To understand the nature of liberal elitism, look no further than this quote from Ryan Lizza’s new profile on partisan dining in Washington, D.C. It comes from a D.C. resident who regularly throws dinner parties for the city’s presumed elite.
I cannot read that quote without being enraged. Because anyone who says that John Kelly has lost his “hall pass” into “acceptable society” isn’t just an exceptional moron, they are a disgrace to basic decorum and American class.
Whatever you think about Kelly’s White House service (I believe he served well), or the decision to separate families while prosecuting illegal adult border crossers, Kelly has an eternal hall pass to acceptable society. He has earned that hall pass by choosing to honorably serve for 41 years as a Marine infantry officer. He led and lost young Marines in battle in places like Anbar and against enemies like al Qaeda in Iraq, and he kept on serving. His son, Robert M. Kelly, followed his father’s footsteps and one day gave everything for his Marines and his nation in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Kelly chose to keep serving, even after that tragedy.
There’s a great divide here between the callous cowardice of this hostess, refusing to provide her name to Esquire, and the Marine ethos of honor and courage. It’s a dichotomy best encapsulated by what Kelly told fellow Gold Star families back in 2014. “For all of the families who have lost the light of their lives,” Kelly said, “they can say to every American that it was my boy, or it was my girl, who stood their post and did their duty into eternity.”
Their hall pass to American honor is eternal.
