Adam Serwer on Bloggingheads.tv: Memorial Day, Romney’s Conservatism, Bloomberg’s Soda Ban, and Obama’s Kill List

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You come to Mother Jones for unique journalism, and we love doing it for you. That's it. That's the upshot of our fall fundraising drive, and we're hoping to raise $250,000 in a shorter than normal three-week window so we can keep right on doing it.

On Sunday, I did a Bloggingheads episode with Business Insider‘s Michael Brendan Dougherty. We talked about MSNBC’s Chris Hayes remarks about heroism and the military, Obama’s use of targeted killing, Romney’s conservatism, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on serving soda in containers larger than 16 ounces.

My point was that although the military is seen as apolitical and nonpartisan, in practice military leaders can be very adept at political maneuvering, whether we’re talking about raising troop levels in Afghanistan or repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. The military’s apolitical reputation is probably one of the reasons public faith in it as an institution remains high even as respect for other public institutions has suffered.