Dear Don,

You like to make a lot out of your military service. Unlike Republicans in 2004, I won’t disparage that because everyone who voluntarily serves puts their lives on the line for this country, whether the “wars” were really necessary or not. Thank you for your service. If you represent what the military has become, though, we’re in serious trouble.

Imagine, if you will, basing military strategy on unfounded rumors. Maybe that’s not so far-fetched for you, considering you’re in the political party that promoted “weapons of mass destruction” that didn’t exist. How many US Soldiers were killed, injured, or dealing with the consequences mentally of those lies?

But I digress. You heard a story from someone somewhere that there were litterboxes in school classrooms that students who identified as “furries” were using for the bathroom. You jumped on this without checking into the story and repeated it. Why? Because it fit the narrative you wanted to put out there. Apparently, you’re a transphobe and a homophobe, and this was how you chose to telegraph it.

It’s not happening. But what is happening is hysteria in this state now where parents are ready to take their kids out of school.

I blame No Child Left Behind (thank you George W. Bush). We’ve had almost 21 years now of social promotion because that’s what it is. Schools worry more about the percentage of students who fail, rather than really educating them, so they push students through and graduate them, even though they should be failing them. We have gullible people who listen to these stories and freak out, even though there isn’t a shred of truth to them. “My friend’s daughter was bit by one!” Only you can’t pin down the actual person it happened to. “I’m pulling my kids out!” And you think you’re qualified to teach them? You just bought into this bullshit hook, line, and sinker. Tell me how you’re going to educate a high school student in advanced mathematics or science?

I’m digressing again. The problem is, Mr. Bolduc, that once you were informed this bullshit you repeated was false, you should have retracted it and issued an apology. I get why you didn’t. After all, if a General falls for bullshit like this, what does it say about him? It says you pretty much can’t trust his judgment. It says he will believe the absolute stupidest, most ridiculous stories as long as it fits your preconceived notions, rather than seek out the truth.

There are litterboxes in many schools – do you know why? It’s part of a kit in the classrooms so if there is an active shooter on the campus and students have to be barricaded in their classrooms they’ll have a place to go to the bathroom.

Republicans’ inaction on gun control is why there are litterboxes in the classroom, not because kids are identifying as cats and using a litterbox. You could get the litterboxes out of the classroom, General, if your party would actually stand up and enact some common-sense gun control legislation.

I get it, though, none of it fits your narrative.

Which is why I say you could learn a thing or two from other military leaders who became politicians. In particular, I think of General Eisenhower and Captain John McCain.

I disagree with nearly everything John McCain represented politically, and I doubt I’ll ever forgive him for foisting Sarah Palin on the American population. However, in 2008 when he was running opposite Barack Obama, he stood up to the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party. The part of the Party that you now embrace with no reservations.

He would not go along with spreading lies or misinformation simply to get more votes. We know why these people were “scared”. Obama was black and that’s all they needed to know. But McCain was an honorable man and wouldn’t let it descend into the insanity we see in this year’s political races.

The fact that you, Mr. Bolduc, will not walk back the rhetoric you’ve put out there means you have no integrity. I’m very sad to see that in someone who served in the military. My father served in the Navy during World War II. I have a son currently serving in the Army. There are many good people serving this country.

Unfortunately, the honor of many of those serving doesn’t seem to have had an impact on you. Instead you say and do dishonorable things in an almighty quest for power.

You could learn a number of things from President Eisenhower. He was easily the greatest former military man to ever hold the office of the President. Are you figuring if you tow the Party line you can go from broke to millionaire like Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Green? That’s the only thing I can fathom.

In addition, you think local politicians should have a say over a woman’s health concerns. You won’t even admit you’re wrong about something as ridiculous and stupid as this! Why should an uneducated politician have more of a say over a woman’s health concern than her or a qualified, educated physician?

You’ve turned into a buffoon. A white, fragile, male, buffoon. Any respect your military service once brought you is gone, except for in the nutty right-wing extremist cult you belong to.

There’s still time to be a decent human being. I just don’t believe you can do it.