Band of Brothers

There is an impressive crop of military vets who are running for office this year. Follow the link to a new website that a group of them are setting up called Band of Brothers . What is interesting to note about this group is that in spite of the decades long claim from the right wing that Democrats have no support in the military, the 36 members of this group are all running as Democrats. What is even more telling is that only about 2 military vets are running as Republicans. There is clearly a fair measure of frustration within the armed forces with this Republican administration.

So for any of you who actually do support our military personnel, and value what they have to say, check out this group. I for one think that they are a welcome addition to the Democratic party. The Democratic has always had the utmost respect for the our fellow citizens who take on the awful responsibilities of being a soldier, sailor or marine. These candidates are warnly welcomed in the party and are recieving strong support. See for example here and here.

This is the way for Dems to talk

See the linked article at daily Kos. This is an excellent piece by one of the "Fighting Dems", Bryan Lentz a candidate in Pennsylvania's Seventh congressional district. More on the Fighting Dems can be found in an earlier post.

He presents an excellent plan for dealing with the situation in Iraq, a plan that I think most Democrats could support. He also presents it in a manner that, I think, is exactly the kind of direct, forceful and straight forward manner that Democrats need to adopt. Read his post on Kos and keep what he says in mind when Republicans ask what Democrats propose we do in Iraq.

Fighting Dems

This is great, it's something I've been wondering about for a while now, but I haven't' had the time to do the research. Majority Report producer John Orton, at Air America Radio, has put together a site called Fighting Dems which lists current Iraq war vets running for office as Democrats.

I've heard of several of these men and women who have come back after tours of duty to run for office, and it seems always as Democrats. Paul Hackett being the most famous so far, but several names have come up. Two points strike me. It is very good to see improved relations between the Democratic party and our military. The decades long impression that the Democrats don't care about our military and military personnel is a slander on the Democratic party and a gross disservice to the military. But it is also noteworthy that given the supposed stark Republican bias in the military that the folks coming back seem disproportionately to be running as Democrats. I think the reason is that the supposed Republican bias has been somewhat overstated and that the effects of service in Iraq, and the actual performance of this Administration on military matters, has caused some serious rethinking of the idea that Republicans are better for the military. We shall see and the linked web site will be a great resource for monitoring this.