Does the military need right wingers?

Recently the Army dropped its covid vaccine mandate and invited back all the 'anti-vaxxers' it fired during the pandemic. It would seem that there are less people willing to be injected with whatever they're told than there are required to properly fight wars.

Mostly this highlights just how desperate our disparity in recruits needed (especially with all the Russia and Iran and China stuff going on) is, relative to recruits recruited. Its not good.

But the heavily politicized vaccine mandates were not the only thing desentivizing people from joining the military. For example:

Bishop Garrison, senior adviser to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and head of the Pentagon’s Countering Extremism Working Group tweeted in July 2019:
"Silence from our Congressional leaders is complicity. He is only going to get worse from here, & his party and its leadership are watching it happen while doing nothing to stop it. Support for him, a racist, is support for ALL his beliefs."
"He's dragging a lot of bad actors (misogynist, extremists, other racists) out into the light, normalizing their actions," he added. "If you support the President, you support that. There is no room for nuance with this. There is no more "but I'm not like that" talk."

So, right there, we have the guy in charge of countering extremism in the military essentially calling ALL Trump supporters extremist and inferring the Republican Party are 'complicit'. It would be reasonable to conclude that Trump supporters (and possibly Republicans) are no longer welcome in the military.

Now, I'm sure we've all seen Trump supporters and right wingers characterized as 'anti-vaxxers' (and in regards to covid, I would guess that characterization is usually accurate). Taken in conjunction with the new standards of 'extremism' extending to Trump supporters and possibly Republicans (which makes up the vast bulk of 'right wingers'), the question begs to be answered: do we want/need them joining the military?


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(So ya, there was gonna be more, but I autopiloted my typing, hit 'cntrl-enter' and it posted when I was half done. It is what it is...)

 

One thought for you.

If not "right wingers" to fight for your rights, who?

Because its a sure thing the left won't.

 

There is a difference between the "right" and members of Cult 45 that your poll doesn't distinguish. Members of Cult 45 believe obvious lies and conspiracy theories, potential Oath Keeper material. Dangerous for the military.

Another thought..........that's what the ACLU acutely does.

 

Deleted.

 

The ACLU defends your rights as a woman when you ain't really one. They don't sign up for military service.

 

? there's a trans 4 Star Admiral or are you talking about ACLU lawyers (who have defended Nazi's freedom of speech)? My response was about how the "left" doesn't defend our rights comment and, by the way, Bishop Garrison quoted in the OP, as representative of the "left", is a veteran with two Bronze Stars.

 

Covid is/was unique: for low risk groups, it wasn't that bad. But publicly there was the shrill "hue and cry" being magnified by those pounding the "worst case scenario" drum. Then it morphed into "You vill get the clot shot".

Covid is gradually fading away to a cold, and it will eventually be gone until China spills another one.
Now we find clandestine bio labs in California run by "CCP nationals" whatever that is. The fact is they are free lancing with all kind of dangerous biological, (attenuation level unknown) dangerous pathogens. A bed sheet does not a "clean room" make.

Back to the military, let's call this an internet driven aberration, because you can't not get your shots.You have to be ready to deploy right away, and be as near to 100% effective as possible.

 

Yeah, left wings will just send a few billion every few months and claim they've solved the problem.

 

You might be surprised that only 34% active duty are Republican, and about 30% Dems and non-affiliated are the biggest group. Maybe they are not as obsessed with partisan politics as you are. What rights are you referring to?

As for those who refused the jab, they represent 0.05% of the personnel, and I'd be surprised if they came back, because I think they were looking for a way out of service anyway.

 

While the theatrical irony is blatant, I tend to take a longer view. Seems to me it began when hundreds of top military commanders 'retired' during the Obama years. Some wrote of it as Obama's military coup, and some cheered. Among the best was Gen. Petraeus, appointed CIA director and 'somehow' got mired in a scandal and resigned a year later. My read was, a lot of top brass Constitutionalists were replaced with a lot of top brass political idealists.

Since then, slowly, the top-down influence of diversity, inclusion, and equality has steadily grown and spread within the US military.

When Congress passed the $850+B defense bill in late 2022, the Pentagon dropped the vax mandate because the military was having a hard time recruiting to fill the gaps... gaps caused by the political idealists' vax mandate.

DoD’s Countering Extremism Activity Working Group (CEAWG) is a recent layer of bureaucracy, like a military Ministry of Truth. Despite his officious title, Garrison's a mouthpiece pumping the narrative, a political idealist cheerleader and little else.

Yes, they're needed. However, given the military's current atmosphere, the leadership that forced them out of their jobs/careers because of politics and demonstrated how expendable they are, I'd sooner ask why any 'extremists' would want to join.

 

I'm kindof skirting the point here, because making it outright is likely to turn some folks off to it unless they reach the conlussion themselves. That being that OF COURSE we need right wingers in the military, right winger ARE NOT going to bow to the progressives and start adopting candidates that progressives find acceptable, and so long as that = 'extremism' the progressives have no room to complain about 'extremists' in the military and/or not enough right wingers in the military. Pushing the overton window perpetually to the left does not automatially make everyone who doesn't follow thusly 'extremist'.

But like I said, folks don't really want to be told this. They have to realize it themselves.

 

The lines have become so blurred to the point simply left or right describes the extreme in political conversation. That is not how we see ourselves but the truth is that is really how we vote. I think it will define this election as well. Crazy is going to get weeded out however we might define crazy in our own minds. It has to because no country can survive hating itself.

 

Apparently, there are too many right-wingers in the military:

 

Internet radicalization is a thing, just ask ISIS and leaders in the US are not helping. Dog whistling white nationalists, MSM is fake news, judicial system can't be trusted, there is a "deep state"......all making our current government illegitimate and ripe for overthrow. We've got idiots with guns and training who believe it.

 

even bone spurs got the vaccine

 

Both sides have a bad track record, but the right is far worse at this point.

 

A White House aide said he refused to wear a mask because it would smudge his makeup.

 

you know your staff is micromanaged and afraid to speak out, when they let you leave like this - no one dared tell him it looked bad

 

I agree. The purge of non partisan military leadership to make room for "Identity Leadership" has poisoned our military. They have having problems with enlistments, and I would not be surprised to see a small draft coming up. (I am for 25% of military manpower being draft so citizens get some skin in the game. They would have to be asked into combat groups rather than assigned.)
Moving on... a high tech military cannot afford to choose it's soldiers by "likes".

Trump is aware of visuals and what he looks like to our enemies. The man in charge should never be seen by Xi Jinping as weak. Have you seen any consequential world leader wearing a mask?

 

A left wing military would just be puffs, trannies, furniture polishers, and cry babies.

 

...and people who will follow orders. Modern warfare is like 90% pushing buttons and obeying the bureaucracy. It seems that recently the law enforcement strategy of laser-focus on recruiting the good little button pushing bureaucrats has spilled over into the military. But if there's a silver lining to the ongoing Ukraine debacle, its a reminder that the other 10% (front line combat) is still the most important element.

 

In the UK

We don't need a military thinking outside the box like the active duty military insurrectionists who showed up Jan 6 or the 78 service members who were suspected of advocating for the overthrow of the U.S. government and another 44 were suspected of engaging or supporting terrorism.

 

An interesting assertion, you have first hand experience serving in the military? Or is this assertion the result of your extensive research into the facts of the matter?