The Obama/Progressive Blind Spot That Just Might Hand McCain The White House

It pained me to see Senator Obama miss a big opportunity at Wesleyan. A few days before Memorial Day he delivered the commencement speech filling in for Senator Kennedy. Senator Obama mentioned serving our country and used the word service many times. He spoke of joining the Peace Corps. He talked about the good it does one's soul to be part of "something bigger than one's self." However, Senator Obama never said -- even once -- that one good option for service -- and for being part of something bigger than ourselves -- includes volunteering to serve in our military. Why?

By definition a blind spot is something overlooked because it isn't on the gut-level radar screen of an individual or group -- even if they think they have it covered. In other words, they just don't get it, no ill will, just non-connection.

There is a looming progressive (hence Democratic Party, hence Obama) blind spot that might hand John McCain the White House: progressive's (and Obama's) seeming inability to be comfortable talking about the military, and/or not knowing how to when they do, and/or not mentioning those who serve at all ... unless forced to. This has to change -- fast.

Want to lose millions of potential votes from military people and their families and friends, even from people ready for a change, even from people who despise Bush and don't trust McCain? I'm a good test case.

I avidly support Senator Obama (as anyone knows who has read my many essays extolling him in the Huffington Post, or who reads the attacks against me on far-right blogs because of my Obama support). But I'm also a military parent loyal to my Marine son's choice to serve. So the fact that something Senator Obama unwittingly did last week disappointed me is instructive. (Please pass this on if you happen to know our candidate personally!)

Obama still has my vote, but he already did. If I was still making up my mind and thinking only as a military father, he might have lost me. At least I would have been more open to the Republican lie that Democrats are somehow antimilitary, hence not to be trusted with national security.

Is military service just for "other" people, not for upper class educated kids with lots of opportunities? If a potential commander-in-chief is giving a speech to young people about service and never once says, "And some of you who are so inclined and able should consider volunteering for our military, as well as other options like serving in the Peace Corps," a military parent feels like he or she has been slapped in the face.

Obama is no pacifist. He speaks warmly of those who serve. He is working to make Senator Webb's new GI bill law (for increased post-military educational benefits) and standing up to Bush's disgusting threatened veto.

If Obama becomes commander-in-chief he'll need our military to fight in Afghanistan, which he's said he'll order the military to do, and/or to withdraw from Iraq. It won't be "Bush's war" then. Whose military will it be?

Did my son make the wrong choice when he volunteered for the Marine Corps in 1999? I was ambivalent about the idea of my son volunteering, and that was before Bush and 9/11 let alone Iraq. I learned that it was the best thing that ever happened to him or to me for the very reasons Obama mentioned at Wesleyan -- our family learned that we were part of something bigger than ourselves, and my son learned to see the Marine standing nexxt to him as more important than him.

It was my selfishness and snobbery that blinded me to the value of my son's service. His service connected me to my country in a new way. It's one reason why I'm working so hard to get Obama elected. I understand that my son was serving our country, not serving Bush. I get it when Obama calls us to something better than mere consumerism.

The way the subject of the military is approached by many progressives is similar to certain kinds of white politicians saying that many of their best friends are black. They may mean it. They may not. They may indeed have black friends. But somehow such comments (even when well intended) fall short of the mark in convincing most African-Americans of good will, let alone empathy.

Why? Because if the only time a white politician brings up the subject of black people is if he or she is asked to say something "official" on Martin Luther King Day, or if the only time they quote WEB Du Bois, is if they're the token Republican invited to an NAACP gathering, there's an empathy gap.

I happen to be a hands-on student of the relationship between civilian and military culture. With Kathy Roth-Douquet I co-wrote what many folks (on the left and the right) say is "the book" on class and the military (who serves and who doesn't) and the disconnect between military people and civilian leadership. (AWOL-The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes From Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country) With my Marine son John, I also co-wrote Keeping Faith -- A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps. After Oprah, 20/20, the Today Show and such had Kathy and me and/or John and me on, I received over 10,000 emails from military family members about their feelings related to service. I think I know how they -- how we -- feel. Democrats who want to win in November, listen up please.

