What does Swiftboating mean to you?

| July 14, 2017

Want to know what a stranger’s political leanings are? There is a simple question that may yield that information: Ask them what the term Swiftboating means.

They don’t even have to provide a well-formed, grammatical definition; rather, the answer you seek lies in the sense of whether it represents something positive or negative to them. If they respond with something like this: “a harsh attack by a political opponent that is dishonest, personal, and unfair,” which is the Wikipedia definition, then you should suspect you are dealing with someone whose politics lean left, at least to the extent that they get their news from the alphabet mainstream media.

If the person responds that the term describes the public exposure of a politician’s claims to phony war heroism and undeserved medals, then you can be fairly certain you’re talking to a conservative who gets his news from Internet sources and perhaps FOX News. You are also likely talking to a veteran. That second definition is mine, by the way, because there is no positive dictionary definition of the term, as all dictionaries appear to be compiled by liberals.

If ever there were a clear exception to the truism that “Victors write history,” it is the concept of Swiftboating which has been appropriated by the losing Left and twisted into an epithet which when directed your way by the liberal media, immediately labels you as some sort of especially treacherous turncoat. We should learn a lesson from this: The liberal movement and specifically the liberal media know the value of controlling the language. They took a term, Swiftboating, which should describe honorable behavior involving self-sacrifice by American veterans and twisted it into something foul and fraudulent, the Scarlett “S” of the 21st century, a bright burning brand on the brows of those brave men who gave up their private lives to save America from a Commander-in-Chief that they personally knew to be a fake, a phony, a Stolen Valor fraud.

With the mainstream media dropping all pretense of being objective in the recent election and in the current campaign to unseat President Trump, we no longer have to question just how the treatment of the Swift Boat veterans came about. From their first press conference, where the MSM discovered that the intent of these sailors was to attack John Kerry and his phony war record, the full wrath and fury of the elite liberal media institution turned on these small-boat sailors. The media, in full sucking support of John Kerry, Democrat, first attempted to bury the Swiftees. Then when that didn’t work, they leveled the big guns and did their very best to dishonor and discredit some very honorable combat veterans, depicting them as malcontents and men of no standing to challenge Kerry’s lies.

I know I’m engaged in a Sisyphean effort here because of the massed forces of the liberal media and the natural fading interest of the public. We tend to forget the past dishonesties of those reprehensible jerks, who laughingly purport to provide the “News” to a country they betray every day. They perpetuate the lies they have imposed upon our history simply because they control the public discussion and recorded events. So what I’m calling for is that those of you who agree with me that the term Swiftboating has been so dishonestly turned upon its head to mean its opposite, will agree that it should be taught to our children as a term of high honor among those of us who refute the collectivist, leftist views of America’s despicable mainstream media. May I offer this description for Swiftboating:

An honorable attempt by brave men of loyal military service to identify one of them, who served among them, as not worthy of high elected office.

Sweet and simple, and as honest as it can be. Tell it to Wikipedia.

Think about how naïve so many conservatives were back then in believing that the media was objective.

Crossposted at American Thinker

Category: Politics

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UpNorth

Cue up the Berzerkley Idjut to show up and rant anytime now.

A Proud Infidel®™

You really want to conjure the goblin into our presence?

Silentium Est Aureum

Beetlejuice!!!

Graybeard

snerk

rpage1977

Well said.
It still pisses me off when I think about how they were treated by the media.

To all those who served during that time and capacity, HONORABLY…thank you.

Texas Nomad

Who swiftboats the swiftboaters?

rgr769

You can’t “swiftboat” real swiftboaters who aren’t valor thieves under Poe’s definition.

desert

When I think of swiftboaters, I think of the “Turd in the Punchbowl”! Kerry the Fairy! the a.h. that put himself in for a bronze star, and 3 purple hearts, yet never entered a clinic or saw a doctor.and the bronze star for shooting a wounded VC in the back crawling off for cover..yeh, a real hero that p.o.s.!!

A Proud Infidel®™

It just goes to show what a disconnected bunch of arrogant elitist snobs we have at the helm of the liberal mess media, I quit relying on them for news and info years ago! They have an attitude of “Here’s what we see fit to tell you filthy peasants and how you should think about it!” and a number of their newsmouths have been quoted saying they think it’s their job to steer people’s opinions as well.

