(Composite / Photos: GettyImages / Shutterstock)Some personal news: Keep calm and carry on. I’ll be taking some time off for a family wedding, new baby, French grandkids, and reunions. But we’ll be back in fine fettle after Labor Day! Happy Reacted Affidavit Friday. Summer 2022 is ending with a bang. So, talk amongst yourselves:
“That culture can break…”ICYMI, I talked with Marine combat veteran Elliot Ackerman on Wednesday’s podcast about his new book, “The Fifth Act: America’s End in Afghanistan.”
We discussed the fall of Kabul and its aftermath, but Ackerman had a warning about threats to democracy in this country — and the possibility that someday the military might become involved. Here’s a partial (edited) transcript of some of our conversation: Elliot Ackerman: When you go from contested election to contested election, at each juncture, there's a game of brinksmanship that's going on with whether or not the military will have to come in and restore some type of order. There was talk about them having to restore order after the January 6 riots, and there was National Guard — I'm actually from Washington, D.C. — there was National Guard all over Washington, D.C. in the wake of those riots…. Remember there was Tom Cotton’s New York Times op-ed, and President Trump talking about evoking the Insurrection Act in the summer of 2020. I mean, that was in a presidential election, but it shows how there is this temptation for our political class to start politicizing the U.S. military. And that is very, very dangerous, because, although the military is seen as a non-political entity in the United States, that does not mean that those in uniform do not have their political biases, like every other American. The only difference is there's a culture of omerta in the U.S. military. We don't speak it. But, that culture can break. And, it seems as though our political leaders, from the right and the left, at every juncture, are eager to politicize the U.S. military. And it's something we should be very aware of and alarmed about as citizens. My concern is that because so many citizens, again, don't speak the language, they aren't necessarily literate with what's going on inside the military. They won't be able to see it until it's too late. Charlie Sykes: [But in 2020,] the line held. And I think that reassured some people, because you had people like General Mark Milley, who issued public statements that there is no way the military is going to be involved. We had a letter signed by 11 former Secretaries of Defense saying, the military is not going to play any role whatsoever. So, at least in the existing top ranks of the military, they seem to understand the danger. But, if I understand you correctly, you're saying, “Don't become complacent about that, or assume that that necessarily reflects what might happen in the culture of the military going forward.” Ackerman: Absolutely. I mean, listen, our popular culture tends to fixate on these four-star generals, the most senior sliver of the U.S. military. But, the military is a massive organization with officers up and down the chain of command, who are not Mark Milley and might not do what Mark Milley says in the heat of the moment.... I'm really not trying to be alarmist, but we have such high levels of dysfunction domestically, and every time we kind of set up these scenarios where we're asking our military to play a role in domestic politics, we're really tempting the fates. The analogy I use is that these contested elections remind me of a drunk driver. A drunk driver will go to the bar, right, and they will get completely hammered drunk, and they'll drive home. And, probably the first time they do that, like, they make it home, and they do it and they make it home the second time, the third time. And then on the fourth or fifth time, they get hammered drunk and try to drive home. That's when they wrap their car around a telephone pole. When I look at our contested elections, it's like we're doing the equivalent as a nation of going to the bar getting just hammered drunk, and we try to drive home. We've done it twice now, and we have sort of managed to make it home, but one of these days, if we keep doing this, we are going to wrap our proverbial car around a telephone pole. And, it worries me. We have to stop engaging in these behaviors. The GOP Abortion TangleTwo stories tell the tale: Via NBC: “In Arizona, Blake Masters backtracks on abortion and scrubs his campaign website.”
 ** Meanwhile, in Michigan… Last week, the GOP candidate for governor said that rape victims find “healing” through having their rapist’s baby. This week? Republican Tudor Dixon now trails Democratic incumbent, Gretchen Whitmer, by double digits. The Democrats’ Shifting CoalitionMore smart stuff from Ruy Teixeira:
Meanwhile, via the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: “New Student Debt Changes Will Cost Half a Trillion Dollars.’
Bonus via Axios: “GOP ad blitz mocks Biden's student loan plan.”
Quick Hits1. Should Russian Culture Be ‘Canceled’ Over the Ukraine Invasion?Cathy Young, in today’s Bulwark:
2. The Rushdie Controversy, for a New GenerationMatt Johnson, in this morning’s Bulwark:
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The Military and the Fate of Democracy
August 26, 2022
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