Window dressing --obligatory mentions of "those who serve," on Memorial Day or at VA meetings, aren't enough. Call this the "Detroit factor." So far Senator Obama hasn't taken the message of military service -- and a call to service -- to "Detroit" as he did with his gutsy message on the environment and energy delivered to the car makers. With the military service issue it's the same. Democrats in general and Senator Obama in particular, need to weave a pro-military service message into talks given to nonmilitary, even sometimes antimilitary, audiences so it counts.

Only then will the commitment to our troops seem real to people with skin in the game. And in a Nixon-goes-to-China move Senator Obama needs to do what no leading Republican or Democrat has had the courage to do: talk about the unwitting collusion between the Pentagon's recruiting planners and our top universities and the upper-middle-class. It is just too convenient that only one sort of Americans usually gets asked to volunteer. The heavy lifting should be shared more fairly. Say so.

Imagine if Obama had talked about the failure of our elite to volunteer, in proportion to our working and middle class population, at that ill-fated talk in San Francisco, and that had been leaked, instead of sound bites about "bitter" Americans. How do you think Obama's call for all Americans of whatever class to at least consider military service would have played in Pennsylvania and rural Kentucky?

Progressives also need to avoid the often the unwittingly condescending language of military victimhood that Senator Webb often talks about. Nothing turns off military people faster than being talked about as if we are victims. Progressives don't get that military people are proud of their service and often pleased with their choice to serve. It's not all about VA hospital funding or Bush or Iraq. It is also about having pride in one's child, sibling, spouse or father or mother standing up.

All too often Progressives act and speak as if military service is service to George Bush. My son volunteered when Clinton was president. My son wasn't Bush's Marine, he was your Marine. He regarded his time in the military as service to America, not for the Republicans, far less for one president.

Senator Obama should talk positively about military service in nonmilitary settings. He should use the military as a good example when he can, not just as a "support the troops" mantra. Obama should speak of the fact that the military exemplifies progressive opportunity and putting others first. For instance, when Senator Obama is looking for a good social model he might point out that the pay of a 4-star general is only 9 times higher than that of a private, in contrast to the example he often gives about some CEOs earning in 10 minutes what their workers earn in a year. And the general and private share the same health plan. Moreover, unlike our top colleges, our military--the stupidity of Congress and the military on gay rights asside -- does a better job of leveling the racial and class playing field than anyone else.

Another missed opportunity is when Senator Obama talks about his proposal for helping college students financially and says that they should "owe our country something in return." Again, he lists organizations to join such as the Peace Corps or soup kitchens to "give something back." Obama must add military service to his list.

Up to now in Obama's speeches it seems as if some service -- Teach For America, Peace Corps, etc., -- is more equal than others, not by what Obama says, but by what he doesn't say.

Senator Obama says he won't take anything off the table when conducting diplomacy over such issues as Darfur and Iran's nuke potential. We all know that means he keeps the military option "on the table." Whose military?

If Obama needs to threaten the "stick," in Darfur who will carry it for him? The Peace Corps? If Senator Obama is elected, will progressives and/or their children, volunteer for "Obama's military?"

Obama has a unique chance to wean many Republican-voting military people--that's millions of people, counting active duty, vets and their extended families--away from the Republican Party this year. He can do this because of Bush's failures and also because Obama is such a wonderful and inspiring leader. He can do this because the military family wants change too.

The military family is tired of war, and angry with a president who told America to go shopping and never asked everyone else to do their bit, while the military was sent to war. Obama must not repeat the mistake. Places like Wesleyan are exactly where the next commander-in-chief has to call for fairly shared service and sacrifice.

Obama can break the a stereotype that can still do in the progressive movement in 2008. Replay the Wesleyan speech. Where could a compliment to the military and a call to military service have fit in naturally? It would have meant a lot to this military father to know that in the mind of my future president my son's service counts too.

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of "CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back"

Comments

[Singha]

Check this out...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/opinion/02kristol.html?hp

[Bobrobert]

Why not serve the military???

I would imagine he doesn't want the deaths of anyone he suggests join the military if John McCain happens to win in November. That in and of itself would stop me cold.

I would imagin he doesn't want to risk that they will come back wounded to a failed VA system that is overwhelmed and admits it cannot treat the physically wounded or those with psychiatric problems.

I would imagine he doesn't want to risk them becoming troops that need psychiatric treatment but will be forced back to Iraq without the needed treatment.

