VP Kamala Harris caused a stir with her tweet yesterday, “Have a nice [holiday] weekend!”, none of the usual politician talk of “Let us pause to reflect as we honor those who gave their lives for their country.” But I really don’t see why people are so surprised.
I don’t think this error of commission was deliberate. Instead, it’s a matter of how Harris views the world and the nation. She is the leftist daughter of two leftists. The military theme of the holiday is the last thing that would come to mind for her. It’s just a three-day weekend.
No doubt, if an adviser had suggested that she make an appropriate remark, she would have come up with something, say a visit to Arlington or a Bay Area military cemetery, or maybe commemorating a Black hero of some war or even the Japanese-American soldiers who fought heroically in WW II. Impossible to imagine, say, AOC doing even that.
As our nation becomes more and more polarized, we will find that more and more of our elected officials, on both the Left and the Right will be, shall we say, “nontraditional.” If someone had told me 10 or 15 years ago that we’d have members of Congress like AOC and Ilhan Omar, I’d be in total disbelief. And former Pres. Trump was nontraditional too, with his larger-than-life persona, and his being the subject of much criticism from the Right in the 2015-2016 election campaign that he was not a “real” conservative.
A related point about the nontraditional nature of many of today’s elected officials is immigrant status. Omar was a refugee, and Harris’ parents were immigrants. Quite a contrast to the many-generational roots of most presidents before Obama, a rather inbred group. One point in the 2000 election was that Bush and Gore were actually distant cousins.
So, what will less-deep American roots mean for US politicians in the coming years? As someone who has lived in immigrant households all my life, I know that children of immigrants tend to have different views of the world and nation than do sons and daughters of natives, and yes, possibly have less of an emotional connection to those who perished in past US wars. On the other hand, many immigrants are even more patriotic than the natives; say what you will about Harris’ folks, but their driving force was a keen desire to make America better.
So, Harris’ slip-up was actually rather telling. Some Americans will actually find it a refreshing change, while others may take it as an example of American decline. Take your pick. 🙂
Upon Closer inspection 
It was even worse when she gave the speech to the Naval Academy. There she made a crude joke about Marines using “she” as the default pronoun, and “he” as the optional one. Not appreciated by the actual midshipmen.
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After realizing how badly the military and it’s history has been treated by the “elites” in the country, I started making it clear to my son what a lousy deal joining the military was. What do you get? Who are you protecting and do they even appreciate it? He is a good student and is very athletic and wanted to be in the Army Rangers like his Uncle Don was. He thought he could make a career of joining the Rangers and then the NSA but now that isn’t part of his plan.
This is coming from somebody who’s entire family, on the male side, has been in the military all the way back to the French and Indian Wars up to the early 90s. My Uncle Bob, as an 18 year old, was on a landing craft in the invasion of Normandy and fought all the way through Europe ending up in Yugoslavia after liberating prisoners at concentration camps. My Uncle Earl caught malaria in the south pacific while fighting in the jungles and was never healthy again. My Uncle Irving was drafted in the US Army in both WW2 and Korea having a very negative impact on his life.. I have four other uncles who also fought in WW2 as well. Most of their lives were negatively impacted by being in the war….my Father was drafted during the Korean war and my brother and many cousins all were in the military over the last 30 years.
I have met a lot of people who are from military families and they just are not interested in defending this country anymore. What for? Waste several years of your youth, potentially lose your life and health, take a hit educationally and financially and then have “politicians” like harris disregard our nations war dead. If harris had kids, they certainly would never join the military because that job is only for trash.
Maybe we should just make a military visa and outsource it like the Byzantines did? That worked ok for them didn’t it?
We could call it the M-1B.
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I do not find it “refreshing” to fail to acknowledge the sacrifices Americans – especially past and present military members and and their families – have made.
I am proud that my grandchildren spent their Sunday free time putting flags on the graves at their local veterans’ cemetery and will spend Memorial Day not at the beach or the park but at a veterans’ historical memorial site honoring those who died due to the unprovoked aggression of a power hungry one time enemy.
One of the most memorable of our family photos was taken by my then preteen granddaughter of her younger brother waving goodbye to their dad as he left for a six month deployment. He knew that his dad would not be home for Halloween, Thanksgiving, birthdays, anniversary, Christmas, New Years, the Super Bowl, and everyday life. It was such a sad wave of his small hand.
I gave him the graphic version of “The Art of War”. When I asked what he learned from it, he replied “I need to learn how to negotiate.” Even at 10 he understood that the goal of the military is not battle but peace. At twelve he is more responsible and thoughtful of many of our elected leaders.
My father was a child of an immigrant mother who saw both of her younger siblings die on the voyage to Ellis Island. He was also a veteran of Korea and the Cold War. One of his last wishes was for me to be sure that he received his flag for his service. His patriotism gives me a legacy to live up to. I will watch the Memorial Day and Fourth of July patriotic concerts with tears for those whom we have lost in their service to the US of A. Every country’s citizens owe their gratitude to their service members for trying to protect their interests – even against us.
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This year, more than ever, we should all pause to reflect on the sacrifices of current and prior generations to preserve, protect, and defend our constitutional form of government.
Politicians may neglect this solemn duty. I hope that most citizens will not.
P.S. I doubt that it is only some members of the Blue Team that fail to appreciate the true significance of the day. It is being alleged, rightly or wrongly, on Twitter, that Meghan McCain spent the day in Las Vegas, playing blackjack.
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The stain on my WW2 soldier relatives’ legacy, is not McCain’s blackjack, nor Harris’ “Have a nice weekend”, but the non-national security forays of Vietnam, Iraq, Panama, etc. for industry, along with TailHook, Abu Graib, etc.
The team color of the red, white and blue is not red or blue. The color is green. So slowly transitioned, people are still talking as though it’s red or blue. Pull up your legislators’ voting records: no red, no blue, just green.
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Your right about the immigrants who do join the military and serve our nation proudly. Some have lost their lives. Some were illegals and were arrested or deported after their service. That is wrong. Military service should put these folks at the front of the line for citizenship.
Anyone that is surprised by the VP’s statement needs to go to Rumble and search “Kamala Harris Counterpunch”. That video will fill you in on her real background.
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Right. See the articles in Politico and even The Atlantic.
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Can’t see that this would have been a slip-up. People like Harris have staff who research important events and provide historical notes and guidance as to how others handle those events. Sounds to me like a deliberate statement, especially given the comment to the Marines.
She is saying: “Things are different now.”
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If she is deliberately sending a message, it is one counter to the one sent by Biden. This seems unlikely to me, but these days everything is unlikely. 🙂
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The casual, snide, and even slanderous words directed against the Police and the Military here in the U.S., typically by celebs, radical politicians, and media types, are leading many patriotic Americans to choose a different, nontraditional path. Many are joining local or State militias, forming underground “patriot” groups, or taking up a survivalist lifestyle. This trend is both debilitating to military strength and morale, as well as destabilizing for local communities.
Back in the day, young people were taught that policing or military occupations were noble careers that helped protect their neighbors from danger. Now they are often told that these positions are the *real* danger. This does not bode well for America’s stability or ability to defend against threats, either foreign or domestic.
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Excellent insight. And it’s going to get worse. We grew up at least getting news from relatively unbiased sources ABC/NBC/CBS. Even CNN was different in the 80s. So at least any differences were ideology rather than understanding of reality.
Today people that watch CNN have a different reality than people watching FOX – and it goes more biased from there. So today even if two people might share an ideology, they will disagree about reality.
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Was that not the very purpose of moving Memorial Day, to make it a long weekend, for purpose of commerce and leisure activity?
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