AW1 Tim

Everytime I think of those vicious attacks by the left on these good sailors, I am reminded, somewhat, of Kipling’s poem “The Last of the Light Brigade”.

Graybeard

+1

Graybeard

On the positive side, more and more thinking Americans (which I am still convinced is the majority) are realizing that the MSM has been slandering honorable men and women for years. They are becoming aware, if they were not already, that the MSM is comprised of many liars and slanderers.

What the MSM did to the Swiftboat heroes, to Robert Bork, and to others is coming back to haunt them. When they call names now, reasonable people realize they are liars and slanderers, and have been for years.

Ret_25X

Yellow journalism is the default setting in the USA and always has been.

The “highest” award a journalist can receive is named for and was funded by the most famous of yellow journalists–Pulitzer.

While a give journalist may be honest, no one is really completely objective. To pretend that there are no biases or to lie about them is the real problem.

In addition, CNN, NYT, etc are not “the press”. They are corporations attempting to sell a product to a targeted market.

Let that truth color the whole concept and you see the truth that there is no “press”…

Ex-PH2

The MSM has turned that term into a pejorative that says the swiftboaters don’t do their homework, which is not true.

While there is a certain amount of pile-on that happens, if the negative stuff hits one of their darlings, they get their shorts in a bunch and do everything possible to discredit the people who came up with the truth.

rgr769

MSM rule no.1: If we don’t like his message, we will endlessly disparage the messenger.

Dave Hardin

The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks. The capricious nature of liberalism, as it manifests itself today, does not merely parasite on events…it has become historical cannibalism.

It is redefining history as it unfolds by turning the language of its detractors into cultural idioms. The eons of thorough promulgation have passed, we now live in Meme Times.

Increasingly devoid of independent thought, Liberalism feeds on the thoughts and actions of others. It has become the ultimate cultural paradox, claiming a faux and pious arrogance of intellectual enlightenment while at the same time being incapable of original thought.

Of course they feed on the language of others, that is the normal course of the daft.

I will now resume my duties as the Village Idiot.

Graybeard

You Deplorable Intellectual you.

(Well put, Dave.)

Dave Hardin

How dare you besmirch my reputation with such an allegation.

My intellectual prowess is limited to matters akin to Beer Pong.

Graybeard

You broke cover, brother, and got spotted. Retreat three terrain features and regroup.

Dave Hardin

Sorry, I am unfamiliar with the verbiage in your post.

What is this “Retreat” you speak of. I know it not.

Roger in Republic

Dave, that would be “Advancing to the rear”.

Ex-PH2

No gravy until you do your homework, you hobo.

Dave Hardin

Dear Lord, you stalk me day and night.

Evelyn Wood didn’t like me and kept her secrets for other more enlightened folks.

Ex-PH2

I do not give gravy out to just anyone, you know.

OC

You two need to go get a room. 😉

IDC SARC

Erudite Marine in the open…launch the Intellectual Suppression Team!

Silentium Est Aureum

Opening with a barrage of PBR and
dependas!

Perry Gaskill

When it comes to the news media, it’s probably best to avoid chalking up to conspiracy that which can be explained by laziness, incompetence, and a pack mentality. There’s also an inclination to want to see history repeat itself, it almost never actually does, in the interest of providing a simple and predictable narrative.

John Kerry, at least it seems to me, was groomed from an early stage to be a latter-day John Kennedy. That was the marketing strategy for the Kerry persona. Why have to invent something new when you can follow an existing playbook?

My own view of Kerry’s experiences in Viet Nam weren’t shaped by what the swiftboaters were saying at the time. It was actually in the form of an after action report submitted by Kerry himself. For some of us who were in country, Kerry’s account didn’t pass a sniff check.

None of that mattered, however, because the news media needed Kerry to fit a war hero mold in order to continue the JFK-like storyline.