I would imagine Obama is using common sense and not suggesting kids enter a service that most people do not want their children to have anything to do with since few care to respect their service.

Lip service does nothing to respect our troops.

During Vietnam the death and wounded count was given on all the major networks every night.

Now information about Iraq is sparse - you can find it on the internet - but little is front page in newspapers.

Encourage military service - not on my kids life.

The military cannot have my kids to that are not already serving if I can convince them not to join.

Encourage military service my ass.

I may have served but my country didn't treat me like trash to be used as cannon fodder and then refuse to help me after my service.

[ynp7]

Maybe it's because NO ONE thinks it is a good idea to "serve" in the military right now. You'll just end up getting shot at while killing people for no reason on the other side of the world.

This has as much of a chance of hurting Obama as george bush has of winning a Nobel Peace Prize.

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

Mr. Schaeffer, please go back and look at Senator Obama's standard stump speech where he talks about young people joining the military in exchange for college tuition credit and where he praises our troops over and over again.

The blind spot with progressives is that they're always trying to think like conservatives then plan their next move. "We must think like Republicans to beat Republicans."

John Kerry was a decorated war hero and should have had no problem on the pro-military front, but his acceptance speech in Boston laid it on a bit thick with the opening line: "Reporting for duty."

Democrats won't beat Republicans by doubling the number of American flags behind the podium or mentioning "military" more times in their speeches.

They'll win by running an authentic, likeable, charismatic candidate with good ideas.

[BigBen]

Yeah right . No humping the pulpit in the black churches, no painting the opponent as racist,just nice friendly hypocrites who don't want the media to know what went on in their church and so moved to another one. What a candidate for president of the USA.

[standforpeace]

I grew up in a military family the daughter of an enlisted soldier who did 30 years for his country. My brother went on to a career in the army as did many of the sons and daughters of soldiers that I grew up with. Some like my brother still serve and everytime I read or hear about a military casualty in Iraq, I expect and dread that I will see the name of the boy who sat next to me in homeroom or a girl who ate lunch with me every day or ... And there is no way that I would stand in front of anyone today and urge them on to military service. Not when we're in the middle of an endless war that serves no purpose except feeding the ego of George Bush and the electoral rhetoric of John McCain. I couldn't look a kid in the face (not at an elite school like Wesleyan or the local community college) and ask them to him or her to make this sacrifice for country. Because right now it's not about country -- unless there is someone out there who can explain what our country has gained from the sacrifice of the 4,100 who have already died. As long as we continue to tell our children that it is noble to go off to kill and be killed in this conflict, we will be unintentionally feeding Bush's war and many of the most honorable American will be needlessly

[zulucious]

I don't see how anyone in good conscious could advocate that young men and women join the military at this time in our history. Our military personnel are being asked to make sacrifices that are unjustifiable - repeatedly having their tours extended and being repeatedly sent back to Iraq (some even after being diagnosed with PTSD). Our military personnel are committing suicide in records numbers. Our injured military personnel are being housed in rat infested moldly VA hospitals (Walter Reed). We are making good and honest young people oversee war crimes, at the direction of our war criminal president, VP and Sec'y of Defense (Guantanamo, Abu Gharib). Until we oust the current commander and chief - and change how our military is being managed - how could anyone ask a young person to sign up for that kind of treatment at that hand of his/her government. What we are doing to our military is unconscionable.

[urweatherman]

Yeah, you wouldn't understand..would you! I am retired military, still working with the military and I can tell you, I hardly ever meet anyone that is a Democrat, not to mention progressive. Changing the subject to the Priest's outburst at Obama's church....everyone better keep their eyes and ears open. I believe the whold thing has been orchestrated and is part of a bigger plan put together by Louis Farakhan and his movement....there have just been too many stupid mistakes and apologies that follow, to think that all this is just coincidence. I think the movement has found the well-spoken, easily convincing Obama to be their man of change. The majority of the left leaning public are so easy to suck up what he has to say and not pay attention to what really matters. Think about it.

[Bobrobert]

Retired military, I think not.

Retired military would argue about the military not some priest that has nothing to do with our military.

Retired military, I think not.

Retired military are outraged at the lack of treatment and increased suicide rate for depressed soldiers.

Retired military, I think not.

Retired military would care about no loss more that some visiting priests statements at the church Obama use to go to.

