Electing the Next Commander-in-Chief

By Elaine Donnelly
President, Center for Military Readiness
STARRS Board of Advisors

Republican and Democratic Platforms Reveal Stark Contrast

The Center for Military Readiness is non-partisan and does not endorse candidates.  On a quadrennial basis, however, CMR reports on and analyzes the positions of presidential candidates vying to become the next Commander-in-Chief.

Military/social issues are matters of national security.  They require careful consideration at all times, but especially in presidential election years.  America is not defended by weapons, ships, aircraft, and missiles alone.  Our national Security depends on military/social policies that are essential in maintaining high morale and readiness to defend America.

Americans are looking for a new President of the United States who will act with common sense and leadership to restore morale and meritocracy in the only military we have.  CMR has prepared this article to assist in the process of electing a new Commander-in-Chief.

Among other things, voters should compare the 2024 National Platforms of both the Republican and Democratic Parties, but also consider the candidates’ records in office and statements made on the campaign trail.  A brief overview of both Republican and Democratic backgrounds and promises on military/social issues of concern to CMR are analyzed below:

A.  WHAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY PLATFORM SAYS . . . AND DOESN’T SAY

The Preamble of the 27-page Republican National Platform for 2024 presents 20 brief campaign promises, all in CAPITAL LETTERS, addressing everything from sealing the border and preventing World War III to modernizing our military, cutting any funding for “critical race theory” (CRT) instructions and inappropriate racial or sexual content in schools, and keeping men out of women’s sports. The Preamble list is summarized here.

The Republican Preamble also includes strong pro-defense statements in a section titled AMERICA FIRST: A RETURN TO COMMON SENSE.  This excerpt touches on major economic, cultural, and defense issues with broad strokes:

“Common Sense tells us clearly that if we don’t have a Strong Military, we won’t be able to defend our interests and we will be at the mercy of Hostile Nations.  The Policy of the Republican Party must be to ensure that America’s Military is the strongest and best-equipped in the World—and that our Government uses that great strength sparingly, and only in clear instances where our National Interests are threatened.  (p. 5)

Peace Through Strength

Chapter Ten of the Republican Platform, titled RETURN TO PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, adds statements regarding defense on two pages: “We will build a Military [that is] bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. . . Our full commitment is to protect America and [to ensure] a safe and prosperous future for all.” (pp. 21-22)

In addition to short points addressing a Foreign Policy centered on the most essential American interests, the platform pledges to strengthen alliances, restore peace in Europe, stand with Israel, strengthen economic, military, and diplomatic capabilities to protect America from malign influences, defend our borders by resuming construction of a wall, crack down on drug cartels, revive America’s industrial base and defense-critical industries, and protect our infrastructure from cyberattacks perpetrated by bad actors.  (pp. 21-22)

The armed forces are specifically addressed on p. 21:

“Modernize the Military: Republicans will ensure our Military is the most modern, lethal, and powerful Force in the World.  We will invest in cutting edge research and advanced technologies, including an Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield, support our Troops with higher pay, and get woke Leftwing Democrats fired as soon as possible.”

The Platform Process

The last sentence in the platform plank quoted above seems to be referring to high-ranking Obama-era flag and general officers whose progressive views and policy directives contributed to woke social policies that have weakened our military.  The paragraph, however, does not identify those leftwing officials or the objectionable policies they have been promoting.

Just prior to the convention, Trump campaign leaders announced that the RNC Platform for 2024 was prepared in advance and would be much shorter than previous years.  This unprecedented process produced a drastically shortened 27-page platform for 2024, down from 58 pages in the 2016 Republican National Platform.

The document makes strong points that will appeal to pro-defense voters on a wide array of issues.  It is unfortunate, however, that ten planks addressing military/social issues in previous RNC national platforms were swept out of the slimmed down document, along with many other longstanding statements of principle.

A good argument could be made that previous RNC platforms, collectively written by one hundred Resolutions Committee delegates deliberating in subcommittees and general sessions, have been a bit long and ponderous.  Open disagreement on details can be difficult to manage in a hostile media environment.

Still, the platform-writing process usually results in more unity, not less, because all delegates feel that their work for the party and as members of the Resolutions Committee was appreciated and worthwhile.  At the 2024 convention, delegates approved a pre-written document.

New procedures did not allow amendments that would have allowed delegates to update planks of interest in previous RNC National Platforms or to address new issues emerging during recent years.  Amendments such as statements linked here would have been consistent with and supportive of positions taken by the Republican nominees for President and Vice President, Donald J. Trump and Sen. J. D. Vance.

In the alternative, Resolutions Committee members could have approved a concise amendment addressing military/social issues, perhaps something like this draft plank:

“To restore military superiority, we must put an end to Defense Department policies that have created a recruiting crisis and weakened the All-Volunteer Force.  These include racially discriminatory practices at the military service academies, “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) mandates and quotas that supersede meritocracy, divisive “critical race theory” (CRT) instructions that divide people into antagonistic groups while denigrating American institutions, plus Defense Department subsidies for controversial medical procedures such as abortion and gender identity ‘transition’ procedures.”

Even without specific mentions of military/social issues along these lines, both platforms, statements, and actions by the two candidates for Commander-in-Chief draw strong contrasts that pro-defense voters should consider before they cast their vote.

