Memorial Day was observed on Monday, May 28. I was in Mexico at the time, paying for things in pesos and generally contributing nothing to the U.S. economy. Specifically, I was in Cancún, in a part of Mexico never once invaded, occupied, or wrested away from Mexico by the U.S. I’ve spent two 4th of July holidays abroad (Belarus and Spain, long story), but this was my first Memorial Day outside my home country.

I don’t usually make a big thing out of Memorial Day. I try to take a moment to appreciate the sacrifice others have made, sometimes in noble causes and sometimes not so much, that I don’t have the cojones to make. Typically, though, I find the holiday to be yet another opportunity for unabashed and shameless jingoism.

As we dive head first into what is likely to be an absurdly acrimonious election season, I expect to hear a great deal of rah-rah patriotism out of the Republican party, combined with accusations of Democrats hating the troops, blah blah blah. It’s worth a reminder of what Republicans really think of the troops.

Delegates to the Republican National Convention found a new way to take a jab at Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s Vietnam service record: by sporting adhesive bandages with small purple hearts on them.

Morton Blackwell, a prominent Virginia delegate, has been handing out the heart-covered bandages to delegates, who’ve worn them on their chins, cheeks, the backs of their hands and other places.

I am referring, of course, to the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Yes, the must-have accessory on day one of the Convention was the “Purple Heart Band-Aid” – brainchild of Morton Blackwell, a delegate from Virginia. These oh-so-hilarious accoutrements were designed to deride John Kerry’s honorable service in Vietnam, and Morton handed them out with the message, “It was just a self-inflicted scratch, but you see I got a Purple Heart for it.” But isn’t this incredibly offensive to any veteran who won a Purple Heart? Not according to Republican bigwigs such as Newt Gingrich who declared on ABC, “I think it’s funny.” So for all those who volunteered to join the military and won the Purple Heart for wounds received during combat, please remember – the Republican party thinks you’re a bunch of pussies who deserve nothing more than their undying contempt.

Let me be clear, I am not a veteran. At this stage of my life, I will probably never be a veteran. I have no idea what combat is like, nor do I know what it is to risk life and limb for my country (for any cause, really.) As such, I cannot tell veterans or active-duty military how they should feel about the RNC’s stunt in 2004. I can only say that it still makes me vomit to think of it.

For my part, I would never mock the sacrifice someone made for America by mocking the very notion of their injuries. The RNC delegates were not mocking John Kerry. They were mocking the military officials who made the decisions to award him the Purple Heart. They were mocking our entire military establishment because aspects of it refused to correspond to their narrow world view. For the Republicans, the troops are just a tool to be used or discarded as the party’s needs demand:

This Memorial Day, as we honor the service of our nation’s brave service members and veterans, is also a good time to examine what it means to “support our troops.” Too often in today’s political discourse, it is assumed that Republicans and conservatives support our troops while Democrats and progressives somehow don’t. This canard appears to be based on little more than the fact that conservatives engage in far more hawkish saber-rattling than progressives do. Much more, however, is required to truly support our troops.

Republicans support the troops as long as it is convenient. Democrats don’t necessarily do much better, continuing to send them into war zones without a clear objective (but that is an argument for another day.) Democrats don’t go out of their way to mock the troops, they way Republicans so shamelessly do.

And yes, I know the event I speak of occurred nearly eight years ago.

But I am never. Letting. This. Go.

Photo credit: 68726110_2c7787453b_o by Bob Geiger [Fair use], via democrats.com.