For those playing at home, the news media now is sending a lot of signals that it is trying to pull off something similar with Donald Trump. In this instance, the strategy is to portray Trump as a new incarnation of Richard Nixon. And it doesn’t matter if the circumstances of Nixon’s impeachment have almost nothing to do with the current situation. Sometime in the near future there will be a TrumpGate, or MoscowGate, or whatever because that’s what’s in the script.

Ex-PH2

If those nitwits are pursuing an agenda that they think will create the same malfeasance that Tricky Dick engaged in, they are making a huge mistake. They not only do not know or understand what that was all about, nor were any of them alive to watch the Watergate hearings in 1974.

They are idiots of an exponentially ridiculous degree of Pure Stupidity.

Casey

They also don’t seem to realize a lot of what Nixon ordered done came from his own ego and vindictiveness. Most of the “plumber” stuff didn’t have an effect on the election, which was a landslide.

They really have no idea that Nixon’s domestic agenda was one of the most liberal of the 20th century. For example, it was under his administration that Earth Day and the EPA were created.

David

well, you know the terminology has changed… Clinton was conforming to the system and courageously got several student exemptions and then went to England as a Rhodes scholar to dodge the draft. Trump is a no-good cowardly draft dodger for having had student exemptions.

A Proud Infidel®™

It’s also been said that President Trump was medically disqualified from Service but the TARDOs in the liberal media would spin that saying his Father paid a Doctor off to say that if that’s the case.

Trump Acceptance Resistance Disorder – TARD

Trump Acceptance Resistance Disorder Operative – TARDO

Thus when you see a group or crowd of them you can just say “Another bunch of TARDOs!”

Ex-PH2

I sincerely hope that this pursuit of hot air and pocket lint by the LSM results in their looking more and more stupid than they already do. They are good at concocting panic-attack headlines, but that’s about all.

The Other Whitey

Remember the “Christmas in Cambodia” thing? My Father-In-Law was trading bullets with commies along that very river less than a mile from the Vietnamese border at the time. If there had been any American boats that far upstream, he would’ve noticed.

SGT Fon

i always thought that swiftboating meant a Marine to see a sailors girlfriend the night the ship he is on leaves port…

Texas Nomad

I wonder what y’all think of what has recently happened to John McCain. He was treated as a hero by the MSM for as long as I can remember, and still is. He is one of the few politicians I have any sort of affinity for.

Like me, he is out of step with the current Republican zeitgeist. Of course the President made it front & center, but that was about the same time things like this started popping up on the internet attacking McCain’s service:
https://www.oathkeepers.org/breaking-news-john-mccains-1969-tokyo-rose-propaganda-recording-released/

And it has taken hold among the most ardent supporters of Trump as a matter of fact, that McCain is not a hero, but a traitor. Any article that mentions him in Breitbart (of course, negative) will have a top comment like this:
“John McStain needs to be taken to the wood shed, Thanks Arizona you handed this Country an idiot and a traitor”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/05/30/john-mccain-ramps-up-apology-tour-knocks-trump-again-in-australia/#disqus_thread

Not a fan of attacking anyone’s military service, but at least (according to the write-up you provided) the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth had earned that right by being there. I know if former Lt. T****** W******* even runs for political office, I’d be doing the same thing.

But this looks like politics poisoning everything again. Can’t McCain be a POW survivor and also policies and positions you disagree with? Or must he be a traitor?

Casey

Po, check my memory, but didn’t the actual Swift Boat vets say that if Kerry apologized for the Winter Warrior crap, they would back off? Or am I remembering something different?

…Had the 1/35 scale model of that boat in my stash, but -alas- my friends tossed it while cleaning my apartment last year when I had a stroke, among many other kits I’ll likely not be able to replace. 🙁

Texas Nomad

I wasn’t trying to make a comparison. I was in OSUT during the campaign so I didn’t follow any of it. I was merely pointing to a contemporary example of swiftboating used by Wikipedia standards.

I’m sure if Tammy Duckworth’s profile raises people will accuse her of intentionally crashing her helicopter for political points. Or be like “Asian drivers, amiright?”

