On Veteran’s Day, everyone casually says, “Thank you, veterans, for keeping us free.”  Corporations say this in their ads to make veterans and their families feel good so they come in and buy things.  Politicians say this to get votes.  It’s sort of like mindlessly saying “bless you” or “gezuntite” when someone sneezes.  People just say it.  They don’t think too much about it.

Not me.

I have a very clear vision of exactly how veterans keep us free.  They do two things.  First, they enter the military culture.  They take an oath to support and defend the Constitution – not an oath to obey orders from politicians – and they see senior NCOs and some officers who live by that.  They see with their own eyes that they, as members of the military, work for the Constitution, not whomever is the President at the time.  This keeps us free from a President who would be a tyrant if he could get the military to carry out his unconstitutional orders.

The second thing veterans do to keep us free is that they take take this culture of serving the Constitution back with them to civilian life.  There are literally millions of veterans who are now out of the military and living among us who will not tolerate unconstitutional behavior by a President.  These veterans have the culture and military skills that allow them to be a spectacular deterrent against any President who wants to be a tyrant.  These former-serving veterans are forward deployed in our neighborhoods to pick up the fight for freedom.

That’s what I mean when I say, “Thank you, veterans.”