| > the reason they weren't drafted is as void as pretending that you had bone spurs Women weren't drafted because the government didn't mandate it. Trump avoided the draft by receiving a questionable diagnosis from a doctor. > and I think that draft dodging should thus be seen more as civil disobedience than something shameful And yet, they are not the same thing, because civil disobedience is a protest against the government, and ultimately accepting the consequences. President Trump does not claim his efforts at getting deferred and exempted were an act of protest against the war. Furthermore, he goes on to mock those who he deems to have performed inadequately during the Vietnam War, notably Senators McCain [0] and Blumenthal. It's possible for people to hate the Vietnam War, support equality, and condemn the hypocrisy of a jingoistic commander-in-chief. It's really amazing how you see these stances as mutually exclusive, even within an overly simplistic worldview. [0] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/hes-not-war-h... [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/27/trump-berates-da-nang-dick-b... |
For something to be justified it needs to be more than just government mandated. If the government mandated to only draft black men, would you call a black man with a questionable diagnosis of bone spur in the feet a draft dodger?
All of Trump's behaviour when it comes to the Vietnam war could be criticized without using the term draft dodger, especially without using it like it's usually used, i.e. with the implication that having draft dodged is bad, which imo is quite an hypocritical stance to have for someone opposed to the Vietnam war.