The Demise of the GOP

Turning their backs on the military, extremist Republicans are abandoning the last of the principles that once defined their party

Photo by ftroy2402 via Getty Images.

There once was a Republican party that prided itself on its commitment to the American military, loudly professing its respect for national defense. This was across the board, essentially a third rail of GOP politics.

Those days are over.

We have watched the ignorant behavior of Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, single-handedly blocking hundreds of military promotions in his vain determination to stop the Pentagon from providing soldiers access to abortions, a policy that funds travel if they are stationed in states that prohibit them. The former college football coach has also complained about the military’s “woke” policies and “woke propaganda” in its effort to create equal opportunity.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said last month that Tuberville’s blockade is “unprecedented, it is unnecessary, and it is unsafe,” adding, “This sweeping hold is undermining America’s military readiness. It’s hindering our ability to retain our very best officers. And it’s upending the lives of far too many American military families“

Austin himself is a target of the hostile anti-“woke” crowd, on display yesterday when House Republicans approved a political stunt to cut the defense secretary’s salary from $235,600 to under $1.

And not just slashing him, the Military Times reported, but also the Pentagon’s director of diversity and inclusion, the equity and inclusion office head, the military’s chief diversity officer and the assistant secretary of defense for readiness, who is a transgender woman. This is their focus as over a million troops are on the verge of having their paychecks delayed as the House GOP accelerates toward government shutdown.

That amendment to cut Austin’s salary? That was authored by House genius Marjorie Taylor Greene. “Lloyd Austin, the secretary of defense of the United States, definitely deserves to be fired,” the Georgia representative proudly intoned. “$1 is too much.”

There once was a time when politicizing the military was seen as an egregious violation of the responsibility to support the troops. But after the presidency of a man who avoided service by claiming he suffered bone spurs, attacked the heroism of the late senator and prisoner of war John McCain, insulted Gold Star families who suffered the loss of a child in combat, despised the sight of injured soldiers, slurred soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice as “losers” and “suckers” and refused to honor war dead on a rainy day in France because it would muss his hair, is it any wonder that his cult followers have adopted his hostility?

This is most intolerably showcased in the virtual silence among Republicans following Trump’s assertion that General Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, deserves to be executed for treason: ”DEATH,” he wrote in all caps. This sickening, violent rhetoric has now necessitated the military leader take safety precautions to secure his life.

In the useless GOP debate Wednesday night—unless you still needed evidence that there is no declared candidate who can overtake the quadruple-indicted criminal defendant—you could hear plenty of whining that the leading candidate chose not to show up, but not a single word of complaint about his vile and dangerous transgression against Gen. Milley.

Not only was there no word of support for Gen. Milley, whose combat experience includes serving in Iraq and three tours in Afghanistan, there was not a single comment acknowledging the latest violent incitement. It’s not that they altogether avoided the reality of rising violence. Given the chance to address the grim reality of mass shootings, former Trump VP and sycophant Mike Pence dimly proposed speeding up executions from years to months. If Pence meant this as a more aggressive deterrent for killers, it shows how little he understands these gunmen who often are prepared to die to achieve their murderous goals.

It seems to me that the decline of commitment to the military is matched by an increase in indifference toward the violence in American society. Both sides of that equation are embodied by the Republican party’s leader, in his sociopathic narcissism and violent cravings for chaos and carnage.

But let’s not place all the blame at the criminal defendant’s door; he has simply catalyzed the desire of an extremist GOP to abandon whatever principles it once possessed and grab power by any means necessary. If that means sacrificing the highly decorated Gen. Milley, turning their backs on American troops, abandoning the Ukrainians because the battle for democracy costs too much, so be it. This is the inevitable behavior of a party that for over four decades has been voicing its contempt for government and the most vulnerable among us. Why would we expect that the military—the ultimate government enterprise—would remain immune?

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh warned on CNN that a government shutdown starting at midnight on Saturday will lead to “huge, profound impacts across the globe,” in terms of security. “If the U.S. government shuts down, China, Russia, North Korea, Iran—these are countries that are not shutting down, that are continuing their operations,” Singh said. But don’t expect that to worry the Republican extremists, not when they’re ready to burn it all down to show they’re on Trump’s side and will do whatever it takes to destroy the “woke” establishment.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden traveled to Arizona yesterday to announce federal funding to build a new library honoring John McCain, his dear friend who died in 2018. This followed Biden’s visit last month to Vietnam, where he toured a memorial to McCain in Hanoi, where he was held prisoner for more than five years during the Vietnam War and tortured.

“Very few of us will ever be asked to endure what John McCain endured,” Biden said yesterday at the Tempe Center for the Arts. “But all of us are being asked right now, what will we do to maintain our democracy? Will we, as John wrote, never quit? Will we not hide from history, but make history? Will we put partisanship aside and put country first? I say we must.”

And then President Biden turned his attention to “MAGA extremists” who “claim support of our troops, but they are harming military readiness, leadership, troop morale, freezing pay, freezing military families in limbo.” He noted that the “silence is deafening” from the large majority of Republicans in response to Trump’s attack on Gen. Milley, who will be replaced today by his new joint chiefs chairman, Gen. Charles “C.Q.” Brown. And, for the first time as this presidential election season unfolds, he took off the gloves about what his likely opponent portends:

Seizing power, concentrating power, attempting to abuse power, purging and packing key institutions, spewing conspiracy theories, spreading lies for profit and power to divide America in every way, inciting violence against those who risk their lives to keep Americans safe, weaponizing against the very soul of who we are as Americans. This MAGA threat is a threat to the brick and mortar of our democratic institutions. It’s also a threat to the character of our nation.

He concluded by reminding the audience that John McCain believed in “a nation of ideals, not blood and soil” and was committed to something larger than self. And the president offered a solution to the dangers we face.

“The more people vote, the more engaged the whole nation becomes, the stronger our democracy will be,” he said. “So, the answer to the threats we face is engagement. It’s not to sit in the sidelines; it’s to build coalitions and community, to remind ourselves there is a clear majority of us who believe in our democracy and are ready to protect it.”

I could not agree more. Neither silence nor inaction are an option.

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