As part of my ongoing obsession over the “military vote,” I saw a few items this week that merely reinforce my belief that this should be the constituency to watch over the next three months.
First up, in a little swing state known as Florida, Adam Smith, the political editor of the St. Petersburg Times, visited the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9272 recently to see what some local vets were thinking about the presidential campaign. Smith walked in the door expecting a room full of die-hard Bush fans, but that’s not what happened.
Amid the passionate patriots gathered over Budweisers and smokes before their post meeting last week I heard the same stark polarization one finds nationally. If anything, I heard more support for Kerry than Bush among the dozen or so veterans with whom I chatted — or at least more anti-Bush sentiment than pro-Bush sentiment.
“All the veterans that died in the past, it was to defend our freedom and our rights. Any time somebody starts intruding with our freedoms and our rights, like the Patriot Act is doing, they’re going to have a problem with me,” said Vietnam veteran Norman Pickett, a lifelong Republican who will vote for Kerry. “And Iraq is looking like Vietnam again. For the soldiers who are in-country, where’s the plan to win?”
At Post 9272, members rarely talk politics with one another. When Pickett introduced me to 79-year-old Joe Billis, a Navy veteran who survived Normandy, he seemed genuinely surprised to hear of Billis’ staunch support for Kerry.
“I’m through with Bush,” declared Billis, who has no use for any of the Bush family, which he sees as living by sweetheart deals and opportunities few others have.
The guys in the room weren’t unanimous Kerry supporters by any means, but it’s encouraging anecdotal evidence nevertheless.
Just as importantly, similar observations are being made elsewhere.
The Washington Post’s Terry Neal, for example, was in Nevada this week, talking to veterans about the election. He heard a lot of the same things Smith heard on Florida’s west coast.
Michael Moody may be the past president of the local Republican Men’s Club here, but these days he’s feeling more affinity toward the “band of brothers” John F. Kerry trotted out for the Democrats’ nominating convention in Boston last month.
Despite his GOP roots, Moody joined a Veterans for Kerry rally in July with about 75 other vets and their spouses. He explained that he has grown alarmed by the Bush administration’s approach to Iraq and what Moody considers to be a hostile foreign policy in general. So he has decided to work to put fellow Vietnam veteran Kerry into the White House.
“I think Bush’s policies have alienated us from our allies and energized our enemies,” said Moody, who was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor here in 1982. “We have to elect John Kerry to show the world that Americans all aren’t like Bush. …I’m coming over to this side.”
In Nevada, this is no small matter. One of the nation’s fastest growing states also has a burgeoning veteran community. Nevada’s veteran population has increased by 30.8% since 1999 — the highest increase of any state — and veterans now account for 16% of the state’s adult population.
Again, Neal found plenty of veterans who voted for Bush in 2000 and will do so again in November, but the point is a growing number of voters who served in the military and saw combat are anxious for a new commander-in-chief.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, that this weekend’s VFW national convention is getting plenty of political attention. After all, the VFW has 2.6 million members and represents the interests of 25 million more.
Little wonder that John Kerry will speak to them next week, and President Bush’s campaign is carefully considering an invitation.
“The veterans’ vote can’t be ignored,” said John Furgess, the Vietnam veteran from Nashville, Tenn., who will be sworn in as the VFW’s new national commander. “There are too many of us.”
Kerry will have a compelling case to make, not only because he’s the only candidate in the race to qualify for VFW membership, but also because his opponent has sacrificed VA funding for tax cuts.
The VFW was unhappy with the budget proposed by the Bush administration this year, which included increased co-payments and an enrollment fee the VFW said would force many veterans out of the VA health-care system.
Veterans, Banas said, have “already paid for their health care — some with their sweat, some with their blood.”
I don’t think Bush has a good response to that one.