A few weeks ago, I attended the Colorado Cattlemen's Convention -- my second year attending the convention.
At the convention, one of my favorite things to do is talk with the attendees passing in and out of the trade show and committee meetings. The invaluable conversations I’ve had with ranchers over the past few years have played a massive role in the development of my ranching and agriculture policies.
It was while I was at a standing table near the bar chatting with a group of gentlemen that I had another one of these invaluable conversations, though not for the reason you’d think.
After a long day of listening to briefings on agriculture policy, I struck up a conversation with the rancher standing next to me. I introduced myself as a retired Marine and father of four running for Congress. He asked which Party and I told him my general line which is, “I am a Truman or an FDR Democrat running to build bridges and bring Americans back together. I am a purple heart recipient, father of four, and believe we have more in common than in difference.”
He told me that our country was due for another civil war.
I informed him that as a Marine Infantrymen I had seen firsthand what the consequences of civil wars actually look like. On peacekeeping and humanitarian missions to post-war Yugoslavia where we witnessed the still open wounds of the Balkan Wars where neighbors killed neighbors.
I also deployed to Iraq where I witnessed widespread sectarian violence as that country descended into its own foriegn influenced civil war.
I told the rancher about these experiences and about my family's multi generational history of service. I told him that civil war is horrible. That it is nothing we want here and that after all, we wouldn’t want to be shooting at each other. His wife nodded in approval and we laughed and he left it alone. I communicated that a civil war would be bad and it did seem like me sharing my experiences dampened his enthusiasm for a civil war.
As a nation, though, it appears that it's getting harder and harder to make this case:
Pictured left, still from a political ad for Eric Greitens, a Republican candidate for Senate in Missouri. Pictured right, our opponent Congressman Ken Buck in one of his campaign ads.
The picture above is from a campaign ad released by a GOP Senate candidate in Missouri. In the ad, the candidate busts down a door accompanied by geared out soldiers and declares that it’s open season on RINOs/GOP politicians who aren’t extreme enough.
My opponent, Congressman Ken Buck, engages in this same type of messaging.
Civil wars are brutal, bloody affairs in which people literally kill their neighbors. It is our duty to stop this rhetoric before the rhetoric becomes reality. The Texas GOP literally wants to secede from the Union because of lies. If this radical faction gets their way, it could take our country into the abyss of bloody civil conflict.
As your Congressman, I will work with my colleagues to hold leaders and politicians accountable for dangerous rhetoric like the above.
I will restore normative conduct and practices and ensure those practices are made part of federal standards of conduct for civil servants. If we want to protect our rights, women’s rights, the environment, healthcare, the economy, National Security, the voting system, democracy in America….
Extremist rhetoric has no place in politics or government and it is frankly Un-American. Lets put an end to it before it's too late.
Ike McCorkle
USMC Retired
Democratic Nominee
CO-04
Ike McCorkle is the combat wounded Marine Force Recon Vet and Democratic nominee in Colorado's 4th Congressional District, running against the racist, corrupt, misogynistic Ken Buck.
