Chris Marvin in The Huffington Post: “Trump doesn’t deserve veterans’ votes”

In a Huffington Post opinion piece, Chris Marvin explains how Trump uses veterans as political props and why Trump does not deserve veterans’ votes. Chris Marvin is a former Blackhawk helicopter pilot and was wounded in Afghanistan. He has also “worked for years to change the way veterans are portrayed in popular culture” and has “advised Hollywood and the news media to shift away from the broken veteran stereotype and instead tell stories of veterans who are leaders and assets in their communities.”

Below is a section from the piece:

Stepping back, it’s evident that Trump has done more than enough to lose the respect of most veterans. Some veterans may like his brash demeanor, but those same veterans — no matter their political persuasion — aren’t inclined to fall prey to his political tricks or stand for the way he insults the very people who have stood by our side and risked their lives for our country.

We will not follow a commander-in-chief who thinks boarding school counts as military service. We do not laugh when he characterizes his sexually transmitted diseases as his “personal Vietnam.” We cannot accept someone who speaks ill of the family of our deceased brother-in-arms.

We will not put up with a man who shoves a Purple Heart in his pocket like any other trinket. We do not respect a man who screws up the stats on veteran suicide in a room full of veterans. We cannot vote for someone who doesn’t seem to even know what the GI Bill is.

We will not tolerate a man who claims that the cause of military sexual assault is the very presence of women in military service. We do not accept a would-be President who says that prisoners of war are not heroes. We cannot allow a candidate to tell service members with PTSD that they are weak.

I don’t speak for all veterans, but I hope I speak for the ones that value the integrity, loyalty, and selfless service that we embodied throughout our time in the military. Mr. Trump lacks all of these traits, and he has done nothing but treat veterans as if we are the props on one of his TV shows. So, I hope I speak for most veterans when I say that Donald Trump does not deserve our votes.

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