Texas Nomad

“Tammy Duckworth is only a hero because she crashed. I like pilots that don’t crash.”

rgr769

I would say most of us who are conservative and post on this blog do not think Senator McCain is or was a traitor. Citing an article from those “Oathkeeper” buffoons is not representative of conservative viewpoints, period. We mostly dislike McCain because he is a liberal Republican who is ready to sell out his party whenever it suits him (recall the Gang of Eight). He was apparently made into a Hildabeast stooge in connection with the bogus Trump Russia dossier so the Clinton mob could get it into the media with him as a cut-out. And it worked, with the FBI leaking it to the media and the Intel gang briefing Obozo on it.

Texas Nomad

Leaving everything else alone…

I wasn’t accusing anyone in particular of harboring views that McCain was a traitor, only that in political gamesmanship, no biography is protected from criticism.

A healthy right harmfully exercised in the case of McCain, who is now called a traitor by people who think Putin is our friend.

CB Senior

Too bad they did not stand up with the same ardent fever against Draft Dodgers, Deferment Queens and Chicken-Hawks.

“Tail Gunner Joe” would be proud.

CB Senior

No mush mouthing at all.
Swift Boat Veterans of America went after Kerry for Stolen Valor, and his shameless pandering after the War.
I am SHOCKED that a budding Politician would lie and tell stories based on “Finger in the Wind” ideas.
They were dead silent on Bush’ and Cheney’s draft dodging. The very men he was running against. Wonder why. Simple letter after each assholes name. Let me be clear, I mean Kerry and Bush are both assholes in my eye.
Swift Boat: Hypocritical One sided hack job.
But as long as they hammer a Democrat as well in Poetland.
“Tail Gunner Joe”=Senator Joe McCarthy (R) Wisconsin did the same thing.

rgr769

Bush was not a “draft dodger,” and you know it. Unless, you want to call every officer who served in an Air Force or Army NG unit a draft dodger. I was in College in 1964-1968 and in ROTC, does that make me a draft dodger? Because I guess my deferment kept me from getting drafted. Did you get drafted? I think not. Volunteer to serve in the Infantry? Doubt it. Unless you stepped up, rucked up, and climbed into a helo to fly out to bad guy country, you can shut the fuck up with the draft dodger shit.

CB Senior

I guess you are not familiar with the photos in the members gallery.
Did it, have the fucking t-shirt. Did daddy pull strings to get you in? Where you a legit student? Then I guess I was not talking about you.
Then again maybe I was, if so. Boo Hoo.

rgr769

Looks like you are undoubtedly one of the true believers of Dan Blather’s breathless report on Bush’s TANG service; you know the one where the “fake but true” documents were typed in Microsoft word in the 1970’s. Progtardism truly is a mental disorder.

3/17 Air Cav

I graduated from high school in 1966. I dodged the draft until Aug. 1970 with student deferments. Then came my draft notice.

I stepped up, rucked up, climbed into a helo and flew into bad guy country!

Anyone who calls me a draft dodger can kiss my ass!

rgr769

Ditto here. Although, I think I had a student deferment the first and possibly second year, even though I was in ROTC for four years. I think I rec’d the Army Reserve deferment the last two years. I guess CB thinks my Daddy got me my RA commission, through infantry school, jump school, Ranger School, Special Forces School, and my 15 months in RVN, serving in two rifle companies and a Ranger/LRRP company.

3/17 Air Cav

rgr769……….I think back in 1966 my dad was making $1000.00 a month. Me going to college, I was on my own. I think my mom gave me a hundred bucks once. I got my degree after I got out. Ya, I also got lots of help from daddy, getting all those silver spoon deferments while going to school!

3/17 Air Cav

rgr769…..15 months in the bush! No thank you! I did two months. Out for 7-10 days back to base camp for three days. I remember telling myself “I don’t think I can do this for a year”

I went to aviation as a door gunner. Flying beat the hell out of beating the bush!

You have my utmost respect for what you did during your 15 months!

rgr769

Not the whole 15 months in the bush. I did six with the 4th ID, got reassigned to the 23rd ID (Americal) where I was a staff officer (Bn S-2) for two months, then commanded a Ranger company that was deactivated after 5 months. So they sent me back to my prior infantry battalion. So I get to the firebase with 8 weeks left and the LTC immediately sent me back to the bush to take over a demoralized shot up rifle company. I guess I humped a ruck in the jungle more than most officers.

