Tammy Duckworth: Tucker Carlson Doesn’t Know What Patriotism Is. Neither does President Trump.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
by Senator Tammy Duckworth
A little over 240 years ago, two of my ancestors put on the uniform of George Washington’s Continental Army and marched into battle, willing to die if it meant bringing their fledgling nation inches closer to independence. Centuries later, in 1992, I followed in their footsteps and joined the Army.
Even knowing how my tour in Iraq would turn out, even knowing that I’d lose both my legs in a battlefield just north of Baghdad in late 2004, I would do it all over again. Because if there’s anything that my ancestors’ service taught me, it’s the importance of protecting our founding values, including every American’s right to speak out. In a nation born out of an act of protest, there is nothing more patriotic than standing up for what you believe in, even if it goes against those in power.
Our founders’ refusal to blindly follow their leader was what I was reflecting on this Fourth of July weekend, when some on the far right started attacking me for suggesting that all Americans should be heard, even those whose opinions differ from our own. Led by the Fox News host Tucker Carlson and egged on by President Trump, they began questioning my love for the country I went to war to protect, using words I never actually said and ascribing a position to me that I do not actually hold.
Mr. Carlson disingenuously claimed that because I expressed an openness to “a national dialogue” about our founders’ complex legacies, people like me “actually hate America.” One night later, he claimed that I called George Washington a traitor even though I had unambiguously answered no when asked whether anyone could justify saying that he was. Then he argued that changes to monuments of our founders “deserve a debate,” which, somehow, was different and more acceptable to him than the “national dialogue” that led him to question my patriotism just 24 hours earlier.
Setting aside the fact that the right wing’s right to lie about me is one of the rights I fought to defend, let me be clear: I don’t want George Washington’s statue to be pulled down any more than I want the Purple Heart that he established to be ripped off my chest. I never said that I did.
But while I would risk my own safety to protect a statue of his from harm, I’ll fight to my last breath to defend every American’s freedom to have his or her own opinion about Washington’s flawed history. What some on the other side don’t seem to understand is that we can honor our founders while acknowledging their serious faults, including the undeniable fact that many of them enslaved Black Americans.
Because while we have never been a perfect union, we have always sought to be a more perfect union — and in order to do so, we cannot whitewash our missteps and mistakes. We must learn from them instead.
But what I actually said isn’t the reason Mr. Carlson and Mr. Trump are questioning my patriotism, nor is it why they’re using the same racist insults against me that have been slung my way time and again in years past, though they have never worked on me.
They’re doing it because they’re desperate for America’s attention to be on anything other than Donald Trump’s failure to lead our nation, and because they think that Mr. Trump’s electoral prospects will be better if they can turn us against one another. Their goal isn’t to make — or keep — America great. It’s to keep Mr. Trump in power, whatever the cost.
It’s better for Mr. Trump to have you focused on whether an Asian-American woman is sufficiently American than to have you mourning the 130,000 Americans killed by a virus he claimed would disappear in February. It’s better for his campaign to distract Americans with whether a combat veteran is sufficiently patriotic than for people to recall that this failed commander in chief has still apparently done nothing about reports of Russia putting bounties on the heads of American troops in Afghanistan.
Mr. Trump and his team have made the political calculation that, no matter what, they can’t let Americans remember that so many of his decisions suggest that he cares more about lining his pockets and bolstering his political prospects than he does about protecting our troops or our nation.
They should know, though, that attacks from self-serving, insecure men who can’t tell the difference between true patriotism and hateful nationalism will never diminish my love for this country — or my willingness to sacrifice for it so they don’t have to. These titanium legs don’t buckle.
The hateful vision for America parroted by Mr. Trump and Mr. Carlson will not win. Their relentless efforts to drive wedges between us will not work forever. We are too resilient a nation, too diverse a people, to let them.
In his farewell address, George Washington not only recognized his own imperfections, he also urged Americans to “guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism” and be wary of excessive partisanship. In the generations since, too many patriots, including many in my own family, have sacrificed too much to let our guard down now.
So when Tucker Carlson questions the patriotism of those willing to sacrifice for his freedom, or when Donald Trump promotes those smears — after having threatened to veto a pay raise for our troops to try to ensure the military continues honoring Confederate traitors who took up arms against our Union — remember Washington’s words.
Remember that part of what has always made America not just great but good is that every American has the right to question those in charge. Anyone claiming to stand up for “patriotic” values should recognize that, because, without it, the country these impostor patriots claim to love so much would not exist.
Our nation deserves leaders mature and secure enough not to race-bait or swift-boat anyone who dares disagree with them. After these past four years, and especially after these past four months, it’s clearer than ever that we must choose public servants who will focus on the serious issues facing our country — from the spread of the coronavirus to systemic racism to foreign adversaries threatening our troops’ lives — rather than cynical bullies who use schoolyard tactics to distract from their own shortcomings.
So while I would put on my old uniform and go to war all over again to protect the right of Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump to say offensive things on TV and Twitter, I will also spend every moment I can from now until November fighting to elect leaders who would rather do good for their country than do well for themselves.
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Tucker Carlson and Trump will win this argument in the eyes of the 35% deplorables. Tammy Duckworth will win it in the eyes of almost everyone else. Keep digging boys.
cadet bone spurs and his FOX rent-boy are the real traitors to america, along with their mentally challenged supporters...
