Hello, fellow Americans; I am here to explain why I endorse Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
After following the long tradition of non-voting neutrality by Regular US Army Officers, I retired from my career in the Field Artillery (including two tours in Vietnam) in 1983. After attending law school in 1986 and employment in a North Idaho Prosecuting Attorney's office, I became politically active. I even attended one Democratic party meeting but found my home with the GOP.
I well remember the day in the fall of 1967 at Cam Ranh Bay, I was returning to Vietnam after a stay in an Army Hospital in Japan when I learned that John McCain had been shot down. I only hoped that his family would be comforted in some way and that, eventually, we would be able to have him and the rest of the POWs home. He did come home and entered the Congress. I admired his positions on most issues, like pork barrel spending, campaign finance reform, and immigration. In 1999, when he announced his first run for the Presidency, I drove to Seattle to meet with him and Cindy to offer my services. We met in a hangar in Boeing Field, and I told him I wanted to help organize the Idaho campaign. He explicitly instructed that his campaign would not involve dirty tricks or falsity in any form.
In 2007, McCain said he would try again. I had moved to Colorado, and after meeting with him in Denver, I was asked to be Colorado State Chairman of Veterans for McCain. After a few months of organizing that effort, it became necessary for my family to move to Ohio, where I was asked to do the same duty for the Ohio 8th Congressional District. A highlight was spending a day riding with McCain on the “Straight Talk Express” bus.
Then, in 2016, Mr. Trump ran for President. I think that he dodged the draft with a phony physical defect that he paid for. He insulted the memory of this hero that I so admired. He could not show any sign of integrity or morality in his personal makeup. Ultimately, he labeled me and all of my fellow veterans, including those that lost their lives, as “suckers” and “losers.” I did not vote for Trump in either the 2016 or 2020 elections.
He caused the invasion of the capital by the criminal rioters. He is a convicted felon. He is not fit to be our Commander in Chief.
While I disagree with Harris-Walz on some issues, I think they are willing to listen and make honest efforts to compromise to bring order to our government, our economy, and our way of life. Therefore, as a Republican, I give them my wholehearted endorsement.
Douglas W. Whitney, MAJOR US Army (Retired), was the Colorado State Chairman of Veterans for McCain in 2008.