CB Senior

Again, did the description match you? No, then I was not talking about you.
Secondly as you both have pointed out, when the bell rang you answered. I never said that going to College to better yourself and then doing your service was draft dodging.

CB Senior

Voted for neither Clinton ever. Wanted the other Kerrey.
You could have easily voted against Hillary and not for Trump. Write ins are allowed.
You would not allow Obama that same Dick Cheney honesty about not serving.
I am definitely not deluded as to think rich folks did not pull strings to save their offspring. I am just not ready to bend myself into pretzels defending Silver Spooned draft dodgers like yourself.

CB Senior

Here is the Problem Poe. You should be looking on me as a Brother Troop who served his country honorably, but you cannot look past the fact that you and I do not see eye to eye on politics. Besides who fights more than Brothers? For that one fact you believe I am less of an American and less of Troop. It even flabbergasts you that I could serve our country and not come out stamped like a Gingerbread man as all the rest of the CPO’s you knew.
Well that is BS. I can also ensure you that this SCPO is a bad-ass. You do not make it to Senior Chief by being anything else.

IDC SARC

” I can also ensure you that this SCPO is a bad-ass. You do not make it to Senior Chief by being anything else.”

I never saw that PQS laying around in any goat locker.

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!

Ret_25X

Really? Really?

This is not huffpo or DU. None of us are draft dodgers.

And if you don’t like silver spooned draft dodgers, why do you support their destructive ideas?

John Robert Mallernee

@ POETROOPER:

As I recall, President Bush was an F-104 “Starfighter” pilot, and according to what I read in the news, he volunteered to go to Viet Nam, but his request was denied because he didn’t have enough time left on his enlistment to justify retraining him on a different fighter jet being used in Viet Nam.

That’s also why he was excused from attending several weekend drills, since he had so little time left, that they couldn’t use him for anything.

And you can bet no cowardly shirker ever became an F-104 “Starfighter” pilot in the United States Air Force.

My memory may be faulty, but I don’t recall seeing any F-104s being used in Viet Nam when I was there.

But, when I was Spangdahlem Air Force Base in Germany, they had F-104s there, and one of the pilots was a fellow Mormon and a personal friend of mine, Colonel Bernard Francis Fisher, United States Air Force, who had been awarded the Silver Star, and a day later, the Medal of Honor for his actions in the A Shau Valley.

rgr769

Bush was an F-102 Delta Dart pilot. He was trained only on that aircraft, which was difficult to fly. Several pilots in his squadron or air wing were killed in the process. As it was a high speed high altitude interceptor, there was no need for it in RVN. There was a plan to send some to RVN and Bush reportedly volunteered to go, but the project was cancelled before any aircraft were sent. Later his squadron was to transition to the F-106, but it was the near the end of his service obligation, so the training would have been a waste of resources. There were no F-106’s sent to RVN, along with many other aircraft types that had no use there. If you will recall we were still in the Cold War with the USSR, so we had to have aircraft that could intercept their nuclear bombers.

John Robert Mallernee

@ RANGER:

Thanks for the correction.

I knew he was a jet fighter pilot and had volunteered to go to Viet Nam.

John Robert Mallernee

For sure and for certain, for President Bush (or any other man) to be a high performance jet fighter pilot required a LOT of discipline, intelligence, and courage, so obviously President Bush had a lot going for him.

rgr769

Yes, he did. And contrary to what his detractors have said since 2000, there is no evidence he received any special favors in being selected for flight training by the Air Force. It is just leftard propaganda. If Bush wanted to be safe, he never would have climbed into the cockpit of a single seat fighter/interceptor. Just having to eject in an emergency can cripple you for life. Something you get briefed about before they let you strap into an ejection seat.

A Proud Infidel®™

FACT: GW Bush has more time in Military Service than “Blowjob Willie” Clinton, Das Hildebeast, Fauxcahontas Warren, Nanny Lugosi and Bernie COMBINED and let’s not forget that George H.W. Bush was a WWII Navy Pilot who was shot down and rescued by a Submarine.

rgr769

If he served only 1 day on active duty he would still have more time than those Dhimmicrats. But let’s be fair to Warren; I think she has some service as an honorary Indian scout, or do I have her confused with Ward Churchill, another famous “Native American” college perfesser?