So who were the dead traitors duckworth claims Trump talked about in his speech? If not Washington, Lincoln? Grant?
probably the ones that fought for the dixie swastika...
Whoops! Sounds like you were listening to an imaginary speech as well!
Please point out which "one that fought for the dixie swastika" he mentioned (in the real world, not the fantasy world you projected) ?
Well, now you have run him off.
You can't ask and expect any answers for outrageous claims like he made!
sorry, I was called away to humiliate some thumper hypocrites somewhere else.
sorry,
It's okay. I just saw a tweet that reminded me of what you, and others here have been doing for days over multiple seeds. You just keep ignoring the reality of what Duckworth said and proceed in some alternate reality where what actually happened doesn't matter. Many on the left really have a problem dealing with reality. Former liberal Jesse Signal wrote about how he first noticed that disconnect. Anyone on this site at the time saw this play out in real time:
"There's definitely a major epistemic breach opening up on the left and honestly Covington was what really revealed it to me in its full gravity for the first time. I vividly remember being like, "Okay, at XX:XX in the video you can literally SEE the protestor approach the kids,
you can watch him enter their circle, and then you can watch him beat the drum in front of Whatshisface for a few seconds, and Whatshisface just stands there smiling. Then like two minutes later, whoever I'm talking to: "Yes but HE HARASSED that MAN." It was disturbing feeling like I was not watching the same video as people who were in the same Warren/Sanders political camp as me, no matter how many times you carefully walked them through exactly what it showed. The video didn't matter. When the video doesn't matter, shit's going south!"
We've seen it play out over and over with Michael Brown, the Russian dossier/collusion etc... The refusal to come to terms with the reality of Duckworth's preposterous lie is just another example .
Those that are in their 20s with greasy shoulder length hair, wears exclusively skinny jeans and probably tore something or burned something within the past 24 hours tend not know reality.
People have been saying that about Trump every day for 5 years. You never cared about that, now you want every one to care about one thing Tammy Duckworth said? It is ludicrous.
We do when she says Trump said something he never said. Libs are OK with that because that is their strategy. Claim something not said, then try and argue it.
We see it every day here.
You repeating the same dumb shit constantly doesn't make it true.
I see it every day here.
And the answer to the question you avoided is?
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We do indeed. You most certainly are exactly right about all that you wrote.
What part of what I posted is not true?
Show us in his speech where he mentioned anything Confederate.
Tucker Carlson would have been better off if he had said Duckworth misquoted Trump instead of saying she hates America. He would have had a slight argument against her if he had had stuck to the misquoting. He tried to hit a home run for Trump by saying she (and Democrats in general) hate America and it has blown up in his face. No swing voters are being won by Tucker Carlson.
Duckworth would have been better off if she addressed the actual speech Trump gave and actually said "I don't think statues of George Washington should be torn down."
She's desperately trying to pivot from what she actually said into playing the victim. She bombed the interview, hence the need to play vicim.
She doesn't answer to Fucker Carlson or Fux 'news'.
If that isn't enough for you, go pound sand.
Easy enough for her to say now.
Why didn't she simply SAY THAT to begin with instead of some worthless shit about a "national dialogue"?
Now it sounds like she is saying it because she took flak.
Do you understand how time works? You are conflating statements days apart.
Amazing how words days later are presented as an argument for what she said when under the gun.
They have nothing Dulay. They dont have a decent candidate and they dont have decent arguments. All they can do is accuse the Democrats of being communists or of not loving their country. Its completely pathetic.
You're right.
We have nothing but facts.
You caught us!
Um, that candidate is currently your President and will be 4 more years. YOUR candidate will be finally retired after close to 50 years of screwing this country and self enriching for many of those years off the tax payer.
Anyone knows that the minute Hidin Biden sticks his head out of his bunker to actually answer a question, the contest is over.
Yes.
No, I am addressing the statement that is the TOPIC of the seed. That's how this shit works.
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she’s a victim of her own moronic stupidity and cowardice and deservedly so
You're saying Ms. Duckworth is a moron and stupid and a coward?
When did you serve?
Did you lose your legs in service to your country?
What is your level of education?
And Tucker calls her out when she’s being a lying moronic coward.
Because that’s why she’s saying it now. I still want to know who she thinks are the dead traitors she accused the President of talking up about...
I’m talking about the present situation she put herself in as a senator. Period. I’m not in any way discussing any point in her life prior to her remarks regarding the President’s Mt. Rushmore speech which were what I said and I stand by those words regarding her present lack of moral character
Those of us with a brain know that none of these radical Trump haters actually watched or listened to the speech. They only heard what CNN and MSDNC told them.
No individual thought in the liberal ranks allowed.
I have learned long ago that absolutely ANYTHING that liberals are against, that issue is definitely positive for this country. I have never been wrong with this.
Yeah, you keep repeating that [Deleted]
what you are responding to is in fact the actual truth. It’s time that the left show some maturity and accept reality.
No, it's not truth. [Deleted]
David Duke - former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan - Tweeted on Thrusday. Bolding mine.
None of us on the right like Duke or care about what he thinks or says or write. Your point?
just who he votes for...
A + B = C
A - Known racists David Duke and Richard Spenser like what Tucker Carlson puts out.
+
B - Trump Humpers and Trump like what Tucker Carlson puts out.
=
C - Trump and the Humpers must be racist.
Now we've found Carlson's head writer has been posting deplorable bigoted and misogynistic things online under a pseudonym for years. Figures.