Idiocy

What the hell does this even mean?

"I wasn't there at the time that happened," said Tony Gisclair, a veteran from Poplarville, Miss., who signed the letter, referring to Kerry's combat in Vietnam. "But look at what the man said about us when he came back."

Tony Snesko, a veteran in Washington, D.C., said he was "devastated" by Kerry's antiwar efforts, prompting him to sign on to the group's anti-Kerry message.

Snesko said to see Kerry elected would give credence to the senator's claims that those who fought in Vietnam were reckless baby-killers: "At the point that he might possibly take over this country as president -- it would validate everything that he said about us and would make it appear true."

Does it mean something like:

At the point that Dubya might possibly take over this country as president -- it would validate his drinking, drug use, and that girl he knocked up and then got her an abortion -- and would make it appear true.

I'm trying to wrap my head around the idiocy of these people but I don't even know what to make of it. How does voting for someone change facts (or even perceptions) of something that happened 35 years ago? And why do we care? Can someone explain this please?