Reply #112: If I could just add to that [View All]

[Sparkly]

Frenchie is quite right that "getting over it" means learning the lessons and moving on from it. It doesn't mean forgetting it ever happened or ignoring the lessons.

Here's what I think of when I hear Clark say we need to get over Vietnam: I think of George McGovern standing beside General Clark, a vehement voice against the Vietnam war speaking out to endorse a 4-star general. That was such an incredible symbol of healing for our country, it seemed to me.

I thought of it again when I saw Kerry and Clark together -- two soldiers who fought and bled in Vietnam, who made different choices about it, now solidified in unity of purpose. Together, I thought, they could begin the end of the painful wounds and divisions our country still suffers from Vietnam.

I say "our country" suffers and needs healing -- but a LOT of damage was done to the Democratic party in the wake of that war, largely by GOP design. And our country needs a strong Democratic party to get back on a course of sanity. We need to get past the stereotypes, lies and distortions manufactured during and since that time.

Democrats are still demonized as weak on defense, unable to keep the country safe, "peacenik appeasers," haters of the military, girlie men, etc... Many who were then protestors (or draft-dodgers) are now conservative Republicans, of course; and many who voted for Nixon are now staunch liberals.

What remains are the stereotypes that hurt Democrats -- a division of supporting troops vs. spitting on troops, or protecting the country vs. smoking pot. None of those divisions are true, of course, but the GOP has spent multi-millions of dollars and 30 years perfecting and propagating the memes.

I look at General Clark, John Kerry, Max Cleland, Al Gore, Charlie Rangel, George McGovern, and people I know -- and how they've been trashed by the lies manufactured out divisions leftover from Vietnam. Republicans took those divisions and used them to pry open deeper ones and create new ones.

It is absolutely time to get over Vietnam.