Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
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This week, with little fanfare and absent much protestation from progressives, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced a new bill that they say will bring the Department of Defense to the political center.
It’s a bill that would only pass in 2025 at the earliest, and only then if Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, but the two conservatives have nonetheless started the process of shepherding the Restoring Military Focus Act through the legislative process.
Were it to become law, the bill would repeal Section 913 of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which established a Chief Diversity Officer in the Department of Defense as well as lower-ranking senior advisors of diversity and inclusion.
“The Pentagon’s job is to develop our men and women in the Armed Forces into a united, lethal, and battle-ready force to defeat our enemies and defend our interests,” Roy said in a statement. “It is not supposed to be a woke social engineering experiment wrapped in a uniform. The American people gave House Republicans the power of the purse in November; we need to deliver on our promises and restore mission focus to our Armed Forces.”
The DOD Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’s website described the military’s diversity initiatives as primarily a recruiting effort.
“The changing face of the Nation demands that we change,” the site reads. “As the demographic make-up of the American population continues to evolve, it is imperative that the Department of Defense focus its efforts on emerging talent to ensure that we successfully attract, recruit, develop and retain a highly-skilled Total Force capable of meeting current and future mission requirements.”
But, Republicans have long contended the existence of diversity officers is a means for politicizing the military toward the left.
“Woke ideology has infected every aspect of American life and culture,” Rubio said. “It is hurting our kids, tearing apart communities, and weakening our military. Meanwhile, our adversaries are laughing at us. This is crazy and has to stop. I will continue to fight for common sense to be restored to our government and way of life.”
In 2021, as reported by the New York Post, a diversity chief working with U.S. Special Forces was reassigned after social media posts surfaced in which he compared former President Donald Trump to Hitler.
WOKE WING
Earlier this week, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chair of the Subcommittee on Military Personnel, and Alabama Republican Rep. Mike Rogers wrote a scathing letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin demanding action with regard to Kelisa Wing, who serves as chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer in the Department of Defense Education Activity.
Wing has come under intense criticism for having made numerous disparaging remarks about white people. A self-described “woke administrator,” Wing has been on the conservative radar since September, when Fox News reported on several of her social media statements.
Among the more controversial statements on Wing’s social media was one that read, “[T]his lady actually had the CAUdacity to say that black people can be racist too… I had to stop the session and give Karen the BUSINESS… [W]e are not the majority, we don’t have power.”
Wing has frequently expressed an abiding distaste for white women, whom she often describes as “Karens,” and once referred to Trump as a male “Karen.”
“Our society values the virtues of merit, hard work, and equality of opportunity which distinguishes our nation from others,” the congressmen wrote. “It is outrageous that a DOD official whose job it is to oversee ‘worldwide K-12 education programs for the children of DOD personnel,’ has engaged in racially disparaging comments with clear inflammatory language on her social media and in other writings.
“Her comments do not represent the American ideal to treat everyone with respect. In fact, they call into question the current Administration’s commitment to ensuring that an involuntary trait of birth, like skin color, is an irrelevant factor in one’s ability to access opportunity and advancement. Leftist woke politics have no place in our military’s mission to protect all Americans.”
As reported by Fox News, Banks and Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) have introduced a separate bill that would allow diversity officers to remain in place in the military structure, but would cap the salary for such a position at $31,000.
“[The bill] will make sure the Department of Defense’s budget focuses on strengthening our national security, not paying administrators to solve social justice problems that don’t exist,” Fox News quoted Cotton as having said.
While any anti-diversity bill would face certain defeat in the Senate and veto by President Joe Biden, Republicans might still opt to send any number of bills to the upper chamber, if for no other reason than appealing to conservative voters.