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Vets To Palin: How Dare You Blame Obama For Your Son's Criminal Acts?

Vets To Palin: How Dare You Blame Obama For Your Son's Criminal Acts?

Tea Party matriarch and disgraced former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin today leveled the absurd allegation that somehow President Obama is responsible for her son Track Palin’s implied post-traumatic stress disorder, which she used to blame his recent arrest for abusing his girlfriend and intoxicated possession of a firearm. Never mind the fact that her son was sent to Iraq by President Bush and brought home by President Obama, never mind that it’s been Congressional Republicans who have consistently voted against bills that would improve the lives of veterans and attempted to cut $1.4 billion in veterans’ benefits during this past episode of Congressional budget battles – but somehow it’s President Obama’s fault?

However, veterans across the country have stood up to defend the President and refute the walking manifestation of nonsensical extremism that is Palin. Paul Rieckhoff, who heads Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), told NBC that she should lay off the President and possibly convince her newest ticket back to relevancy, Donald Trump, to give a detailed proposal about how he would take care of America’s veterans:

“It’s not President Obama’s fault that Sarah Palin’s son has PTSD. PTSD is a very serious problem, a complicated mental health injury and I would be extremely reluctant to blame any one person in particular. This is a great opportunity for Sarah Palin to sound the alarm about PTSD, Now that she has endorsed Mr. Trump, I would encourage her to talk with him about it. Mr. Trump’s campaign is pretty light on specifics about what he would do for veterans. I hope this doesn’t become a portable chew toy in a political campaign.”

He then implored her to ignore her undoubtedly instinctual “urge to politicize” PTSD – a temptation she succumbed to almost instantly, when she used her son’s alarming mental health issues as a soapbox from with to take cheap shots at the President. However, Track Palin has shown signs of disturbingly violent behavior in the past: Track is suspected of cutting the brake lines of a school bus at the age of sixteen. And no matter what you are suffering from, there is no excuse for this behavior: “[Track] struck [his girlfriend] on the left side of the head near her eye with a closed fist. (She) then got on the ground in a fetal position because she didn’t know what else he would do. Palin then kicked (her) on the right knee.”

President Obama has worked tirelessly to make sure our veterans are properly taken care of when they return, and made risky diplomatic gambles with Iran to ensure that we don’t needlessly create more veterans without pursing alternate methods of conflict resolution. It puts him in stark contrast, to say, Palin’s favorite demagogue, Donald Trump, who parrots incessantly about how he’d use military force to show “America’s strength” in an ongoing series of dangerously simplistic delusions.

It is very curious that Palin, who preaches about her love for our veterans, has hitched her cart to Trump’s. A number of military commanders have already made it known that they will refuse to obey President Trump because he is an affront to the values they swore to die for. Trump’s extraordinarily vague veterans’ policy can be summarized as just “we’re going to take care of our vets better than anybody.” Draft-dodging Trump even had the nerve to criticize veteran Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for being shot down, captured, and tortured while being held in a Vietcong prison for years, saying “I like people who weren’t captured” and that he wasn’t a war hero.

McCain is the very man that gave Sarah Palin her time in the spotlight; she owes her fame and fortune to him but betrayed his honor without a thought. It shows a disgusting lack of moral character to side with an abrasive buffoon like Trump, a lack of loyalty, atrocious hypocrisy, and a opportunistic ambition that reveals just how poor a leader she would have made. She clearly has no regard for anyone but herself; not even her son or the men and women who risk their lives for our country. 

Colin Taylor
Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.

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