President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Biden*

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%↓

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

90%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

90%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

(R) Ron Hanks

40%

30%

20%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(R) J. Sonnenberg

(R) Ted Harvey

20%↑

15%↑

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Dave Williams

(R) Jeff Crank

(R) Doug Bruce

20%

20%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

90%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) Brittany Pettersen

85%↑

 

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

(R) Janak Joshi

60%↑

40%↑

20%↑

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
February 08, 2018 01:13 PM UTC

Gardner: "The last thing America ought to be worrying about is 76 trombones in a parade"

  • 2 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand! – Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Sen. Cory Gardner (R).

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner laughed off concerns today about Trump’s proposed military parade.

Asked by KOA radio hosts if he was concerned about the parade’s $20 million price tag, Gardner quipped, “Look, as long as they let Michael Dukakis drive a tank, I’m fine with it.”

After a round of laughter at Gardner’s reference to a disastrous 1988 photo op of then presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in a M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, radio host Marty Lenz asked Gardner, “Do the optics of that give you any concern, Senator?”

“If people are wound up about a parade, there are a lot more important things to get wound up about,” he replied.

“But you see North Korea and some of these other countries having parades,” pressed Lenz. “Does it just not look good for us to do that?”

“I think this country is proud of it’s military. We ought to be proud of our military,” said Gardner, a Republican, on air. “The cost is certainly a problem. There are ways to bring down that cost. We’ve got to make sure our economy is strong. We have got to fix trade. We should be worrying about North Korea. We’ve got to protect our men and women in uniform.

“The last thing America ought to be worrying about is 76 trombones in a parade.”

Trump came up with the parade idea after seeing a military parade on Bastille Day in France.

But the president faces criticism on the grounds that military parades are not part of American custom, but instead are often, but not exclusively, a hallmark of authoritarian regimes.

“A lot of countries have histories of longtime military conquest and the power and strength of the military supporting the government, but since our inception that has not been who we are,” Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling told TIME magazine. “We’re the only nation in the world that defends a piece of paper. An ideology. And to say we’re going to strut our stuff with tanks and rocket launchers and things like that, is just not a good representation of what the military does in a democratic nation.”

Listen to Gardner on KOA’s Colorado’s Morning News here:

Comments

2 thoughts on “Gardner: “The last thing America ought to be worrying about is 76 trombones in a parade”

  1. The last time there was a military parade in Washington D.C. was in 1991 after the 1st Gulf War.  I remember it well as I was a participant/marcher in it.

    But it was under different circumstances – there was a national euphoria over the successful completion of a specifically defined military operation that met its objectives and ended quickly with far fewer casualties than anyone would have imagined.

    But this proposed parade is for a much different reason: it's to appeal to the vanity of a "so-called" Commander-In-Chief who wants to emulate the dictators in Russia and North Korea.

    You want to do something to honor the military?  Fine.  Take the the money that would go towards the Parade and put it towards improved veterans services, or the USO, or better family services of deployed troops.

  2. Autocrats use military parades to show that the big guns are on their side. "You may hate me, but you'll go along with my wishes because I command the military, and I can command the military to come after you. "

    Kim Jong-Un knows that. Hitler knew that. Stalin knew that. Trump knows that. And Gardner knows that. So his talk of "76 trombones" is just misdirection and an attempt to distract from Trump's desire to use the military to prop up his tottering administration.

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

155 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!