Retired military, I think not.

Repuke-ican I have no doubt.

Remember to vote everyone.

[frustratedinohio]

Obama is a politician and you are just starting to see that. I suggest you take a few more gulps of grape Obama Kool-Aid and he'll look much better to you then. Hope you have enough to get yourself through the GE. After that you're going to need something stronger to help you endure President McCain.

[NABNYC]

In a time of hyper blind nationalism, with imperialist wars being started against countries that neither threatened nor attacked the U.S., when our military schools include leaders who call themselves Christians and teach the young people that God wants them to kill Muslims, when our top leaders in D.C. lie to start wars, lie about the costs, use the military as muscle for corporations that want to steal assets from third world countries, lie about the injured and dead, throw returning vets under the bus and deny them any h elp, when the Congress is spineless and will do nothing to stop these wars of aggression even when all the evidence shows that's what they are, when our government kidnaps, tortures and murders people for being car drivers, when the "supreme" court rubber-stamps the crimes done by the president, when the attorney general not only refuses to enforce the law against government lawbreakers but actually advocates war crimes, then I'd say no one should join the military.

If we restore the constitution, end these wars, get rid of those hack military leaders who are preaching religion as grounds for killing, inappropriately trying to take over the civilian government, then yes, being in the military would again be a good option for many people. But not until there are big changes.

If it's not good enough for the Bush girls, or for Chelsea Clinton, then it's not good enough for any of our kids.

[funnyguy]

You have really nailed it, Frank. The US currently spends 70% of its discretionary federal budget on the military, but Democrats should be ramping that up. Let's just Out-Hawk the Hawks! Let's spend every federal dollar on past, present and future military adventures so the Republicans stop calling us wimps. We'll feel really good about ourselves, right Frank?

[SolarPowerGuy]

The United States has a larger military budget than all the rest of the world's nations COMBINED.

The United States military currently has the luxury of resources -- people and dollars -- to wage a FRAUDULENT war of CHOICE. Meanwhile, peaceful ways of serving America -- education, disaster relief (I'm looking at you, Hurricane Katrina) -- are going begging.

When this country is no longer falling over itself to give as many resources to the military as it possibly can -- then it may be an appropriate time for America's leaders to talk up military service. For now, I think it's fair to say that the military is well-served.

[starboymikey]

The United States military currently has the luxury of resources -- people and dollars --
_______________________________________________________________________

Then why do the president and senator McCain keep opposing the GI Bill? This small-minded refusal to support our troops with something more than words may have as much to do with falling enlistment as the Iraq war.

I agree that Obama would have done well to mention serving in the military, but I would suggest that he should have attached it to his promise to pay teachers what they deserve. If he'd said that he would also make sure the GI Bill was passed so that we could support our troops in ways that truly rewarded their sacrifice, he would have scored big. Not too late, though. There will be plenty of opportunity to fill in the gaps during the general election.

[SolarPowerGuy]

"Then why do the president and senator McCain keep opposing the GI Bill?"

Priorities, priorities. "Supporting the troops for their hard work" is NOT an appealing objective to Bush and McCain. "Keeping the troops fighting," well now, that's a different story.

We're spending $100 billion/year, on a FRAUDULENT war of CHOICE, over and above a "regular" military budget which has grown by around 30% (adjusted for inflation) since Bush took office.

Is there no money for veterans? Of course there's money, and they should get it. The funds need to be TAKEN from somewhere else -- such as, next year's Cowboys and Muslims appropriation. With no Soviet Union to fight, I also see no reason why the standing military budget needs to be 30% larger than it was eight years ago.

"This small-minded refusal to support our troops with something more than words may have as much to do with falling enlistment as the Iraq war."

Once GOP leaders themselves see this, I expect them to come around on the GI Bill. But they will not do it out of the goodness of their hearts. They will do it because they want the war to continue.

[stanjz]

The elites include George Bush, Bill O'Reilly, Dick Cheney, and Rush Limbaugh. None of those " elites" fought in the military.The Military has gotten huge press from Republicans. People should know that there are many ways to serve your country and your fellow man. The New Testament speaks of serving your fellow, not Nationalism. As long as the military understands that they are serving their fellow man, more so than their country, I'm fine with it.

Start serving living beings, instead of non- entities.

