Over the weekend, Senator Tammy Duckworth; D-IL, was on CNN with Dana Bash. During the course of the appearance, Bash asked about the current trend of tearing down statues of those the left finds problematic. Duckworth voiced her support for that:
President Trump gave a speech at Mount Rushmore Friday night. He talked about the importance of preserving historical monuments. Take a listen.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Senator, I know that you support change in the name of military bases named after Confederate leaders. But there are leaders like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson who were slave owners, and some people are demanding that their monuments come down, too. So, in your view, where does it end? Should statues, for example, of George Washington come down?
SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): Well, let me just say that we should start off by having a national dialogue on it at some point. But, right now, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic. And our — one of our ally — one of our — countries that are opposed to us, Russia, has put a bounty on American troops’ head. What really struck me about this speech that the president gave at Mount Rushmore was that he spent more time worried about honoring dead Confederates than he did talking about the lives of our American — 130,000 Americans who lost their lives to COVID-19, or by warning Russia off of the bounty they’re putting on Americans’ heads [09:45:03]
I mean, his priorities are all wrong here. He should be talking about what we’re going to do to overcome this pandemic. What are we going to do to push Russia back? And, instead, he had no time for that. He spent all his time talking about dead traitors.
BASH: So, that might be — be true, but George Washington, I don’t think anybody would call him a traitor. And there are…
DUCKWORTH: No.
BASH: … moves by some to remove statues of him. Is that a good idea?
DUCKWORTH: I think we should listen to everybody. I think we should listen to the argument there. But remember that the president at Mount Rushmore was standing on ground that was stolen from Native Americans who had actually been given that land during a treaty.
And, again, let’s talk about the greater context of where we are in our country right now. We should be talking about the fact that COVID- 19 is experiencing a resurgence, and both this president and the man he put in charge of the pandemic response team, the vice president, have both failed miserably at their jobs. I’m more worried about the 130,000 who have lost their lives recently and the thousands and thousands more Americans who are currently sick than I am about the — our historical past. We need to talk about what we’re doing now to bring this country off of the brink of chaos that it’s in.
Watch:
Ok, so she’s voicing her opinion, and that, while I strenuously disagree, is fine. What’s not fine is her reaction when Tucker Carlson called her out for being unpatriotic. She immediately hopped on Twitter with this gem:
Then Captain Duckworth lost both legs after getting her Blackhawk shot down by an RPG while in Iraq. She also suffered debilitating injuries to her right arm. She was awarded the I forgot to duck medal for her injuries and was promoted to major while in Walter Reed.
The implications of that tweet are astonishing to me, as a combat vet and an American Patriot. The good senator seems to think that she’s above any criticism because of her injuries. That she can hold up her Purple Heart and combat service as a shield.
See also: Tolerance is not a Christian virtue
Tucker, and I by extension, aren’t questioning her service. What’s being questioned is her current state of mind and the lack of patriotism and historical perspective. Service, and honorable service especially, is not and never has been something to hide from criticism behind.
As everyone who ever wore the uniform knows, the military is a microcosm of the United States. Admittedly, while there is a higher proportion of Patriots in the military than in the general population, my point still stands. You find all sorts in the military.
Senator Duckworth, while she may not have started this way, is an unpatriotic, uneducated fool. I knew a couple of individuals like that during my term of service.
That when given an opportunity to confront Tucker directly, he has a standing offer for her to appear on his show, she declined says a lot about her.