Kelly's remarks were about sacrifice -- not politics

Like wrapping the bodies of fallen warriors in shrouds and packing them in ice so they can be shipped home to Dover Air Force Base. Like dressing them in their uniform "with the medals that they've earned, the emblems of their service" and transferring them to "a casualty officer escort that takes them home." Like the casualty officer proceeding to "break the heart of a family member" and staying with the next of kin "for a long, long time."

That part of Kelly's monologue was deeply authentic given that his own son was killed in combat in Afghanistan. I couldn't look away, and I could have listened to it for hours.

It's too bad most of the media gave those comments such short shrift, so they could get on with covering the food fight between the chief of staff and the congresswoman.

As Kelly was pouring out his heart discussing those Gold Star families who pay the ultimate price for our freedom -- his own included -- you had to know that the out-to-destroy-Trump media would miss the point entirely.

The narratives that followed were that Kelly was being a good soldier in standing by his boss, that he was wrong to only take questions from reporters who knew a Gold Star family, that he was a bigot because he's Irish and grew up in Boston.

None of which was the point of Kelly's remarks. Here's the point, as explained by the retired general himself:

"Who are these young men and women? They are the best 1 percent this country produces. Most of you, as Americans, don't know them. Many of you don't know anyone who knows any one of them. But they are the very best this country produces, and they volunteer to protect our country when there's nothing in our country anymore that seems to suggest that selfless service to the nation is not only appropriate, but required."

You see, that's what Kelly was getting at -- that the 99 percent will never understand what the 1 percent goes through. Not in life, not in death.

And the idiotic response to his remarks, by partisans and the media, proved him right.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.