In April, 1945, less than a month before Hitler committed suicide in his bunker, effectively ending World War II; Lt. Bob Dole, a small-town Kansas boy was leading a patrol against the Nazis in Italy. A Nazi machine gun had pinned down his radio man, and Lt. Dole, being a member of the Greatest Generation decided to rescue the unfortunate soldier.
His reward for that courageous act was swift; his body was shredded by the very same machine gun. So shredded, the Medics, doing instant triage, left him for dead, and moved on. When they doubled back, after saving the ones they thought could be saved, they found him still alive.
His right arm was useless; he was paralyzed and could not walk.
Dole had been assigned to the elite 10th Mountain Division, to replace a commanding officer who had been killed in combat. Dole never understood why.
“I thought it was mighty odd that a kid from Kansas who had seen a mountain up close only once in his life would be assigned to lead a platoon of mountain troops…we Kansans didn’t ski much.”
Dole was shipped home, to be warehoused until he finally died. He figured he would be stuck selling pencils on street corners to survive.
He was assigned to rehabilitate at the Percy Jones Hospital in Michigan. He was given a roommate, a Nisei, a Japanese American; a Nisei who had lost his arm fighting with the famed 442nd Combat Regiment; a regiment comprised of Japanese Americans, whose parents, wives, sweethearts, brothers, sisters, uncles, children, cousins and friends were locked up in detention camps on the High Plains.
The 442nd was nicknamed the GO FOR BROKE Regiment, earning 4,000 purple hearts, 21 Medals of Honor and an unprecedented seven Presidential Unit Citations.
That Nisei was Daniel Inouye.
There they were, in Michigan, one boy from Kansas with a useless arm, and a Nisei( irst generation American ) from Hawaii, missing an arm. The Greatest Generation.
One, Inouye, became a Democratic Senator from Hawaii, and the other Dole, , became a Republican Representative from Kansas, a Republican Senator from Kansas, the 1976 Republican nominee for Vice President and the 1996 Republican nominee for President.
The Liberal Media and Liberal Punditry waxed confused on why Bob Dole, the small-town boy from white bread Kansas, would vote for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Act, both of which diminished white political power.
The answer is simple: when one stays in a dark room, with a mangled body, talking deep into the night with a man like Dan Inouye, who gave his arm for the Republic, one will try and do the right thing; even if it means giving away a piece of one’s power.
No warrior from Kansas will give away any of his power to the likes of Ilhan Omar, Primila Jaypayal, and Mazie Hirono without a bitter fight. No one suffers like Bob Dole suffered, for the purpose of letting Ilhan Omar inherit the fruits of the suffering. The singer matters as much as the song.
Bob Dole had some quirks; he often referred to himself in the third person, as in Bob Dole thinks this.
This Blogger assumes that comes from the cumulative effect of out of body experiences, which he experienced during his wounds, and rehabilitation. Dole was probably as amazed as his doctors that he taught himself to walk again.
He was fanatically loyal to Richard Nixon, even through Watergate.
That loyalty seems to have been based on a personal grace Nixon extended to him. Dole’s right arm was useless from the wounds suffered; many people had a difficult time figuring out how to shake his hand, his left hand. So many people did not offer their hands in friendship.
Nixon figured it out; to a man whose right arm is useless, you offer your left hand first. Left hand shakes left hand.
America’s Periclean Age ended in 1992; when the American people elected draft dodger Bill Clinton over a war hero from the Homeric Greatest Generation, George H.W. Bush.
In 1996, the Republican Party nominated Bob Dole, another Homeric war hero from the Greatest Generation.
Dole defeated himself, when in his Acceptance Speech, he said he wanted to be a bridge to America’s past; a past of honor, courage and shared sacrifice.
Clinton jumped on that Greatest Generation faux pas, and in his Acceptance Speech offered a bridge to THE FUTURE, NOT THE PAST.
If only Dole had had the wit of sloganeering to go with his courage, and integrity ; in 2016, Trump took Dole’s Bridge to the Past concept, and reshaped it into MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, MAGA. Perhaps that is why Dole supported Trump.
Senator Inouye died in 2012.
This Blogger would like to end this Blog with a quote from his brother.
One day in a joshing mood, this Blogger asked his ancient brother, who had fought in Italy, what was so damn great about the Greatest Generation? I mean, were they greater than the Homeric heroes who defeated the Trojans? How could you be greater than Homeric?
For a minute this Blogger lost him; he looked far away, as if he were observing a distant graveyard, with many crosses unto an endless horizon.
Then he came back and answered this Blogger: “We were the greatest because we took Troy and did not sack it.”
Dole playing cards at Percy Jones Army Hospital in Michigan, right. Looking on is future Sen. Daniel Inouye....BOB DOLE
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