Retired Brigadier General Tom Daniels of Fort Worth, a Vietnam veteran and pilot who served in the Pentagon under President George H.W. Bush, notes the recent spike in racist talk and hate speech, and says, “Something bad’s gone wrong in this country.”
Daniels holds forth in a column by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Bud Kennedy.
Here is some of what Gen. Daniels has to say:
Something bad’s gone wrong in this country.
Something’s wrong in Arlington [where school officials banned President Obama's speech to students, but plan to bus them to Cowboy's stadium to see former President George Bush].
Something’s wrong in Austin. And something’s wrong in America.
Now our country chooses a black man as president — and suddenly, the governor is talking about secession? And Arlington is boycotting the president? They won’t even let children see him in school?
I talk to military guys all over the world — white, black, brown… They’re asking, ‘If it was unpatriotic to talk this way about the last president, isn’t this unpatriotic?’ They’re concerned. This is nothing but open, unabated racism. Nobody’s saying that.
All I know is, the black guy wins, and suddenly these nuts are out there on TV and radio preaching to long-haul truck drivers all over the country.
Somebody needs to start talking back. Where are the moderates in the Republican Party? Where are the people like George [H.W.] Bush who made sense? They’re letting the nuts lead them around by the nose.
Kennedy writes that Daniels “reserved special vitriol for Gov. Rick Perry.” Kennedy added, “Perry ‘should know better’ than to float talk about Texas leaving the U.S., Daniels said.”
He’s Air Force. He should be ashamed. I’m ashamed of him.
Even for a campaign, it’s the wrong thing to talk about…That’s not our Texas. We love our country. We’re not going anywhere. We don’t believe in secession.
It’s an old saying that the truth is the first casualty of war, but all my life I have noticed a devotion to truth among America’s military men and women. There’s even a philosopher, the martyred Czech dissident and hero Jan Patocka, who wrote that “living in truth” is exemplified in the solidarity found among those in the trenches. With every lucky breath they defend us, they defend their brothers and sisters, and they defend the truth. God bless them. God bless Tom Daniels.
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About Glenn W. Smith
Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”
Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.
In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.
As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.
Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.
Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.
As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”
Good on General Daniels. If somebody doesn’t start barking down these shrieking numbnuts, Texas and the US are as good as lost.
Glenn, best of fortune with the new site. You are a great asset to Texas. You’ve needed a new forum, and I’m hoping this one catches on like wildfire.
I’m spreading the Dog Canyon URL far and wide, and I hope all your readers do the same until the ball is rolling.
Thanks, buddy.
Sonnycollie, thanks so much. Glad you’ll be with us ’round the Canyon.
Sorry … I don’t see racism behind people speaking up with a loud voice. I believe they are tired of writing, calling and emailing and not getting any sort of pertinent or personal response. I know that I am.
They are concerned about the vetting process that would allow some real kooks to sit at the right hand of the Prez and advise him on things that appear to be near and dear to them … like communism, involuntary sterilization, a ban on hunting, and a massive tax on conservative radio and t.v.
This might all be B.S., but when they have these guys on video espousing this radical thinking, it’s hard to defend them. Maybe that is why the White House is not defending them. There is no defense.
There are some real kooks out there alright, but they are on both the far left and the far right fringes. There are a whole bunch of independent thinking folks doing the yelling and the Prez should be real careful about continuing to call them names. They are the reason he got elected.
As for General Daniels, I don’t think he speaks for the military establishment any more than I think that John Kerry speaks for the U.S. Navy.
Ronald Reagan was a bad actor who became a good President. I think that Barack Obama is on the road to being a bad President who has the makings of a good actor.
A few questions for Mr. Johnson:
Have you ever said or done anything you later changed your mind about, or later on thought better of how you might have said it? Do you want to be held to those things today in spite of it? Because this is what’s being done to Obama’s people.
Van Jones wasn’t brought in to establish Communism. He was brought in because he is uniquely qualified to promote a green economy in an effective way. If you read his book, if you look into his abilities you can’t deny it.
Are you a church-going man? Has your pastor ever said anything you don’t care to be tattooed with?
That is Obama’s situation, but are you perhaps one of those willing to tattoo away?
In a glimmer of light you allow as how “This might all be B.S.”, but are you gonna check and see, or leave that to someone else?
It’s your country and mine, bro. How important is the truth? More important than insulting John Kerry? Methinks so.
Folks are occupying themselves calling the elected President of the United States Communist, socialist, fascist, dictator, Kenyan alien. And you say the President is calling people names?
Hoo boy. Come on, now. Reality check.
Well said Sonnie Collie. Thanks for this.
I responded to “Sonnie Collie” question. Is there a reason by response has not been posted?
John, we welcome diverse views. But we are not a forum for snark. We disallowed your last couple of comments because the tone was not in keeping with the congenial atmosphere at the canyon. Please be respectful.
John Johnson said: “Sorry … I don’t see racism behind people speaking up with a loud voice…”
I say that it not “racism” to speak up with a loud voice. But Racism is when they say, in a loud voice, things that overtly refer to monkeys and fried chicken and watermelon in the context of a Black president knowing full well that such words are racist code and personally demeaning.
Johnson said: “Ronald Reagan was a bad actor who became a good President. I think that Barack Obama is on the road to being a bad President who has the makings of a good actor.”
I say that Mr. Johnson really needs to take a look at the facts–rather than spinning the fiction–of Ronald Reagan’s first term; at the unemployment rate-which reached almost 11% as many as 2 1/2 years into his presidency & it took almost three years to begin whittling away at; the massive growth in “borrowing and spending”, annual budget deficits breaking all records, consistent record national debt growth, the shrinking of the middle class, the massive redistribution of the nation’s wealth from the working poor and middle class to the wealthy..sso much for the first term.
I add that Mr. Johnson ought to check into the corruption that took place in Reagan’s second term; that he had more of his high level appointees investigated, indicted, charged, tried, convicted, fined, jailed or fined and/or who had to leave office under big clouds of scandal than any other president in history, save R M Nixon.
Maybe he ought to wonder why Reagan lied, at first–about the “secret government” in the White House Basement being run by Ollie North and the Nicaragua scandal–and then had to finally come clean in a national television speech, virtually on his knees, or risk his administration going the way of R M Nixon’s.
I don’t think Glenn would okay it but I could go on for a week correcting the Republican spin about Ronald Reagan as if, as the Repubs tell it, he were the Second Coming of Jesus Christ; that he was the greatest president in history; that he actually read books, etc. He was not; he did not! Nope! Reagan was a poor actor and an even poorer president…based on the facts instead of the syrupy spin!