Thursday, April 26, 2012

Reyes' Response to Beto O' Rourke's Veterans Ad: A New Low For A Hard-Pressed Campaign





Veterans' issues are always a very personal and sensitive subject. Every American has a personal connection to a veteran. Many of our veterans are our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, boyfriends, husbands, wives, girlfriends, ect. The list can and does go on and on. That's why veterans matter. They laid their lives on the line for our country and their families, so that we can all be safe. 

In light of this obvious observation, I'm disappointed with the way the Congressman's press release was written in response to Beto O'Rourke's ad. The lack of a VA hospital in El Paso aside, why on Earth did the author of the Congressman's press release feel that it was appropriate to respond to this political add with the following statement:

The ad "shows what seems to be a man sporting a marine corps. (sic) patch in an attempt to exploit the struggles of our veterans to score cheap political points against the Congressman." --El Paso Times, citing Congressman Reyes' press release in response to Beto O'Rourke's ad.

There is a lot wrong with the aforementioned statement. A high school freshman-level rhetorical analysis of the press release statement would easily reveal how disrespectful the comment is to the brave marine in Beto's political add who was willing express his frustrations publicly about his struggles to receive care as a veteran: 


The add shows what "seems" to be a man "sporting" a marine corp patch in an "attempt" to "exploit" the struggles of our veterans to "score" "cheap political points" against the Congressman. Wow. How incredibly disrespectful this comment is to our veteran. 

The entire criticism of the veteran made by the Congressman's press release suggests that the veteran in Beto's ad:

[1]  May be lying about being a veteran;

[2]  May be willing to display a patch he doesn't really own or may not have earned;

[3]  May be choosing to take advantage of his alleged status as a veteran to score a deceitful win against the Congressman; and 

[4]  Should not be trusted or taken seriously, because he's spoken out against the Congressman.

That's absolutely awful, disrespectful, and perhaps typical of what one can expect from some of the people the Congressman has chosen to help represent him in his office and in his campaign. 


I obviously don't believe that the Congressman wrote this comment in his press release himself, but I do believe someone who is on the Congressman's payroll that is financed by us, his constituents, did.

Were I the Congressman running for re-election in a close race in a district that has one of the largest military bases in the country and one of the highest number of retired military veterans in my state, I would fire the person who wrote this press release. This comment alone would have had the potential to sink my campaign.

Our veterans in El Paso, regardless of who they vote for, deserve to be treated with more respect than this.


The El Paso Times article that reported this issue can be found here:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20481602/ad-attacks-reyes-over-va-hospital

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