Jen Kiggans Has Betrayed Our Servicemembers

To listen to Jen Kiggans' political ads is to listen to a fantasy world where Kiggans is falsely depicted as "bipartisan," looking out for the best interests of her constituents and making life more affordable for residents of Hampton Roads. Kiggans' actually voting record reveals a totally different story where she votes lockstep with the Felon's agenda and voted for the falsely named "big beautiful bill" that gave huge tax beaks for the very wealthy, perhaps threw a few bread crumbs to  some in the middle class, and slashed funding for Medicaid and other social programs leaving many Virginians poised to lose healthcare coverage and other critical benefits.  She brags about being a nurse practitioner yet is fine with people losing access to healthcare in sharp contrast to the views of many I know in the medical field.  With Kiggans, her only real agenda is to kiss the Felon's diaper encased ass and to spread falsehoods spewed by the Felon and his sycophants within the GOP. Perhaps most damning, however, is her betrayal of our servicemembers as she continuously backs the Felon and his demented Secretary of Defense. One can only hope that the thousands of military voters in Hampton Roads will open their eyes to Kiggans' many betrayals and vote for Democrat Elaine Lura who, unlike Kiggans, will put her constituents and our servicemembers first.  A column in the Virginian Pilot looks at Kiggans' betrayal of the military.  Here are column highlights:

During my time as an F-14 pilot deployed on the USS Eisenhower, I was struck by how normal everyone was. Yes, we had all worked hard to master unique skills under a very disciplined environment, but we were still just people. Looking after each other was of prime importance, good skippers garnered devotion, leaders who used others for their own advancement were labeled “diodes” since they only operated “one way.”

 

Of special note were the enlisted, a successful culture that combined danger, youth and hard-living conditions is difficult to create and easy to ruin. . . . .  I’m only alive today because the chiefs and petty officers guided me through this deadly labyrinth while the junior enlisted working the flight deck made the impossible seem ordinary. Amazingly, these people were and are, by and large, kids.

We were regularly reminded how important it was to look after our troops. Sure, we might have two nuclear reactors and 70 advanced aircraft, but if the 19- and 20-year-olds couldn’t feel like anybody cared about them, the whole system would start to crumble. A salute wasn’t a sign of superiority; it was an acknowledgement of a duty for someone to take responsibility for another.

At 62, I’ve lost too many friends to brain cancer and seen the effects of PTSD first hand. Powerful radar radiation, cancerous chemicals and the experience of seeing friends die, even in training, can have consequences for 20 or 30 years.  . . . . We as citizens have a sacred duty to our neighbors on active duty, for they are too young to fully understand the long-term consequences of the game they are playing.

Which brings me to U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans. We sent our sailors overseas, to a war the American people didn’t approve, for which Congress didn’t debate, for a threat that both our Virginia senators stated did not exist. In the meantime, we insulted our allies, alienated our neighbors and disregarded military expertise. And with that we sent our young men and women to endure incredible hardship, danger and isolation.

We spent 20 years, a trillion dollars and 2,461 lives with the war in Afghanistan. We spent 20 years and lost roughly 58,000 lives in Vietnam. It’s likely that the Republican-led Congress will squander young men and women’s lives for no better reasons than they did with our previous wars. Was it too hard for Kiggans to vote on a war powers resolution or impose even the smallest of constraints on the president? Can she confidently say that the lessons of Vietnam and Afghanistan are not going to be repeated with the war we stumbled into now?

The issues with the USS Lincoln and Ford deployments are not normal. They are the result of gross negligence from our Congress members who view the young service members in our Navy as pawns to wave the flag at, not real people. Sure, you can ask our military to do incredibly hard things, but you better have a damn good reason that can stand up to 20/20 hindsight.

An aircraft carrier only works when the citizens sending it to sea do so with honesty, competency and trust. Kiggans is too scared of Trump to do what’s right. It’s on all of us to hold her accountable.