What percentage of the draft dodgers of the Vietnam era

are rushlican ditto heads now?

I'd love to see the stats on that. The ones I know retained a healthy disrespect for authority. Some may be libertarians but not dittoheads.

Of course, there is the issue of defining draft dodger. Bush was one but not usually counted as one because his daddy got him into the National Guard.

back then are rushlicans ditto heads today. We have to remember I am in Oklahoma, where not one county voted for this fine gentleman we have as our President today

At least thats how I remember it.

Don

but at least they didn't do something to avoid service altogether. Many of the guys I was stationed with at Cam Ranh Bay were Navy reservist. From that I always figured that someone that mattered somewhere figured that it was one of the more secure bases to send their sons and daughters too.

were draft dodgers back in the day? A pretty high percentage would be my guess.

Ya know, as a pre Vietnam draftee I never resented those who resisted the draft because of an honest opposition to the war.

But I sure disliked those who went around talking tough about Vietnam while somehow managing to find a way to avoid going there.

Once to the point of a fist fight. I'm not proud of that but that's how strongly I felt about those assholes.

I can't tell you the number of guys I know who took the Limbaugh route to avoid service in Vietnam, but have been armchair warriors ever since. They do love to talk about how "we ought to just go over there and kick their asses!"

I always like to remind them "uh, I joined, and as I recall you got your doctor to say you had stomach ulcers (or some such shit)."

The most virulent rightwingers are, like Rush and Sean and all the other rightwing talkers, deathly afraid of military service.

I don't begrudge anyone avoiding service by any means possible back then, as long as they don't fucking act like the US should send troops all over the world to kick ass and take names. It's the hypocrisy of those guys who piss me off.

Back then, nearly every male I knew who was about my age was trying to find a way to avoid the draft. They hated the war. Many of them were Democrats, or they became Democrats. They hated Nixon, too.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by a draft dodger.

Ditto

I mean the ones who went out of their way to find a way to avoid the Vietnam war like a brother in law of mine who consumed tons of sugar leading up to his taking his physical, or like limpass himself or like ted nugent who shit himself and wore those pants for a month or so. Those kind of people are who I call draft dodgers. I remember that President Carter gave amnesty to the ones who went to canada, those I like because they stood up and lived their convictions but not the ones who, like I said, went out of their way to make it not happen. The scarity cats and the lowlifes.
I have to add that I feel that the ones who were back here protesting that war done more to stop it than I ever did by joining and going. Those are the ones I love.

My dad hated Rush but loved Bill O'Reilley

:shrug:

My mom was a republican till 3 years ago

:shrug:

"Chickehawkery is Our THING in the Republicon Homelander 'leadership.' You might say it's another one of our Republicon Family Values. Smirk."

- Karl Rove (R)

The were more chicken than that...they tried to hide and run from it.

Those who fought against the draft paid the price...jail or fleeing to Canada or Sweden and then had to file for amnesty. There were many others who took to the streets who had their heads busted or were dragged off in a paddy wagon. Those people stood up and to this very day I admire the tough choices those people made.

My bets are many of the rich rushpublicans had "friends in high places" or daddy dropped a couple of bucks to "make the problem go away". These shitstains knew their bacon was safe so they waved flags, played Okie from Muskogee and came to our parties anyway. They were utter chickenshits and hypocrites then who created the lies of "who lost Vietnam" and Democrats being unpatriotic. Hopefully their lamest generation is passing from the political scene.

I have the utmost respect for the ones who stood up and said NO. I wasn't man enough nor informed enough at the time to do that. My respect for President Carter went through the roof when he gave amnesty to them. Still to this day I think of him as the greatest and for that very reason. :hi:

Some of the posters here are tying themselves in knots trying to distinguish between different ways in which individuals sought to avoid being drafted and sent to vietnam. Those that went into the national guard or used medical claims to avoid are condemned, those who went to Canada are exalted.

Well, I was there. I evaded the draft. Ultimately I did it on what some might view as the most principled way: I applied for and obtained a conscientious objector deferment.

But guess what: I also explored every other option and would have used any of them: I consulted with an anti-war, anti-draft doctor about getting a medical deferment, I looked into applying to colleges in Canada. I actually received my notice for a physical, and avoided that by claiming that I had moved from my parents address to my grandparents address in a different state, which led to the physical being cancelled (I received my CO before it could be re-scheduled). About the only options that I didn't seriously consider were (i) getting drafted, refusing to report and going to jail; (ii) joining the Guard; (iii) signing up for ROTC (which was another way some people avoided actual service in Nam towards the end of the war).

As far as I was concerned then, and as far as I'm concerned now, everyone who shared my opposition to fighting in that war was my brother and I drew no distinctions between them based on how they sought to avoid service or why they did so.

And as for the original question: I imagine that the number of folks who took steps to avoid service in Vietnam who listen to Rush is no greater than, and probably far less than, the percentage of those folks who don't listen to Rush, just as the percentage who served in vietnam who listen to rush is probably no greater than, and far less than, the percentage of those folks who don't listen to rush. Remember. of the population as a whole, the vast vast majority don't listen to rush's program.

and to you this was not directed. I think I have made it clear who I am talking about in this thread.
Now with that out of the way. So you think that the percentages of the listeners are the same across the board? I don't see it that way here where I live.

And it is the most true to the way I remember things.

I am married to a Vietnam era veteran. He was lucky enough not to be sent to Nam after he was drafted. He went to Germany instead.

It's strange how we rewrite history.

they got drafted, fought in vietnam.

some came home, some died.

Two of my brothers, one older and one younger, followed suit and joined the Navy too. Neither of them had to go to the ground in 'Nam though.

http://www.learn-english-online.org/

or at least stop babbling!

Background: in Australia, you (if you were male) were required to register for National Service in the 6 months before you turned 20 (IIRC). If you did, you could be called up if your birth date came out in a lottery. If you didn't, you were called up. The next stage was a medical. If you hadn't registered, you were assumed to have passed the medical. Then you were inducted into the Army.

I didn't register, went to court and was given a $64 fine (this was in 1970). I refused to pay and sent several letters to the Department for National Service telling them I wasn't going to pay and if they wished to arrest me, they could. They never did.

I called myself a draft resister, not a draft dodger.

I wasn't the only one - the war was very unpopular in Australia. My best friend was actually arrested by some very embarrassed police and spent a night in a holding cell. A couple of resisters spent some time in jail where they were treated with respect by other prisoners. And I know many Americans did similar things. I have no problems with people who avoided the war in other ways...with one proviso...they do not advocate young people going to was on their behalf now.

To get back to the original question, I'm (still) as liberal as all hell.