I would like to add to those who have thanked you for your service both in and out of uniform, as another person on this forum rightly noted. You are a credit to your family, your upbringing and your country, including the honorable men and women who, once upon a time, inhabited the Republican party.
Unfortunately, your once stable party was hijacked by neo-cons willing to send everyone's children to war except their own, religious fundamentalists who resemble the Taliban in every way, and greedy old men, mostly white, who will do anything, absolutely anything to turn obscene profits and vilify hard working Americans.
If you haven't already done so, please send your work to the NYT, the Washington Post, and every other newspaper in America (particularly the Red States) Send it to the Army newspapers, the mainstream media, the Obama campaign. Send it to the Readers Digest (if it still exists) People need to see you and hear your words.
However, the age of the liberal Republican has ended. They've been kicked out of office, silenced, or driven into extreme positions by the forces that manage today's Republican Party. Some have become Independents.
What happened? It's a bit like Germany during the early 1930s.... The big corporations needed government support. So they made a deal with
ultra-nationali sts, conservative Christian groups, and small business owners and others who felt threatened by the Communists.... Everything "liberal" was rejected. No "compromises" allowed.
Result? The crackpots received a lot of money and positions of influence. In return, the nut
cases cleaned up their act - there were a few violent purges - and they put on some clean shirts. They delivered the votes and the big companies prospered.
It may happen again.
NO to Nittens
Please DO NOT protest vote, with President Obama we have a chance to possibly reverse Citizens Untied and if he has a majority in Congress get some of those jobs bills, transportation programs and the Veterans Job Bill the GOP recently voted down. The GOP has made it their only job to make sure President Obama is a one term one. Please don't make their dreams come true.
It is time we remind everyone that if We got to War for Mitt Everyone will be used to clean up this mess. Personally I hope Iran has the bomb, be a lot simpler. But if not I think Korea has the target right on.
the Nit Wit Clan must serve and all Mormons
The only way I would be in favor of a draft is that, after a type of basic training, draftees would have their choice of either serving in the Military or the Peace Corp. It's time we started to make a good name for ourselves around the world for helping people without our kids only being taught to fight and kill. I don't mean that's the only thing that our Military does as they do a lot of good while we're occupying a country rebuilding everything we've blown up, but honestly that's not what their main task is. It's time we have people who serve our country by helping people around the world who invite us in, rather than invading them and destroying things with all of our war toys... hey, maybe it would catch on and we could turn our swords into plowshares (maybe Haliburton or Lockheed Martin could do it for us).
Time we get Republicans and lame Democrats out. Big Bird isn't the only one backing OB and Biden
Great to see another one out there.
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