By Sarah Holliday | Washington Stand
With a new president often comes a slew of new policies. The Biden-Harris administration spent the last four years seemingly injecting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives wherever possible — a priority opposed by many.
Now, with the inauguration a handful of days away, American voters have signaled they are looking to a future in which they hope the incoming Trump administration will work to remove the “wokeness.”
“Democrats in California are taking heat for poor planning and bad policies as wildfires rage across Los Angeles County,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Tuesday’s episode of “Washington Watch.”
For the most part, he added, California’s struggles seem to be because “they prioritized woke policies over safety. As I often say, elections have consequences — sometimes tragic consequences.”
As Perkins explained, misguided priorities are not often exposed until a “day of reckoning” or “testing” occurs in which, “if you’re not prepared, the consequences are significant.”
The effects of DEI have been at the forefront of many national discussions ranging from the assassination attempt against President-elect Donald Trump to the raging fires in the Golden State.
“Lives are being lost,” Perkins lamented. And beyond California, “we know that, for the last four years, our nation’s military has been … held captive [by] these same DEI, woke initiatives from the Biden administration. Is our military ready for its day of testing?”
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. Boykin, FRC’s executive vice president, used his expertise to weigh in on the repercussions of DEI and how it affects military readiness.
“[T]his woke agenda … has been forced on to our military,” he answered, “but also forced onto our whole government and many of the major corporations in this country today. … It’s disgusting. I don’t know what else to say other than that it is disgusting.”
As of right now, “what we’re doing is we’re spending a lot of money and a lot of very precious time” learning about DEI during “military time that needs to be spent [on] preparing to win the nation’s wars. … That’s where we are.”
When it comes to military readiness, “I’m very concerned about it,” Boykin admitted. “I’m so concerned about it because, first of all, we can’t meet our recruiting goals anymore.”
But he’s also concerned because the military, in a desperate attempt to recruit more people, “lowered their standard. … So, where are we headed with all of this? We’re headed for oblivion. … [W]e’re destroying our military.”
Perkins agreed, stating that “we are extremely vulnerable right now. Our nation is vulnerable because … our military has not been focused on preparing for its mission.”
However, he added, “the incoming administration has pledged to fix this. What are the top three areas that the incoming administration should be focused on to correct the course the military is on?”
According to Boykin, “The first thing is tell all of the DEI people on these installations, ‘Your day of undermining the chain of command of our people here is over. Take a walk.’ We’ve got to get rid of them. We’ve got to make sure everybody understands that it’s gone.”
After that, “We’ve got to re[evaluate] our priorities with regard to what we’re acquiring, because we’ve got to look at what our enemies are acquiring and what technology they have that we need to be up to speed on.”
Lastly, “we [need to] change some of our priorities. … [W]e just need the president to go back and change the names of these forts” back to what they used to be.
“[W]hat difference does that make?” Perkins asked. “[A]s a Marine, that tradition is very, very important. You take pride in being part of an organization that has fought battles before, and these forts have seen a lot of young men and women go through there.” Changing their names has “ruined the history and the legacy of them.”
On this note, Politico reported in October on Trump’s plans to address this very concern. During a townhall, Trump told an active duty soldier, “I’m going to promise to you … that we’re going to change the name back to Fort Bragg.”
Additionally, several members of his incoming Cabinet members have made promises to roll back DEI and similar policies.
For instance, the incoming CIA head John Ratcliffe is reportedly “expected to come in ‘like a wrecking ball’ when he is confirmed to office to tackle DEI work undertaken by the agency in recent years.”
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, has also stated that DEI “has got to go.”
But no matter how many have voiced their plans to rid the government and military of DEI, Perkins insisted that “it’s going to take someone tough to correct this.”
When it comes to the military, he concluded, “it operates different[ly] than corporate America. It operates different[ly] than the political environment, because you have to have trust. And that means that morality is not just … [an] ideological thing. It is a very practical element of building a cohesive fighting force.”
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