For the record Roberto Clemente and Aretha Franklin got them too. Anyone bitching about those?
(I'm fine with them receiving the medals)
You have to have a well-groomed, years-long default response to any mention of "politician" or "government" with immediate cynicism, disdain, or outright scorn. These are Goldwater/Nixon/Reagan republicans. Some time later, you add "democrat" or "liberal" to the mix, and you now have a significantly large group of people that are so profoundly incapable of rational thought after any of those 4 trigger words are mentioned, that you have now defined the modern conservative base.
This is how you approach people like PokerGuy--just understand that his brain is no longer functioning after the trigger words have unleashed his vitriol and so there really is no point in further engaging him. However, if you want him to blindly vote "republican," then he is now perfectly primed.