Politico’s publication of a screed against Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker by Ian Murphy, a left-wing writer who is outspoken about his hatred for United States military members, has prompted a backlash against the publication by some in the military community–especially new recruit Trevor Chase.
Chase, 18, is a conservative Wisconsinite and freshman at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, majoring in radio, television and film communications while minoring in military science. “I’m currently in ROTC and I’m going to sign today, actually, to be in the National Guard and do basic [training] and AIT [Advanced Individual Training] this summer at Fort Benning, Georgia, for the infantry,” Chase told Breitbart News in an early Wednesday afternoon phone interview between classes. “I’ve been wanting to be in the military since I was five. Both of my parents were in the military. My mom was in for four years and my dad was in for 22 years. I’ve been wanting to do it for a while.”
On Tuesday evening, Chase stood up to Murphy via Twitter. He challenged Murphy’s outspoken hatred for U.S. troops, as the writer that Politico published this week had previously written an article that mocked dead troops under the headline: “Fuck the Troops.”
“I feel like someone should stand up for the military,” Chase told Breitbart News. “I didn’t feel like a lot of people were doing that and I looked at his Twitter and I went down to see all the Tweets and I didn’t see anything about military people commenting about him for his negative comments about the military. And I felt like it was my duty, almost, just to protect them given the fact that I’m going to be in.”
“I wanted to represent myself and everybody else who are in the armed forces because I have friends in the service, I have family members in the service,” he explained. “I felt like representing them and protecting them and what they’ve done for this country.”
During the back-and-forth on Twitter on Tuesday evening, Murphy challenged the idea that his freedom of expression to print the anti-military items and the story Politico ran is a result of the people in America’s armed services risking, and in many cases losing, their lives to defend those rights. But Chase said that whether Murphy knows it or not, it is the men and women in uniform who gave him those rights and protect them every day.
“People in the military fought and bled for people’s rights,” Chase told Breitbart News. “For example, the Revolutionary War is exactly why we’re Americans and we’re not British today. People fought and died to make the Constitution to get to where to the American people are today. So I feel like it’s disrespectful to think that the military doesn’t protect your freedom whatsoever.”
“[The military] is what started [your freedom]. Then the Civil War resulted in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to end slavery and all of that,” he continued. “Even though he doesn’t believe soldiers are protecting his freedom, they have been since America was born pretty much.”
“The way that he says it is even worse, using the ‘f-word’ every two seconds, saying soldiers are murderers and stuff like that,” Chase said. “It just doesn’t seem right to me.”
Chase’s interview with Breitbart News came as he was on his way to sign papers to enlist in the military. He said the experience of his back and forth with Murphy “makes me want to join even more because, you know what? I love the fact that it would just irritate the hell out of him.”
Chase is a self-described “military brat” who was born in Alabama. He grew up moving around the country before his father retired from the service after 22 years to move to his mother’s native Wisconsin with his two sisters. Both of his parents were in the army, having served in South Korea for some time. His father also served in Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War.
Chase’s father was a crew chief in the Army for some time before becoming a pilot of Blackhawk helicopters. His mother, in her four years in the Army, “did electrical work on helicopters.”
He is in his first semester of college and getting ready for finals, but Chase is so enthusiastic about serving his nation that he is setting himself to enlist now so that when he graduates in four years he is on the fast track to an officer position in the Army. “When I graduate from college, I’m hoping to be commissioned as a second lieutenant because I’m in ROTC right now,” Chase said. “If you get contracted into ROTC, you are signing up to become a second lieutenant when you graduate from college.”
“I’m hoping that after college and as a second lieutenant that I will gain the skills as a leader and an officer that I can bring back to the civilian world and use in my day-to-day activities,” he explained. “At my job, hopefully I can be a leader to people and help be organized–stuff like that.”
Chase hopes people do not ascribe to Murphy’s view of the military, noting that the American armed services teach people about character, integrity, and honor.
“Yeah, there’s a couple bad apples in the military–you’re going to get that anywhere,” he said. “But a lot of them have honor, integrity, and leadership skills, which is what everyone should have but not everyone does in America right now. I feel like it’s becoming a huge problem nowadays in that people aren’t having those values or virtues.”
Chase identifies as a conservative and is worried about the future of the country as he begins his collegiate and military careers–but is “sort of glad” that Obamacare’s failures are on display for the American people. “I already knew it was going to be a failure–ever since Nancy Pelosi said you have to vote on it to find out what’s in it,” Chase said. “It’s just like–who votes for that? Who votes for something when you don’t know what’s in it?”
“To me that doesn’t seem right. The fact that more people actually lost health insurance than actually got it, comes to show that it was a crappy bill from the start,” he explained. “That I think is nice, that people are starting to understand more that he [Obama] is lying.”
The reason why Chase is majoring in media is because he wants to enter into the film industry, despite the overtly liberal aspect of Hollywood. “I want to make film look amazing,” Chase said. “But I don’t want to be part of that whole spectrum that annoys people.”
Chase worries that figures in the media–like those at Politico who published Murphy’s work on Governor Walker–are not being honest with the American people anymore.
“I think the media, at least the news media, has gotten to a point where it’s not news anymore,” Chase said. “It’s just biased people talking about their opinions half of the time and skewing information for the American people. I don’t feel like MSNBC, CNN, NBC, whatever, you name it–it doesn’t feel like they’re telling you news.”
“It feels like they’re telling us one side of the political agenda where there’s another side as well,” he stated. “And it doesn’t feel like it’s fair that they’re only doing one side. And, I believe Hollywood people–they get annoying as well. They’re always like ‘Oh we got to tax the rich.’ Well, you’re rich. Shut up. You don’t know what it’s like to be middle class or poor.”
Nothing exemplifies it more, he added, than what Politico just by printing an anti-military writer’s screed against Gov. Walker.
“I feel like they [Politico] should feel shameful, the fact that they’re having someone as a writer do that,” Chase said. “Since they have a lot of advertisements from the military community, I feel like they would lose them and readers–especially people like me.”
“I’ve read Politico before. I’ve gotten some information from them before on stuff, but it turns me off the fact that Politico would use someone like that,” Chase explained. “I know a lot of people in military service who I’m pretty sure do read Politico, and I’m pretty sure it would upset them to learn that Politico even endorses someone like that.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.