A little over 240 years ago, two of my ancestors put on the uniform of George Washington’s Continental Army and marched into battle, willing to die if it meant bringing their fledgling nation inches closer to independence. Centuries later, in 1992, I followed in their footsteps and joined the Army.

Even knowing how my tour in Iraq would turn out, even knowing that I’d lose both my legs in a battlefield just north of Baghdad in late 2004, I would do it all over again. Because if there’s anything that my ancestors’ service taught me, it’s the importance of protecting our founding values, including every American’s right to speak out. In a nation born out of an act of protest, there is nothing more patriotic than standing up for what you believe in, even if it goes against those in power.

Our founders’ refusal to blindly follow their leader was what I was reflecting on this Fourth of July weekend, when some on the far right started attacking me for suggesting that all Americans should be heard, even those whose opinions differ from our own. Led by the Fox News host Tucker Carlson and egged on by President Trump, they began questioning my love for the country I went to war to protect, using words I never actually said and ascribing a position to me that I do not actually hold.

Mr. Carlson disingenuously claimed that because I expressed an openness to “a national dialogue” about our founders’ complex legacies, people like me “actually hate America.” One night later, he claimed that I called George Washington a traitor even though I had unambiguously answered no when asked whether anyone could justify saying that he was. Then he argued that changes to monuments of our founders “deserve a debate,” which, somehow, was different and more acceptable to him than the “national dialogue” that led him to question my patriotism just 24 hours earlier.

ImageSenator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, in 2018.

Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, in 2018.Credit...Celeste Sloman for The New York Times

Setting aside the fact that the right wing’s right to lie about me is one of the rights I fought to defend, let me be clear: I don’t want George Washington’s statue to be pulled down any more than I want the Purple Heart that he established to be ripped off my chest. I never said that I did.

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But while I would risk my own safety to protect a statue of his from harm, I’ll fight to my last breath to defend every American’s freedom to have his or her own opinion about Washington’s flawed history. What some on the other side don’t seem to understand is that we can honor our founders while acknowledging their serious faults, including the undeniable fact that many of them enslaved Black Americans.

Because while we have never been a perfect union, we have always sought to be a more perfect union — and in order to do so, we cannot whitewash our missteps and mistakes. We must learn from them instead.

But what I actually said isn’t the reason Mr. Carlson and Mr. Trump are questioning my patriotism, nor is it why they’re using the same racist insults against me that have been slung my way time and again in years past, though they have never worked on me.

They’re doing it because they’re desperate for America’s attention to be on anything other than Donald Trump’s failure to lead our nation, and because they think that Mr. Trump’s electoral prospects will be better if they can turn us against one another. Their goal isn’t to make — or keep — America great. It’s to keep Mr. Trump in power, whatever the cost.

It’s better for Mr. Trump to have you focused on whether an Asian-American woman is sufficiently American than to have you mourning the 130,000 Americans killed by a virus he claimed would disappear in February. It’s better for his campaign to distract Americans with whether a combat veteran is sufficiently patriotic than for people to recall that this failed commander in chief has still apparently done nothing about reports of Russia putting bounties on the heads of American troops in Afghanistan.

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At Mount Rushmore on July 3, President Trump shared a Fox News clip attacking Senator Tammy Duckworth.

At Mount Rushmore on July 3, President Trump shared a Fox News clip attacking Senator Tammy Duckworth. Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

Mr. Trump and his team have made the political calculation that, no matter what, they can’t let Americans remember that so many of his decisions suggest that he cares more about lining his pockets and bolstering his political prospects than he does about protecting our troops or our nation.

They should know, though, that attacks from self-serving, insecure men who can’t tell the difference between true patriotism and hateful nationalism will never diminish my love for this country — or my willingness to sacrifice for it so they don’t have to. These titanium legs don’t buckle.

The hateful vision for America parroted by Mr. Trump and Mr. Carlson will not win. Their relentless efforts to drive wedges between us will not work forever. We are too resilient a nation, too diverse a people, to let them.

In his farewell address, George Washington not only recognized his own imperfections, he also urged Americans to “guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism” and be wary of excessive partisanship. In the generations since, too many patriots, including many in my own family, have sacrificed too much to let our guard down now.

So when Tucker Carlson questions the patriotism of those willing to sacrifice for his freedom, or when Donald Trump promotes those smears — after having threatened to veto a pay raise for our troops to try to ensure the military continues honoring Confederate traitors who took up arms against our Union — remember Washington’s words.

Remember that part of what has always made America not just great but good is that every American has the right to question those in charge. Anyone claiming to stand up for “patriotic” values should recognize that, because, without it, the country these impostor patriots claim to love so much would not exist.

Our nation deserves leaders mature and secure enough not to race-bait or swift-boat anyone who dares disagree with them. After these past four years, and especially after these past four months, it’s clearer than ever that we must choose public servants who will focus on the serious issues facing our country — from the spread of the coronavirus to systemic racism to foreign adversaries threatening our troops’ lives — rather than cynical bullies who use schoolyard tactics to distract from their own shortcomings.

