[Mb-civic] War, jobs, and the Democrats - Derrick Z. Jackson - The Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

War, jobs, and the Democrats

By Derrick Z. Jackson  |  August 31, 2005

EVERYONE SAYS they want peace. Then they fight for war jobs.

The Base Closure and Realignment Commission made its recommendations on 
which military installations should stay and go in the proposed 
consolidation by the Defense Department. The process became a satire of 
Democrats skewering themselves into patriotic pork.

You would think the most liberal of Democrats would fall all over 
themselves saying some base closures are a good thing since our children 
desperately need that proposed $48 billion in savings over 20 years for 
things like education. I know that education spending is not necessarily 
where the politicians and the Pentagon want the savings to go, but the 
average proposed savings of $2.4 billion a year is more than three times 
the current budget for the Boston Public Schools.

Instead we get bombast bursting in air, giving proof thro' the night 
that your base is still there.

The best place to start is Massachusetts. This is the state so allegedly 
liberal that a Republican governor lowered the American flag during the 
Vietnam War to appease students protesting the killing of fellow 
students at Kent State. Since then, the state gave us two of the last 
three failed Democratic candidates for president, derailed in part by 
their weak image on defense.

Such a state ought to be the first to volunteer to turn guns into 
butter. Not on your liberal life. When the commission announced the 
closure of Otis Air National Guard Base, up roared Senator Ted Kennedy, 
normally the favorite whipping boy of the right, crying, ''It defies 
logic. It defies intuition. It defies understanding. It makes no sense 
at all."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/08/31/war_jobs_and_the_democrats/
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