[ReadyNow]

Brilliant piece. But judging from the comments here, the blind spot is too large to be healed.

If he had called on the elite to serve as JFK did in WWII - he would have won PA and KY and WV.

I remember reading an account from Clinton's first inagural about how some were "offended" by the military flyover - until they realized they were "their planes"

The military is sworn to uphold the constitution and obey the orders of the President and will cheefully obey President Obama should that be the case.....The elite's visible disdain for the military and their attempt to treat them as victims is deeply offensive.....



"Imagine if Obama had talked about the failure of our elite to volunteer, in proportion to our working and middle class population, at that ill-fated talk in San Francisco, and that had been leaked, instead of sound bites about "bitter" Americans. How do you think Obama's call for all Americans of whatever class to at least consider military service would have played in Pennsylvania and rural Kentucky?"

[research]

Republicans use our soldiers as cannon fodder for corporate profiteering.

Meanwhile they create a private GOP merc army.

Do your military families want us to treat them like children? Should we protect them from the knowledge that their patriotic impulses have been channeled in the Iraq War Crime?

The "tip of the spear" is now being used to kill women and children.

Am I wrong to want all truly patriotic soldiers to refuse to participate in this war crime?

Ghandi and America's founding fathers believed the only protection "from threats foreign and domestic" is a citizen militia, free to refuse to fight for some tyrants imperial ambitions. The constitution only allowed for a standing Navy, no army. The founders were trying to prevent exactly the military industrial fascism we have today.

In the modern world, we could afford to minimize our federal land armies and return refusal authority to the state militias. This would properly make the invasion and occupation of another country nearly impossible without convincing the vast majority of the population.

[Nofuzzydreams]

Research - The problem with your kind of thinking is that you believe if US stopped spending on the military, so will others and the world will be a peaceful place. Not so as history has shown over and over again. Like it or not it is a primitive world where the strong win and get to eat the fruits. And that has been the case throughout history. Now sittting in the US, you are eating the fruits!! You do have a choice, if you think your fruit was not properly obtained, to not eat it.

By the way it is spelled Gandhi not Ghandi!!

[research]

Yeah sloppy spelling, sorry.

No, I don't expect the rest of the world to stop spending on defense, but it will reduce the arms RACE. People buy weapons when they are frightened. the USA is far and above the biggest spender on weapons and war. We should be more on par.

the trillion we have spent on this Iraqi war crime is more then enough to replace all coal gas and oil electrical generation with wind and solar power. Even including converting all cars to electric. Cheaper then war. Sustainable forever.

[tbone99]

"Am I wrong to want all truly patriotic soldiers to refuse to participate in this war crime?"

Research -

You've nailed it . There can only be one answer. Absolutely Not!

[tbone99]

Maybe the military can be considered "service to your country" when poor people aren;t coerced into it thru poverty , the need to be made "a man" and the lies fed them to them by the military about seeing the world, great training and benefits , and how they are heroes just for signing up.

When people are told the REAL truth about why they are being sent to BFE and what to expect in compensation for taking the lives of others for profit only then they can make a truly free choice to serve their country.

The stop loss program has shown the military for what it really is - indentured servitude.

[mikie63]

I don't blame Obama for not mentioning the military. In my opinion the military is absolutely stupid. Why should our great young men and women go into the military to serve their asshole Commander in Chief and to perhaps be blown to pieces or maimed for life. The only people who stand to gain from a big, strong, uncaring military are the huge contractors that are paid Billions each year. Does no one get it? When I see those Lockhead/Martin commercials on TV I want to barf all over their CEO. Those TV adds say they care about the troops over there. Does anyone really believe that shit?

Goodbye Bushy! Enjoy the Crawford ranch, and don't ever feel any guilt for the abominable things you did to our young men and woman and our country.

[vegasrichard]

you prove the point of the post. i as a vet and my family served the country not the president not the congress but the country. when i was in the navy i did not like then president Carter should i have not followed his orders. the military does what it is ordered to do by the elected if it did not we become Rome and the constitution becomes a joke. the military are the last true believers in our government when that changes then the republic is done.

[tbone99]

So its Rome or Naz Germany, is it?

[ReadyNow]

This thinking will get a lot of votes in the fall..

"In my opinion the military is absolutely stupid. "