Post-Election Analysis

[Elfhelm]

I really don't think Republicans know how Democrats think. It must baffle them that so many of us are vets. It must baffle them that a vet would be against war. But I can't say I understand how Republicans think either.

I just know that I am proud of Kerry for his service, proud that he spoke against the war after serving, proud of his years of championing liberal causes, and I wanted him to be the next President. I would have been proud to serve on his swiftboat, but I don't think they were big enough to need a Commisaryman. I believe if I had served on his boat, I would have had the fortune of serving under a brilliant lieutenant who devised the idea of turning the bow to face into the gunfire, making the boat narrower, and then charging straight at them, forcing them to abandon their gunposts. And I would have also been proud to march with him in the anti-war protests. I only got one medal, and I'm not likely to throw it to Bush (he has it already anyway). But I can understand why many of my fellow vets did throw them over the White House fence. They thought it was the right thing to do. I did march in my own town, and I marched against funding the Contras in Washington. So maybe I did march with him. And when he took down BCCI and conducted hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal, I was performing politically charged pieces towards the same ends in my hometown.

As Humphrey Bogart said, "What do you mean? I've been a Democrat all my life!"

So it is not true to characterize all Democrats as having a silly anybody but Bush campaign. It is not true that I was more motivated by anti-Bush sentiments. I wanted Kerry because I thought he was more moral in ways that I am afraid the other side will never see. I voted for a fellow Navy man, although he was an officer and I enlisted.