Election Thoughts 2018: Veteran Wave (part 7)

This election is too important to ignore. So, I am writing a series of posts on topics to consider as you think about who to vote for in November. I am specifically staying away from Trump and social topics. This series is about serious issues and the congress members involved with them. That is the focus, congress. Topics include:

1. Religious Education
2. Capitalism
3. The Tax Bill (the part congress played in it)
4. Healthcare
5. SNAP
6. Government Assistance (Other)
7. Veteran Wave
8. Where Democrats Stand

9. Candidates
10. GOTV and Nancy 
 

I have been collecting these articles throughout the year. The part in green is a direct quote from the article in the link before or after it. I also very specifically stuck to reliable news sources. Actual fact based news sources like Politico, CBS News, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The LA Times and others.

 

 Veteran Wave:

Conor Lamb is only part of a new type of democratic wave. Veterans are running as democrats. This part took me off guard this year. In the past, it seemed like every veteran I talked to was a republican. I never understood why. But, that seemed to be how it went. But, these are veterans that have the leadership background to make a difference in what gets passed.

The biggest thing that congress lost on 2010 was the ability to compromise. The tea partiers in the “freedom caucus” have ironically held the country prisoner. They continue to refuse to negotiate on anything even the basic bills. These are bills that previously were always easy to pass before they came along. 

Veterans have been talking more and more about the importance of negotiating. One thing they all hold on to fiercely is a desire to do what is best for their country. That requires negotiations. They understand the power of negotiations and compromise better than most.  If you haven’t considered democrats in the past, it’s worth giving this group and second look.

Rose, a 5-foot-6 power pack with an upbeat, shoulders-back gait, is near the forefront of a surge of a certain sort of candidate in the 2018 election cycle. Veterans who are Democrats are vying for Congress in numbers not seen in decades. With Honor, a “cross-partisan” organization that aims to “help elect principled next-generation veterans in order to solve our biggest problems and fix a Congress that is dysfunctional,” counts approximately 300 veterans who have run for Congress during this cycle—roughly half of whom chose to serve after, and in many cases because of, September 11, 2001. Although specific numbers are hard to come by, the spike is stark—“a substantial increase,” With Honor co-founder and CEO Rye Barcott told me, “from any prior cycle” in modern memory. While the perception might exist that most veterans lean Republican, some 51 percent of the veterans who are or have been 2018 candidates, based on With Honor’s tally, are actually Democrats. And some are proving to be competitive in places once considered safe GOP districts. Witness Conor Lamb’s win in western Pennsylvania earlier this month. Polling suggests former Army Ranger Jason Crow could do the same in Colorado’s 6th District in the suburbs of Denver. Backed by members of Congress like Representative Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and organizations like VoteVets and New Politics, this roster of aspirants is a key to Democrats reclaiming control of the House of Representatives in November’s midterms, party strategists believe.

 

It is not a coincidence that this wave of veterans is hitting at a moment when a five-time draft-deferring president occupies the White House and toxic partisanship has ground Capitol Hill to a virtual halt. The candidates are presenting themselves both as a moral rebuke to what they see as Donald Trump’s self-promoting divisiveness and also as a practical solution to the failure of the nation’s highest legislative body to get anything done. In short, the reputation of the national institution with by far the highest approval rating, the military, is being offered as an antidote to the woes of a schismatic president and a Congress whose approval ratings have never been worse.

“They’re all people who served the country without worrying about who’s a Democrat and who’s a Republican—let’s just get the damn thing done,” longtime national Democratic strategist Joe Trippi said in an interview. “In this Washington, in this divisive, chaotic cycle, you have these people who’ve proven they can rise above party and actually accomplish a mission.”

 

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/28/midterms-veterans-millennial-democrats-gop-districts-217714

 

Feehan, a veteran who served two tours in Iraq, has worn a memorial bracelet in honor of Drew R. Pearson for nine years, a tribute to a mentor who served with Feehan in Iraq before he was killed in action in 2008. For the first-time candidate, the metallic bracelet is a constant reminder of why he is running and what he hopes to achieve.

"(I am) grounded in the understanding that every form of policy is in some way a matter of life or death," he said. "I literally carry it with me every day."

Feehan, one of dozens of military veterans the Democratic Party has turned to ahead of November's midterms, is far from alone, either.

Democrats have recruited, nurtured and funded dozens of veterans aiming to unseat Republicans in November. The strategy cuts against the common Republican attack that most of the military leans red and Democrats want a less robust military, a refrain repeatedly pushed by President Donald Trump.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/30/politics/veterans-running-democrats-midterms/index.html

 

MJ Hegar does not hold back. "I'm an ass kicking, motorcycle-riding, Texas Democrat. That's who I am!"

She says that emphatically, unblinkingly and unapologetically to a constituent at a political meet-and-greet in a suburban Austin, Texas, home. And she is talking to someone she needs to win over.

"I'm a Republican," the woman says to Hegar. "I'd like to know, in a county that is predominantly Republican, what makes you different from our current congressman?"

That question hits on the central challenge facing Hegar who, in order to defeat incumbent Republican Rep. John Carter in November, will have to win over GOP-leaning voters. Hegar's response -- "I'm an American. I'm a veteran. I'm fighting for this country." -- is how she hopes to do it.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/09/politics/female-veterans-run-for-congress/index.html

Running as a democrat in a NJ congressional district is another candidate who is a Veteran. She has a strong chance to change this red district blue. That is something that makes a difference. She will be one of the candidates I talk about in the "Candidates" blog post. Mikie Sherrill is another example of a strong democratic veteran who wants to repair the damage done within the walls of congress.

For some voters, that record of military service matters. These candidates are proud to have served. Like John McCain, their call to serve continues beyond their time in uniform. I am happy to see so many of them are democrats.