And why would they casually disregard a sacred oath?
One of the biggest lies too many Americans are telling themselves these days is that “our institutions will protect us” if Donald Trump is reinstalled as the most powerful man in the world. It would be laughable if the consequences were not so tragic.
It is a form of delusion and denial. The truth is that people need to understand that this worthless orange monster means to do precisely what he says he will do- and more importantly — there is a whole right-wing apparatus that is gearing up to facilitate his authoritarian impulses. There is a genuine possibility that this creature could very well become president again and that a second Trump presidency would almost certainly be far worse than the first for too obvious reasons.
An adjunct to this self-delusion is the statement made by many that the military “ will do the right thing” and protect The Constitution and not commit atrocities in Trump’s evil name—folks who believe that are fools. As one who spent 29 years in uniform, I assure you they will not do that. And the fact that I can make that statement with 100 percent assuredness should scare the hell out of you.
As a nation, we have been coming to this particular moment for a long time, and many things brought us here. If you take nothing away from this post, I would ask you to remember this:
- The right-wing apparatus means what it says about suppressing dissent and punishing all those they see as enemies.
- The military will participate in the violence that will come with this effort, and they will do so quite willingly. They will justify it as “defending freedom.”
- The Courts-especially SCOTUS- will back them up and protect them from consequences.
A guy named Thomas Zimmer has written a long and in-depth analysis of Project 2025. It is a time-consuming read, but well worth the time. His crucial conclusion is one I absolutely agree with:
Trump is not the mastermind behind Project 2025. It’s worse: The rightwing establishment has radicalized to the point where their plans are entirely in line with his vengeful desires .
In that regard, Zimmer has correctly assessed that contrary to what the mainstream press seems to believe, Trump is not an outlier — and neither is an evil emperor leading the dark side of the force. He’s a convenient pawn of things that are far, far worse:
Against this background, the implication of the meme that has been making the rounds on social media is easy enough to decipher: Trump is Palpatine, they are the masters behind these evil plans. But the analogy doesn’t really work. Trump is not pulling the strings behind Project 2025, and this operation isn’t being conducted in secret at all. This isn’t the work of a handful of henchmen doing their dark lord’s bidding, but an effort that has united much of the American Right’s elite machinery. And there is absolutely no brainwashing or coercion involved: The people behind Project 2025 are true believers in their extremely reactionary vision for America. Project 2025 should not be conceptualized as a plot designed by an all-powerful evil overseeing everything in the background. Instead, Project 2025 crystallizes the self-mobilization of a rightwing elite that has radicalized to the point where their plans are entirely in line with Donald Trump’s vengeful desires and the fever dreams of the extremist fringe.
And this is where the military comes into the equation. Namely, many of those “fever dreams” are dreams that too many Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines share. Not most of them, but enough to be dangerous. Because they do, they will obey blatantly illegal orders and not push back in defense of both the Constitution and the People they claim to serve.
It was not always this way — and indeed, in Trump’s first ( and hopefully only) term, there were decent Americans who took their oath seriously and either spoke out against the outrageous “suggestions” from the orange monster. What’s critical to understand, however, is that Trump did not learn the lesson that these were unacceptable ideas. Instead, the lesson he learned was not to put high-quality people into important positions. In a second, Trump term, sycophancy and expediency will replace duty, honor, and country.
The team Trump and his Heritage Foundation lackeys would assemble will represent the dregs of American Society:
There will be no James Mattis or General Milley in a second Trump administration. The Chris Millers and Ric Grennels of the world will ensure that. ( They are truly vile people. I was in Germany when Grennel was Ambassador to Germany, and his time there was hideous.) On the sidelines and in the back offices, ethically challenged lawyers and political appointees like John Yoo will write legal briefs explaining how these violations of American law and tradition are legally justified.
(John Yoo is the guy who justified torture for the George Bush administration).
“Wait,” you ask, “ our military is the best of the best. Their dedication is second to none. They won’t let Trump get away with things.” Umm, no. What will happen is that those who speak up will be ignored, or worse, they will be physically and financially punished. Understanding that they can be punished themselves, enlisted soldiers will quickly fall into line and “follow orders.”
The question does highlight the basis of the problem, though. For 30 years, ever since Desert Storm, we have glorified the military, thanking folks for their service and collectively calling them heroes — while few Americans could be bothered to serve themselves. As a result, there is a huge gap between those who either served or have family who served and those who don’t. And make no mistake about it; many of those who did serve look down on the rest of the population they are supposed to have served. Andrew Bacevich has written extensively on this in several books about the issues without the American civil-military divide. If you have read the comment sections of any of the military blogs, you will understand how correct this observation is. Starting in late 2003 and onward, it was relentlessly apparent to many of us who thought differently than expected — if you were a military blogger — that you were expected to echo the conservative line, especially among guys like this one. During the Obama administration, this disdain kicked into overdrive. The advent of Trump gave these selfsame writers the license to say all the terrible things they had only hinted at before in dog whistles. Thanks to Trump, they could express their racism and other bigotries straight out. The mean-spirited attitude has sunk in. Having Fox News in work spaces has amplified this disturbing trait tenfold.
I’m not kidding; you should take the threat seriously. The country has been brainwashed into believing the “other” is the source of all their problems. They will enjoy seeing people suffer. Bacevich explained this phenomenon well in 2021: “To the extent that the members of the All-Volunteer Force see themselves as professionals–members of a warrior caste adhering to their own sets of principles–they have little interest in nurturing a close relationship with society.” On the other hand, many Americans romanticized the military without knowing more about their day-to-day lives. Many of us applaud the military at the start of baseball games and thank service members for their sacrifice, but nevertheless remain perfectly comfortable conceptualizing our worlds as entirely separate. Those people are going to be shocked when Soldiers show up pointing guns at them because they are on an “enemies list” developed by a conservative true believer.
With a legal basis underpinning it — a blank check already given to a President by the Supreme Court — and some real fanatics giving the orders to attack dissenters, it is entirely too believable that the military will go down a path it hasn’t undertaken in over 150 years, since the height of the civil war.
Will Soldiers do the unthinkable? The answer should be no, but I fear it will be “yes.” And that will be a disaster that the nation will not be able to recover from. The military is supposed to act as a steward of the Nation’s defense and the values of the Constitution. When they cease to perform that role and become the private militia of a madman, the descent into tyranny and dictatorship in the United States will be well underway.
“The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. The demaslave is one who listens to what these idiots have to say and pretends to believe it himself.”
― H.L. Mencken