Here's something I've always found a bit galling:
"Ruling elites," which is to say, graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and Yale, seem to think the troops whom they "support" are stupid.
Now, I get that Kerry's jibe about "winding up in Iraq" if you don't pay attention in school was about the President, not the troops, but he seemed to think that point needed making to the troops, as if they hadn't already (most of us) figured it out pretty thoroughly during their first and second lengthening tours of combat duty. What I don't get is how these highly-educated people, who graduated from some of the hardest, smartest schools in the country, can possibly imagine that even below-average troops don't a) spend a lot of their time thinking about politics, and b) read between the lines (or just doze off) when politicians speak.
Maybe it's just the psychology of the "elite" that has drilled into these Ivy League dipshits that they are better, smarter, more deserving, superior in every conceivable way down to the cellular level than anyone who might wear a uniform (or ever have) before, during or after their state-college educations. Maybe it's just a fundamental blind side that develops once people arrive in DC. Maybe it's some combination of a bunch of environmental and internal factors that will forever defy conventional analysis.
Whatever the case may be, I find it revoltingly insulting that politicians in general, and those in power in particular (I speak not of those currently in power, so much as whoever happens to be in power) speak as if they believe we, the other servants of We the People, have neither the imagination nor the intellectual wattage to comprehend what they're saying about us, and how cavalierly they seem to treat risks to our lives, our families, and our chances for reintegrating with society once our tours are done. (The perpetually underfunded and understaffed DVA is one glaring example.)
Now, I get that Kerry's jibe about "winding up in Iraq" if you don't pay attention in school was about the President, not the troops, but he seemed to think that point needed making to the troops, as if they hadn't already (most of us) figured it out pretty thoroughly during their first and second lengthening tours of combat duty. What I don't get is how these highly-educated people, who graduated from some of the hardest, smartest schools in the country, can possibly imagine that even below-average troops don't a) spend a lot of their time thinking about politics, and b) read between the lines (or just doze off) when politicians speak.
Maybe it's just the psychology of the "elite" that has drilled into these Ivy League dipshits that they are better, smarter, more deserving, superior in every conceivable way down to the cellular level than anyone who might wear a uniform (or ever have) before, during or after their state-college educations. Maybe it's just a fundamental blind side that develops once people arrive in DC. Maybe it's some combination of a bunch of environmental and internal factors that will forever defy conventional analysis.
Whatever the case may be, I find it revoltingly insulting that politicians in general, and those in power in particular (I speak not of those currently in power, so much as whoever happens to be in power) speak as if they believe we, the other servants of We the People, have neither the imagination nor the intellectual wattage to comprehend what they're saying about us, and how cavalierly they seem to treat risks to our lives, our families, and our chances for reintegrating with society once our tours are done. (The perpetually underfunded and understaffed DVA is one glaring example.)