So while I would put on my old uniform and go to war all over again to protect the right of Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump to say offensive things on TV and Twitter, I will also spend every moment I can from now until November fighting to elect leaders who would rather do good for their country than do well for themselves.

Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) is a Democratic senator from Illinois.

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READ 427 COMMENTS

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40576968)

she devastated him

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40576984)

180000

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40576991)

Biden too is a goof, having to lie about graduating in the top 50% of his LS class at a TTT amongst other nonsense

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40577076)

I'd argue that the Dems #1 guy Biden is an empty vessel. I dont think Duckworth is anything original or great but at least she served/made a sacrifice (which is more than what someone like AOC can say)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40577200)

The argument I was making is that she's still better than most politicians in her party by at least making a sacrifice. As far as choosing the best out of the worst goes I'd have her as head of the Dems as opposed to say AOC/Bernie/etc

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40577409)

>> There’s a reason why there’s so many evil fat women in government. Where else would they be if government didn’t want them? They have nothing going on for them, except their membership in the Democratic party machine. The party gives them all they have, the same way the Communist party had given everything to that average peasant kid who became a middling bureaucrat in Moscow. And don’t even get me started with hostile Muslims or Transexuals. Those people used to be expelled or taken into asylums, pre-1960. Which is why American Progressivism likes them so much. The little these people have depends completely on the Left’s patronage. There’s a devil’s bargain there: the more naturally repulsive someone else, the more valuable it is as a party member, as its loyalty will be all the stronger. This is of course what’s behind Larry Auster’s First Law of minority relations: the worse a group behaves, the more the Left likes it.

This is also why the Left today is the same Left that was into Soviet Communism back in the day. What they approve of today would scandalize any 1920s Leftist. Even 1950s Leftist. But it’s all the same thing, following the same incentives: how to build a cohesive ruling class to monopolize state power. It used to be class struggle. Now it’s gender-struggle and ethnic struggle. Ethnic struggle works in America because immigrants have no territorial power base, unlike in Russia or China. So the old game of giving status to low-status minorities works better than ever. It works even better, unlike Lenin’s Russia, America has now access to every single minority on earth. Which is why the American left is busy importing as many Somalis as they can. The lowest performing minority on earth. Just perfect. <<

https://spandrell.com/2017/11/14/biological-leninism/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40577473)

I'm being realistic. Even Trump has not managed to accomplish much of his agenda in 4 years. If I'm not being realistic, please enlighten me.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40577474)

Remove her injury from her life and you’ll realize she is mediocre, at best, at anything she tries. Then apply that line of reasoning to her flying skills and her injury might make a little more sense.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40577448)

My point is that the politician class in this country is really nothing more than a bunch of totems/symbols for their respective interests.

I don't respect much in her EXCEPT her losing her legs in Iraq and at least having some sense of tradition/civic-mindness to at least serve in the NG. A lot of "red-blooded" American men don't lift a fucking finger in service to our country and that bothers me.

I care because these symbols do guide people. Just as how every do-nothing bartender with a shrill voice now probably thinks they can be an AOC the elevator pitch aspect of the person matters for the masses.

If you think that all Dems are equally shit regardless of the "skin" they put on then I would hazard to say you've reached a level of cynicism where you think this game is so corrupt, its not even worth playing.

If that's the case then really this is a moot conversation and its just waiting until the system collapses onto itself or getting the fuck out of here.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40577511)

My criticism of the anti-Duckworth talk here came from the XO crowd rushing to discredit the sacrifice of being a wounded vet because they were just in a rush to pile any and all criticism onto anyone they disagreed with. The problem is the loss of nuance in argument here rather than any kind of real admiration for Duckworth as a leader and individual.

Glad you got back man. Despite being a pog, my brother was wounded in OEF.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40577776)

- Combat Pilot

- 5th generation military

- Congresswoman

- U.S. Senator

U:

A faggot named "Sniggle"

OH HOW UNIMPRESSIVE SHE IS! IF ONLY SHE COULD'VE FOUND SOME WAY TO IMPRESS SOME FAGGOT ON THE INTERNET NAMED SNIGGLE!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40577596)

Uh...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40578467)

Also, it lies (she wanted a “conversation” about tearing down Washington which we all know means she’s comfortable with it coming down) and omits Tucker’s #1 reason why she’s a total fraud with ZERO moral authority to speak for veterans or patriotism: when abused VA patients went to her for help, she shrugged and stated, “that’s just how it is.” This forced the veterans to go to the media, leading to a major scandal and reform at the VA

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40577079)

Has ANYBODY mentioned Warren since this story developed?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40577600)

"HEY! DID YOU KNOW I LOST MY LEGS IN IRAQ???"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40578383)

Also it’s interesting that she never explains who she meant when she said trump’s rushmore speech “praised dead traitors.” Did she mean Abe Lincoln? Maybe Jackie Robinson? Who knows?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4580415&forum_id=2#40578791)