Politics & Power Quote by Leonard Boswell

Boswell’s line is a classic piece of elected-official praise: safe, reverent, and strategically hard to argue with. Pairing “military and law enforcement” in one breath collapses two different institutions into a single moral category of guardianship. That’s not just courtesy; it’s coalition-building. In contemporary American politics, those constituencies carry deep symbolic capital, and thanking them is a way to borrow a little of their legitimacy.

The language does quiet rhetorical work. “Protect us” and “continued vigilance” frame public safety as an ongoing siege, a permanent condition rather than a bounded challenge. Once you accept that premise, gratitude becomes more than manners; it becomes endorsement of budgets, authorities, and policies undertaken in the name of protection. “Sacrifice” is the key word here: it elevates service into a near-sacred register, discouraging scrutiny. Questioning tactics, oversight, or mission creep can be recast as disrespect.

The quote also reveals its political moment. Boswell’s career sits squarely in the post-9/11 era when “support the troops” and “back the blue” rhetoric became a bipartisan reflex, and when linking external defense to domestic policing gained traction. The final clause, awkwardly phrased (“we would less capable”), still lands: it suggests dependency. Citizens are positioned as beneficiaries, not participants, in national security. The intended effect is unity; the subtext is deference.