Military wingnuts have always been with us. But these guys are way out in Jack D. Ripper territory:
A day after 124 retired generals and admirals released a letter spreading the lie that President Joe Biden stole the election, current and former military officers are speaking out, calling the missive a dangerous new sign of the military being dragged into the trenches of partisan warfare.
The open letter on Monday from a group calling itself Flag Officers 4 America advanced the false conspiracy theory that the presidential vote was rigged in Biden’s favor and warned that the nation is “in deep peril” from “a full-blown assault on our Constitutional rights.”
“Under a Democrat Congress and the Current Administration,” they wrote, “our Country has taken a hard left turn toward Socialism and a Marxist form of tyrannical government which must be countered now by electing congressional and presidential candidates who will always act to defend our Constitutional Republic.”
The broadside also raises questions about “the mental and physical condition of the Commander in Chief” and sounds the alarm about a host of hot-button issues, such as the border wall. It goes on to accuse congressional leaders of “using the U.S. military as political pawns with thousands of troops deployed around the U.S. Capitol Building.”
The group’s website claims that “we are in a fight for our survival as a Constitutional Republic like no other time since our founding in 1776.”
These are ex-military officers. Apparently, they think Joe Biden is a greater threat than Hitler.
As news of the letter spread, it set off a round of recriminations among current and former military members. One serving Navy officer, who did not want to be identified publicly, called it “disturbing and reckless.”
Jim Golby, an expert in civil-military relations, called it a “shameful effort to use their rank and the military’s reputation for such a gross and blatant partisan attack,” while a retired Air Force colonel who teaches cadets at the Air Force Academy, Marybeth Ulrich, labeled it “anti-democratic.”
“I think it hurts the military and by extension it hurts the country,” said retired Adm. Mike Mullen, a former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, describing it as replete with “right-wing Republican talking points.”
The talking points in the letter fall generally in line with die-hard loyalists in Trump’s orbit, who question the results of the election despite the fact that the courts and Trump’s own Justice Department said there was no reason to declare him the winner.
Notable signatories included retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who is running for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire; retired Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin, who stirred controversy for some of his anti-Muslim views and is now executive vice president of the Family Research Council; and retired Vice Adm. John Poindexter, who was the deputy national security adviser for President Ronald Reagan and was convicted in the Iran-Contra Affair.
Names like Boykin and Poindexter are predictable far right wingnuts. I suppose it’s not surprising they are not alone. But their hysteria over America turning Marxist because Joe Biden wants to provide elder care and fix the falling infrastructure is a bit much. It’s not like Biden incited his followers to storm the capitol and hang his own VP or anything. That really would be alarming.