Lincoln was not much for pandering. In 1858, he addressed the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, meeting in Milwaukee. He began by saying that he would not “employ the time assigned me in the mere flattery of farmers, as a class. My opinion of them is that, in proportion to numbers, they are neither better nor worse than other people.”
Rich Lowry quotes this in his recent book, and I quote it in Impromptus. A reader writes,
As Lincoln felt about farmers, I feel about the military. I grew up as an Army brat. I respect people who serve. I totally appreciate people who have suffered or been injured in defense of our country. But trust me, plenty of military personnel are deadbeats and bums and dopers.
My dad was a staff “sarge” and responsible for many men. I clearly remember him bringing drunks into our home to sleep it off before he had to lower the boom on them, thus protecting them from dishonorable discharges.
And I am really sick of all the pandering to all the soldiers. If anyone makes blanket statements about heroes, I typically ignore them.
I know what the letter-writer means. There is a certain condescension in the way some people speak about soldiers. Also, we are usually better off judging people as individuals than as classes (if we have to judge at all).
Still, like most people, I admire some classes, on the whole, and I’ll cast my lot with U.S. military personnel before I cast it with — well, I am not in a class-disparaging mood at the moment . . .
P.S. A yellow-ribbon America is better than an America in which people spit “Baby-killers.” And yet I am not crazy about either, if you get my drift.