The world’s richest, most powerful military is growing soft, and Republicans in Congress are finally doing something about it.
In a letter to the secretary of Defense, 30 House Republicans put their foot down on behalf of all the steak-eating, Trump-loving, straight-parent-having grunts everywhere.
“We write to express concern about the growing trend of left-wing extremism and politicization in our armed forces,” they wrote.
What’s so left-wing about the U.S. military? That’s right: Gay moms.
The GOP letter focused on a recent Army recruitment video, “The Calling,” which included — gasp! — animated footage of a gay wedding.
According to the letter, the recruitment ad “describes marching in left-wing social protests as ‘defending freedom,’ depicts ‘two moms’ raising a child, features a lesbian wedding, and refers to the subject of the video’s service to this country as ‘shattering stereotypes.’”
What happened to the good old days, when Marine recruits slashed lava monsters to death?!
Republican politicians seem to love the “Calling” ad because it gives them something to talk about — and a convenient deflection from an ongoing review of extremism in the military.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) recently boosted a tweet mockingly comparing the Army ad to a Russian military ad featuring the good old stuff: Shaved heads and pushups.
In an interview on Fox News last week, Cruz said Democrats, “lefty bureaucrats” and reporters were trying to turn the military “into, frankly, a bunch of pansies.”
The 30 Republicans who wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin picked things up from there, asserting that military officials — including those leading the “Countering Extremism Working Group” that Austin established last month — had been given “broad freedom to both catechize and root out servicemembers who will not affirm far-left doctrines.”
Just look at West Point, which the members of Congress wrote had been presenting an “anti-police, racist” diversity and inclusion training that had “caused consternation among parents and cadets.” Won’t somebody think of the parents!
The Republicans’ letter spent a full paragraph on the case of Matthew Lohmeier, a U.S. Space Force commander who was fired after promoting his self-published book, “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military,” on a podcast. (The probe over Lohmeier’s firing has since been elevated to the Air Force inspector general’s office.)
The book, of course, is now the top seller on Amazon’s Military Policy section.
“Instead of rewarding Lt. Col. Lohmeier for sounding the alarm bell on extreme ideologies infecting the military, he was relieved of his command,” the Republicans wrote.
The Republicans who signed onto Tuesday’s letter — including the likes of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ), the latter of whom actually followed white nationalists on Twitter for a while — have had enough.
“The sole purpose of the United States Military is to protect American citizens, defend American national security interests, and to fight and win wars when necessary,” the letter — which noted that it was “printed on recycled paper” — concluded.
“We urge you to use your authority to take action to fight back against the creeping left-wing extremism in the U.S. military.”
I see that MTG breathes thru her chin. The ol’ sliding mask routine again.
The military is hardly a hotbed of left wing George Soros loving, space lasers, and UV lamp loving democrats.
I gotta go outside for some fresh air…
I never thought I’d see “U.S. Military” and “Left Wing Extremism” on the same planet, much less in the same sentence.
Unless it was describing a new battle campaign.
MTG must be trying to distract from the heavy, actual, fundamentalist/wingnuts presence in the military.
No reporter should even take a quote from any one of these chickenhawks without first prefacing the question with:
“…and, before you respond, Congressperson–where did you serve?”
Fuck 'em if they can’t take a joke.
It was always their daydream fantasy, last-ditch hope and plan that if they needed to go violent to establish their permanent minority-rules white Christian hegemony, they’d have the military behind them.