A Tale Of Two Veterans #VetsForTrump

Back in 2016 and since I was approached by a number of media outlets that wanted to do interviews. One particular group, People’s TV, followed me and fellow veteran for Trump Joe Episcopo around for 3 days, primarily at the Inauguration of President Trump in D.C. They also followed up during COVID to do a Zoom conference. A 17-minute video segment that is well done in my humble opinion has now been published. People’s TV must have worked hard because I have a face made for the radio, not the camera. 🙂 I really liked working with them.

People’s TV asked if I would talk with a fellow veteran who was a Democrat & Bernie Sanders supporter. I agreed. Her name is Charlotte Brock. We met at the “Women’s March” with her the day after the Inauguration. I’m going to post the video which is on the NowThis News Facebook page. If you go there you will see quite a few comments. Many of these comments are ugly, just as you would expect. Some are fair and neutral.

I will be sharing this here, on our sister website, and on our other Vets for Trump Facebook pages. Collectively we have around 400,000 followers. Please do NOT post anything ugly about Charlotte. It is fine to attack ideas or people who put themselves out there like myself but not people who simply want to live in peace. I’m not saying she can’t handle it. As a Marine, she probably can better than most but I just don’t approve of personal attacks. Apart from politics, we might be good friends. After all, she is a Marine veteran with 6 active and 2 reserve years of service. As we said in the military, you may not respect the person but respect the uniform. In this case, I say: You may not respect the ideas but respect the person. It might help to read this post on the subject of understanding each other first.

In retrospect, the first thing that struck me was Charlotte’s response to my suggestion that we all want pretty much the same things. I still believe that today. If you pay attention to the crazies on both sides our views about each other can become easily skewed. Think about things apart from the fog of political warfare.

• Most of us want a strong military so our enemies are deterred.
• Most of us think veterans should be cared for and that employees of the VA should be held to account for job performance.
• Most of us think veterans should not have to wait for months to see a doctor or travel many miles to get treatment.
• Most of us want peace rather than war. Peace agreements and troop withdraw are good things.
• Most of us want our allies who promised to pay into NATO to do what they promised.
• Most of us want a strong economy, middle class, upward mobility, low unemployment, lower taxes, fair trade, and a good GDP.
• Most of us want clean water and air.
• Most of us want to see a reduction in violence towards each other regardless of race, religion, etc.
• Most of us agree we should take care of Americans living in the streets before helping others. It’s not that we don’t want to help others, it is just a matter of priority.

That list could go on and on. The devil is always in the details about how we achieve these things and the priorities we place on them. Granted there are some things we do not fundamentally agree on. Abortion might top that list as an example. An argument for another post but one worth having.

Understand that there were hours of interviews that did not make the cut. It is hard to get the full conversation from a 17-minute segment. The other thing that stood out was Charlotte’s insistence that I was a racist or something along those lines. What did not make the cut was that she was willing to send me a book that would “educate me” on the subject. That is a story for another post. Suffice it to say that unless they change the definition of a racist you can’t convince me otherwise. PS we know Websters and others are changing the meanings of words. Sometimes for good reasons and at other times due to political pressure. George Orwell would be grinning.

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