DEI-Brained Generals

The diversity obsession now serves as the ideology among those entrusted with our national security

Kamala Harris earned one of her most bizarre endorsements last week. An MSNBC guest praised the vice president for her mixed race background and said it would intimidate Vladimir Putin and other foes of the American empire. 

"Not only is [Kamala] positive, does she bring hope and optimism, but as a Black woman, the product of a mixed marriage, she will inspire millions of people throughout the world," the guest said. "Our credibility as a nation, you know, that we would be able to allow – our country is so great that we would allow a woman like that to become the commander in chief, the President of the United States. That is going to send a powerful message all over the world.”

The guest then added: "People like Vladimir Putin are going to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, these guys, you know, they truly have a democratic country. They truly are representative, they truly are fighting for all their people, and Kamala Harris is a manifestation of that.” 

One may think that this statement came from some wild-eyed, blue-haired leftist. Only someone that delusional could think of such a statement. But it came from someone completely unlike that. The person who made this statement was Steven Anderson, a white, clean-cut retired general. You would think he would be a solid conservative if you saw him on the street. But instead, he’s regurgitating some of the most insane left-wing propaganda imaginable.

The fact that someone like that said this about Kamala shouldn’t shock us. General Anderson is unfortunately not a lone voice spouting such nonsense. Military leaders have become some of the most ardent believers in the liberal regime’s ideology. Generals espousing the core tenets of the DEI worldview illustrate how deeply rooted it is in many of our institutions and how many important people genuinely believe in it. This commitment to left-wing principles is a matter of great concern. Can we really trust our national security is in good hands when generals think it’s imperative that they check their white privilege?

If Donald Trump gets another term in November, he must clean house at the Pentagon and make the military prioritize America, not diversity. 

The most eager to agree with the dictates of leftism are often found at the highest level of the military. The two most recent chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were eager to defend the DEI worldview. In 2021, then-Joint Chiefs chair Mark Milley strongly defended Critical Race Theory before Congress. He said teaching CRT to soldiers “matters to our military and the discipline and cohesion of this military.” He argued it was essential to learn in order “to understand white rage.”

Milley also compared Donald Trump, the president who appointed him as the nation’s top general, to Hitler and said MAGA supporters are modern-day brownshirts.

His successor is even worse. Biden picked Air Force General Charles Q. Brown, a black man, to replace the retiring Milley in 2023. Brown is fully committed to “racial equity” and DEI. He made a video following George Floyd’s death that basically endorsed Black Lives Matter. He said the military needs DEI in order to recruit from a multiracial America. “[Y]ou’ve got to look at the demographics of our country, how it’s changing,” he said in a 2022 interview. “If you have that approach [of opposing inclusivity efforts] you’re gonna have very few people that come serve.” 

He publicly stated “diversity” was his chief priority when it came to promotions and hires. “I hire for diversity,” he declared in 2020. As Air Force chief of staff, Brown signed off on a memo that required the service to characterize its officer applicant pools based on race and sex. That would obviously discriminate against white men. Brown was grilled about the memo during a Senate confirmation hearing. The general insisted the memo only outlined goals, not quotas. 

Leadership’s commitment to CRT and DEI translates into training for enlistees and officers. The military academies all now teach far-left concepts to their cadets. At West Point, cadets are taught about the supposed evils of whiteness, “queer theory,” and how prison is a new form of slavery for blacks. This is the nonsense our future generals imbibe in their formative years. These officers may make Milley look like Franco in comparison. 

The military’s woke turn has persuaded many young middle Americans to avoid the service. White recruitment plummeted over the last few years. Among new recruits, whites are now a minority in the Marines and the Army. If they’re taught that they need to check their white privilege and they'll be passed over for promotion because of their race, why join in the first place?

These developments could lead to the military seeing Red America as the enemy. There have already been training briefings and memos labeling conservative groups as “extremists” and “MAGA” as “covert white supremacy.” The military defied then-President Trump’s request to disperse BLM rioters in summer of 2020. One would need little imagination to envision how the military would react to a similar order from a Democratic president to deal with MAGA protesters. There would be no Pentagon chief running to the press to receive adoration for their brave stand against tyranny if he refused the directive. That person would happily follow the order, and the press would praise the military for fending off a terrible threat to “our democracy.” It’s easy to get the Army to turn their guns on certain Americans if the commanders are trained to see “white rage” as a serious problem and Trump supporters as horrible bigots.

Anderson’s comments also reflect a broader trend of what could be construed as the new imperial ideology. According to this ideology, America is great and good because of its sacred diversity. The mission of the empire is to spread this diversity to every part of the globe in order to make it more democratic. Un-diverse places (which just mean areas that are too white, not too black, Asian, etc.) are seen as very bad and anti-democratic. Viktor Orban’s Hungary is regularly castigated as anti-democratic simply because it rejects mass immigration. Even though Russia is multicultural, it’s still a white majority country. Thus, people like General Anderson demonize it as a white nationalist state that’s afraid of a mixed-race American president. 

That mindset can easily be applied domestically. Trump supporters lack diversity (meaning too white) and are therefore bad. MAGA can easily be lumped in with the enemies of the empire. That’s what all this training aims to achieve.

This “wokification” isn’t irreversible. It only requires a president with a clear plan to make the military great again. Banning DEI and CRT within the armed forces is an easy step to reaching that goal. If Trump gets another term, he must ban these practices and fire the Joint Chiefs chairman as soon as he assumes office. We cannot allow for any more subversion of our national security.