Posted on 03/03/2021 4:19:10 AM PST by MtnClimber
President Joe Biden has embarked on a revolutionary program to replace constitutional freedoms with a new social justice agenda. Supporting the radical agenda is his defense secretary Lloyd Austin, whose top priority is to politicize the military to eliminate “extremists.”
So, what happens when the hard left takes control of the government of a great democracy and decides that the desired social revolution requires the destruction of conservative institutions and leaders, and then institutes aggressive policies to expel conservatives from the military? We have a good answer when we look at France from 1899 to 1914 when hard-left governments were in power.
France was fairly evenly divided between left and right in the three decades after the demise of the Second Empire and the founding of the Third Republic during the Franco-Prussian War. The military officer corps was mostly from the conservative middle class with a considerable number coming from the old aristocracy. In 1890 more than 20% of the cadets at some of the elite military academies came from the old aristocracy and a high percentage of Army officers were educated in Catholic schools. However, the Army also had many liberal supporters of the Republic in the officer corps and republican reforms in the 1880s had greatly benefitted the French Army by setting higher officer education standards and funding unit training.
Through the 1890s the French left increased its position in the National Assembly and in 1899 the Left Bloc, a coalition dominated by the hard left, formed the government. Top leftist political leaders wanted to use their power to utterly break the power of the conservative half of France, which meant going after two key institutions: The Catholic Church and the military officer corps.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Our NEW MILITARY will be well-armed with stacks of Diversity Grievance forms.
Fascinating history lesson, portending disaster.
Another case study in Democrats’ post-election power-tripping.
Democrats’ aggressiveness is out of control.....and it keeps escalating to dangerous levels.
The arrogant Dems seem to get off on bullying, and relegating those of us not a member of their “Club Lib” to powerlessness.
REALTY CHECK The U.S. Dept of Education, and many mental health professionals, define bullying as verbal aggression,
repeated over a period, involving using an imbalance of power, and calculated acts to exclude people (cancel culture).
The bully repeatedly uses status to exert power and to hurt bullying targets....includes use of harassment,
rumor mongering, threatening anyone who supports their targets....and other forms of intimidation.
While state laws have little consistency in their definition of bullying, we would do well to change laws
to make Democrat bullying......and other manifestations like cancel culture .......a punishable crime.
And for actual combat they will be handing out vouchers for free sex change operations to whomever they are fighting.
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France to Scour Universities for Ideas That ‘Corrupt Society’
New York Times ^ | November 18, 2021 | Norimitsu Onishi and Constant Méheut
FR Posted on 2/19/2021, 8:19:02 AM by karpov
PARIS — Stepping up its attacks on social science theories that it says threaten France, the French government announced this week that it would launch an investigation into academic research that it says feeds “Islamo-leftist’’ tendencies that “corrupt society.’’
News of the investigation immediately caused a fierce backlash among university presidents and scholars, deepening fears of a crackdown on academic freedom — especially on studies of race, gender, post-colonial studies and other fields that the French government says have been imported from American universities and contribute to undermining French society.
While President Emmanuel Macron and some of his top ministers have spoken out forcefully against what they see as a destabilizing influence from American campuses in recent months, the announcement marked the first time that the government has moved to take action.
It came as France’s lower house of Parliament passed a draft law against Islamism, an ideology it views as encouraging terrorist attacks, and as Mr. Macron tilts further to the right, anticipating nationalist challenges ahead of elections next year.
Frédérique Vidal, the minister of higher education, said in Parliament on Tuesday that the state-run National Center for Scientific Research would oversee an investigation into the “totality of research underway in our country,’’ singling out post-colonialism. Ms. Vidal said the investigation would focus on “Islamo-leftism’’ — a controversial term embraced by some of Mr. Macron’s leading ministers to accuse left-leaning intellectuals of justifying Islamism and even terrorism.
“Islamo-leftism corrupts all of society and universities are not impervious,’’ Ms. Vidal said, adding that some scholars were advancing “radical” and “activist” ideas.
Referring also to scholars of race and gender, Ms. Vidal accused them of “always looking at everything through the prism of their will to divide, to fracture, to pinpoint the enemy.’’
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I hope that Republican governors, who control their state’s National Guard, will offer a safe harbor to those officers who are blackballed by the Biden regime. While these position would be part time rather than full time active duty, they would still maintain currency and time in grade, and be available to return to active duty under a Republican administration.
I like your idea and I hope that happens too!
I hope history does not repeat its self like it is fond of doing.
Biden, Pelosi, and that power-tripping gang, are doing the same...... they exist in a complete vacuum.
Millions of us are watching their every action........planning for THE day of reckoning.
The future does bode well for this nation.. The faint of heart better get out while they still can.... :(
Certainly, there will be some nepotism baked into the system: What Colonel or General is not going to look out for the career of his son that just received a commission as a Lieutenant? That said, the son will, by virtue of his parentage, have high expectations placed upon him.
Politicizing the military undermines this natural fabric of meritocracy. The Officer Corps, more so than many professions is tightly networked and self-policing. When the emphasis is placed on professionalism and competence, the system works well. Senior officers invest time mentoring and developing junior officers that display the most potential and those with poor reputations fall by the wayside. When the emphasis is placed on adherence to political principles, competence will be the first casualty, and senior officers will seek to retain those junior officers who may be inept at the war fighting arts, but most vigorously salute the party line.
While this leadership deficit is in and of itself a major problem, the real damage and rot will occur in the NCO ranks, as morale and motivation decline precipitously.
The military profession is by nature, one of altruism. As Chesterton said, "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." The left seems hell bent on eliminating, or at least re-educating service members who love the US's Constitutional principals, and the thoughts of what may fill that void are frightening to contemplate.
One of the most interesting articles on AT in a while. I love reading history and this was an area where my reading was remiss. It makes it easier to understand French military losses early in The Great War.
And some of us “the democRATs” learned nothing from history except for communist revolutionary technique.
....and then, in the late 30s, it was the turn of the French press, who took bribes from the Nazis to undermine resistance to German Nazism.
I was on active duty when Clinton took over, and the purge of “sexist” officers began. While he was getting fellated in the Oval Office, I watched good officers being driven out for much less.
How do you select the best Officers for promotion?
How do you determine, outside of actual combat, which Officers will perform best in combat?
And does good combat performance at a junior level predict good combat performance at a senior level?
The only way to select the best combat leaders is to keep Officers constantly in combat.
Hard to do.
My experience with the military showed me that promotion boards were a mess.
The amount of time they spent reviewing an Officer’s records was measured in minutes and even seconds.
This resulted in a focus on easily observed characteristics.
Height/weight.....physical fitness.....attention to detail on uniforms in official photos.
We have a generation of senior leaders who run fast and look good.
So you’re saying our senior militry leaders are the equivalent of sports cars.
After 40 years in the defense business once you get above O-6 that’s pretty much true!
Yep.
If only we fought wars on the running track.
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