(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Far-Right Republicans’ Radical, Bigoted Attack on the Defense Bill [1]

['Robert Schlesinger', 'Grace Segers', 'Michael Tomasky', 'Emma Foehringer Merchant', 'Prem Thakker', 'Tori Otten', 'National Defense Authorization Act']

Date: 2023-07-13

Then again, the Freedom Caucus is not interested in governing, just performance art involving live flame. Ensuring that the troops get paid is less important than ensuring that you’re heard in the conservative ecosphere pounding the hottest buttons for your fights. These are the people trying to keep their House colleagues on a tight leash. Having emerged healthy from their last tantrum, the hard right can’t resist the opportunity to strike at the next big, inviting target. And if McCarthy is able to navigate this set of landmines without having his gavel blown off, the pressure will only build for a grand spectacle when it’s time to keep the government running in the fall.

It’s the same animus that has driven freshman Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville to single-handedly shut down all senior-level Pentagon promotions for months over the Defense Department’s abortion policy. The guy who needed to sleep on the question of whether white nationalists were racists now wants to further inhibit abortion access for women service members. “We will lose talent” because of Tuberville’s antics, Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, Biden’s nominee to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.



Which brings us back to the too-familiar ring of the GOP’s “social engineering experiment” talking points. “The Army is not a sociological laboratory; to be effective it must be organized and trained according to the principles which will insure success,” Householder told the Black editors and publishers on the day after bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. “Experiments to meet the wishes and demands of the champions of every race and creed for the solution of their problems are a danger to efficiency, discipline and morale and would result in ultimate defeat.”

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://newrepublic.com/article/174256/far-right-republicans-radical-bigoted-attack-ndaa

Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.