Veteran, Virginian and Voting For Trump
I admit I was pretty angry when Donald Trump went after John McCain. I am not a dedicated McCain fan normally, but criticizing a former POW for getting captured is beyond the pale. Now, however, as a military veteran, a parent of two active duty military officers, and as a Virginian who appreciates the significant connection we have with the military here, I feel better about my decision, made weeks ago, to vote for Trump anyway. Recent events should motivate more veterans and active military personnel to advocate for Trump and get their friends and family on the Trump Train. Full throated military and veteran support may not be enough to propel Trump to victory, but it is both deserved and a good start.
According to NBC News, Mr. Trump is leading Mrs. Clinton by 19 points among veterans and active military personnel. That sounds good, but the lead is smaller than it could be (Romney was +24% at this point) as many former and current military personnel have expressed a willingness to vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson. Johnson is polling in double digits among the troops, driven mostly by high rates of disapproval for both Clinton and Trump. But Trump’s recent Philadelphia address, in which he calmly and professionally discussed renewed investments in the Navy, in Missile Defense, and in the military in general, and his winning performance Tuesday at NBC News’ “Commander and Chief Forum,” should grow his support, most importantly in “toss-up” states with large military populations.
As for Mrs. Clinton, who spent her time at the recent forum trying to convince us she did not sacrifice national security for convenience, and for Gary Johnson, who recently increased his “not-serious” rating with a blank-stare response to a question regarding the key city of Aleppo in Syria, their support should continue to drop. Clinton doesn’t have far to fall, as her unfavorable rating is 82% (that’s not a typo) among the troops. Johnson, however, is siphoning off Trump votes, and if he drops, those are likely to come back, not go to the despised Clinton. I personally know both #NeverTrump veterans and Gary Johnson supporting troops. If they come over to Trump as a group, it could make a big difference.
Retired Navy Pilot Lieutenant John Lester’s question of Mrs. Clinton at the recent NBC forum, should put the last nail in her coffin among military types: “As a naval flight officer, I held a top secret, sensitive, compartmentalized information clearance and that provided me access to materials and information highly sensitive to our war-fighting capabilities. Had I communicated this information not following prescribed protocols, I would have been prosecuted and imprisoned. Secretary Clinton, how can you expect those such as myself who are entrusted with America’s most sensitive information to have any confidence in your leadership as president when you clearly corrupted our national security?”
I will bet that question had current and former military personnel around the world cheering out loud.
Military people highly value character, honesty, self-sacrifice, patriotism and strength, especially in regards to national security, in their candidates. What they despise is self-serving, dishonest, big-Washington, politically-correct elitism. Those latter traits pretty much describe Hillary Clinton. The drip-drip-drip of scandals surrounding her will clearly continue through Election Day. In addition to all the old ones (fired from the Watergate Committee, Whitewater, Travelgate, Cattle Futures, Bimbo Eruptions, FBI Files, ducking sniper fire, etc.), Clinton faces an ever growing army of new scandals. She was caught red-handed lying to the American people about the cause of the Benghazi attack. She continues to “explain” about her private email server, including whether she sent and received classified information in unclassified channels (she did), and whether she turned over all required emails (she didn’t). The “Clinton Foundation Scandal” brings new revelations almost daily. We are learning more about the close, and unethical, ties between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation. The Associated Press reported that “at least 85” people who got time on Clinton’s calendar while she was Secretary of State “donated to her family charity” and that their combined “donations” were “$156 million.” And now we know that Bill Clinton, clearly in the “top 1%” and worth about $250 million, has supplemented his elitist lifestyle with copious amounts of taxpayer money, $16 million in fact, the most of any former president. That’s a bit more, by the way, than a military retiree gets.
By now it should be universally acknowledged that the Clinton’s are world champions at “pay to play” and that the multi-billion dollar Clinton Foundation is, in the words of the indefatigable Dinesh D’Souza, “a bribery receptacle for the Clintons.”
Self-serving? Elitist? Dishonest? Check, check, and check.
On the issues too, Mrs. Clinton fails to impress veterans and military professionals. Her unfavorable rating attests to this. She cannot escape her connection with the current administration, including their abysmal record on veteran’s issues (including the on-going VA troubles which Mrs. Clinton characterized infamously as “over-exaggerated”), their relentless downsizing of our forces, and a feckless foreign policy that has placed the United States in the weakest position internationally in decades. Mrs. Clinton owns the failures of “lead from behind” foreign policy, whether the precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, the rise of ISIS, chaos in Afghanistan, increasing belligerence of China, or failures related to Iran, North Korea, Egypt, Russia, Syria, Libya and others. This is not a record anyone would want to run on.
As for Gary Johnson, his gaffe regarding Aleppo will damage him among those very attuned to national security. That said, his support from veterans and service members is mostly a protest vote. Both Clinton and Trump have relentlessly attacked the other as “unfit” to serve. Military folks bought in, and thus went looking for another option, ending up with Johnson. I have talked to some military Johnson supporters, and frankly they barely know who the guy is. They are supporting him because they don’t like Trump or Clinton. So as the election gets closer, as Johnson’s meager numbers make him appear irrelevant, and as his quirky personality and policy incoherence becomes more evident, many will reassess the wisdom of wasting of a vote on him. If Trump continues to be strong on national security, he can win those votes back, and could hit historic rates of support among the military set.
Military and veterans issues and foreign policy do matter, and can make a difference in a close election. Here in Virginia, for example, the military and veteran contingent is a huge demographic. We rank seventh, and only behind the most populated states, in total numbers of veterans among our population (over 777,000) and fourth only to low-population states (Alaska, Montana and Maine) in veterans as a percent of our population (9.38%). Among those currently serving we rank even higher, trailing only California, Texas and North Carolina in total number of active and reserve forces living within our borders (117,084). In terms of defense spending we are clearly the champs, leading both in total dollars spent here ($54.7B) and the percentage of State GDP comprised of those dollars (11.8%). Counting family members, this comprises over a million votes and lots of good paying jobs.
Yes, Donald Trump is currently losing. Real Clear Politics has him down 154 Electoral Votes to Clinton’s 229. But 155 votes are characterized as “toss-ups,” and states with high populations of military and veteran citizens are well represented in that category. They include Florida, which ranks 3rd in veteran population, and Pennsylvania ( 4th), Ohio (6th), Virginia (7th), North Carolina (8th), Arizona (13th), Missouri (15th) and Colorado (19th). If Trump’s lead among military voters grows, as it should, these states could move significantly toward his camp.
As Pat Buchanan wrote this week, “[w]ere the election held today, Hillary Clinton would probably win a clear majority of the Electoral College. Her problem: The election is two months off. Sixty days out, one senses she has lost momentum … and her campaign is in a rut, furiously spinning its wheels.”
Against Clinton’s failures, Mr. Trump offers strength, executive experience and an anti-political correctness attitude that appeals to military people fatigued by the weak-kneed, sensitivity-training, social-experimentation favored by liberals like Mrs. Clinton. His brand of “America First” and unabashed support of American strength works well against her parsing and inside-the-beltway posturing.
Mr. Trump should press Mrs. Clinton on national security failures while calmly talking about military policy and veterans affairs. He should keep her making excuses and defending herself against charges of dishonesty. He should call on all veterans and active military to vote against “lead from behind” weakness. He should make an issue of military voter disenfranchisement and demand that all absentee ballots be counted (this is a hot button issue with military personnel). If he does these things, momentum can swing his way and states like Virginia might just come over to his column.
“Veterans For Trump” is going to have a busy 60 days.