IDC SARC

Bush Pilot!

hahahahahahahahaha!

rgr769

Poe, I did not know you were a silverspooned draft dodger.

rgr769

I rarely disagree with you. I even dislike lawers like most here, too, because I had to deal with many asshole attorneys and the ones who became judges daily for almost 40 years (I worked in a law firm for 3 and a half of the four years I went to night law school). I was just repeating CB’s comment that could be construed as you “yourself” being a “Silver Spooned draftdodger….” Like you, I volunteered for almost every thing I did in the Army, except for those two leg divisions I served with in RVN (the admin pukes refused to assign me to the 173rd or the 101st). I was in the 509th in Germany, so I spent most of my 6 years of AD on jump status.

CB Senior

Correction: As much as I disagree with Mr. Poe. I did not and would not ever call him a draft dodger. He has an exemplary military record that any Troop would be proud of.
If we cannot WTF our brothers then who can we?
Secondly, I love you Vietnam Vets, Real Deal MOFO’s who did it right and got a raw deal from the American people. I honor and admire your service. I just disagree with a lot your political views. I will also not back down, and I expect no less from you as well.

bg2

I usually don’t go to see movies but did see “Ride the Thunder” a couple years ago. Shows clips of John O’Neill debating John Kerry, actual footage from the time. Sadly, most Americans get their “news” from the MSM which manipulates the storyline to suit their preferences. I’m sorry the film didn’t receive wider distribution at the time…the truth is out there, one has merely to look for it…therein lies the difficulty.

rgr769

O’Neill’s book lays it all out, and his refutations of Kerry’s fairytales were done before Kerry became a politician.

bg2

“Like”. I pray that Mr. O’Neill and the other men who stood up bravely will be blessed, and that Kerry will receive the justice he so richly deserves. God??? It would be nice to see that happen, here, on this earth, before Kerry arrives at Your gates. It will give heart to a lot of hard-working people.

Casey

Yes. He spent a lot of his Vietnam tour in a Navy engine room. Once he realized this wouldn’t gain any glory, asked for reassignment.

I notice he skated out on his Swift Boat mates as soon as humanly possible.

rgr769

I don’t dispute that he wanted to be a politician from the time he entered the Navy or before. The point I was perhaps inartfully making was that O’Neill’s fisking of Kerry was not against someone who was a political office holder at the time. O’Neill, IMAO, was not motivated by some anti-Democrat Party ideology. He just knew Kerry was a lying, incompetent POS who could not get his ass out of RVN quick enough once he got that third PH, and because Kerry was busy dissing those of us that fully did our duty in an unpopular war. I am quite aware that Kerry thought he was a new day JFK and only went to RVN because he thought he could use his Navy service like JKF did in politics. And I thought your piece was spot on. I enjoyed the comments at American Thinker; nary a discouraging word there.

Mark Lauer

I like it.

Call me a Swiftboater.
I don’t want dishonest men (or women) serving my country as “leaders” of any stripe. Vain wish though it may be.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

I left the OKIE 3 (USS OKINAWA LPH3) in 1966 and I believe that kerry went in after i got out. The Navy was looking for Swift boat sailors in and around 66 and I put in a chit to go over to the Swift boats and within a few days, GM1 Smitty a vet of Korea mentions in a nice way that he did not think it would be a good idea to do the transfer. Maybe because I was a screw up (shit bird) at the time but I finally got squared away. I canceled the idea and stayed in till I was separated. Being a snipe, I always wondered how I would fit in not being an Engineman, then a few months ago, the United States Naval Institute had an article about the Viet Nam swift boats. Turns out that every crew member was cross trained. The article was about Officer leadership on the Swift boats during that time. The article came out after those Riverine boats were pulled over by the iranians. I guess the point was how things were handled back then compared to the current time.

chooee lee

They don’t seem to like our side Swift Boating but they have no problem with Borking.

Sonny's Mom

Poe, we the patriotic citizens of Massachusetts thank you! We have a few nicknames for John Forbes Kerry… among the family-friendly ones, “Lurch” and “Jean-François”.