The Record and Statements of Former President Donald J. Trump

In matters of military culture and morale, the former Trump Administration deserves credit for confronting and reversing many of the military/social policies that were put in place during the previous Obama/Biden Administration.  For example:

Transgenders in the Military

In 2016, the Obama/Biden Administration announced unprecedented policies accommodating transgenders in the military.

• Starting in 2017, President Trump’s Secretary of Defense James Mattis and a panel of experts researched and produced a thorough report on all aspects of Obama-era policies regarding persons identifying as transgender or diagnosed with the psychological condition gender dysphoria.

• In response, President Trump issued a March 2018 Memorandum establishing a new policy limiting military recruitment or retention of persons diagnosed with gender dysphoria.  A “grandfather” clause allowed persons previously diagnosed or identifying as transgender to remain in service.

• The nuanced Trump Policy was not a ban on transgenders as a class.  It centered on gender dysphoria, one of many physical and psychological conditions that can make a person ineligible for military service.  Transgender activists filed litigation challenging the policy, which was not successful.  If the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled on the merits of pending cases, Trump’s policy likely would have been upheld as constitutional.

• Everything changed when the incoming Biden/Harris Administration rushed to abolish Trump’s policy and to re-establish and extend President Obama’s policies accommodating transgenders in the military.

• Eliminating any doubt, Biden’s Executive Order explicitly opened doors to sexual minorities who want “access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports” reserved for the opposite sex.  DoD directives, instructions, and implementation handbooks enforced the policy, which was and still is based on the unscientific notion that changes in appearance can change a person’s biological sex.

This is an extremely disruptive issue that involves men occupying women’s private spaces and athletic teams, violations of medical ethics and personal convictions, plus significant expenditures affecting operational budgets, readiness to deploy, and parents’ rights.  The next Commander-in-Chief and Congress should resolve these issues with compassion and common sense that puts military readiness first.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) Indoctrination

President Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, signed a September 4, 2020 Memo ending funding for all federal agency programs promoting “critical race theory,” “white privilege,” or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil.  Shortly thereafter, Trump signed an Executive Order barring CRT training by federal agencies and contractors.

• Shortly after his January 2021 Inauguration, President Joe Biden abolished Trump’s Executive Order and his 1776 Advisory Commission – a scholarly panel that produced sound recommendations for strengthening the teaching of American history and values in schools around the nation.  The 1776 Commission countered the New York Times’ toxic 1619 Commission Report.

• In June 2021 former President Trump published an op-ed criticizing President Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day Executive Orders and his re-establishment of racially divisive  CRT indoctrination programs.

On the 2024 campaign trail, former President Trump has made numerous strong statements affirming his intent to deliver on promises regarding wokeness in the military.  For example:

• Speaking in Asheboro, North Carolina, on August 21, Trump pledged to rid the military of wokeness and criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for being a participant in Biden’s radicalization of the military.

• Trump also promised to eliminate critical race theory and “transgender insanity” in the armed forces.  “Our warriors should be focused on defeating America’s enemies,” said Trump, “not figuring out their genders.” 

• Trump added that military declarations describing “diversity and inclusion as operational imperatives” will end if he is elected.  “If you want to have a sex change or a social justice seminar, then you can do it somewhere else, but you’re not going to do it in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Space Force, or the United States Marines.”
  

• Referring to pervasive woke policies, Trump promised, “The military brass that led these absurd and insulting initiatives will likewise be removed.  They will no longer be in command.”  He also noted the lack of accountability for the Afghanistan fiasco, and pledged to accept immediate resignations of top military officials who were responsible.
  

• Trump promised to rehire military service members who were let go for rejecting the COVID-19 vaccination and promised they would receive an apology with back pay.

• On recruiting, Trump promised “the largest peacetime recruitment drive in the history of the armed forces.” He added, “There’s no spirit [in the military] now.  The sense of spirit, pride and prestige will soon come roaring back and reach levels never seen before.” 

• At another event sponsored by Moms for Liberty on August 30, Trump expressed support for parents facing problems in civilian schools that are even more problematic for parents of children attending DoD Education Activity (DoDEA) schools.

Voters should consider all statements that the candidates for President and Vice President make during the campaign, but also consider actions that may be inconsistent with promises made.

B.  WHAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM SAYS . . . AND DOESN’T SAY

The 92-page Democratic Party National Platform, which retains numerous inexplicable references to “President Biden’s second term,” proclaims, “The United States has the finest fighting force in the history of the world.”  In a one-page “Strengthening American Leadership Worldwide” section of Chapter Nine, which touches on defense and foreign policy, the platform praises the various branches of the military as “the envy of the globe.” (p. 90)

• Chapter Nine notes that President Joe Biden has made “historic investments in America’s industrial base” to “support U.S. and allied forces in combat zones such as Ukraine.”

• It also points to pay raises for military personnel, “over $10 billion to enhance health care services for veterans and active-duty personnel,” housing improvements, support for military spouses, childcare, and increased funds for “education and employment opportunities” that“[underscore] the critical role that families play in the strength of the armed forces.” (pp. 90-91)

Afghanistan

• The platform states, “President Biden has never and will never turn his back on our military,” (p. 90) and includes another jarring reference to Afghanistan on page 88: “President Biden ended America’s longest war, bringing our troops home from Afghanistan and facilitating the resettlement of over 120,000 Afghan partners and their families in the United States, the largest resettlement effort since the Vietnam War.”

• The families of 13 American servicemembers killed on August 26, 2021, at Kabul Airport’s Abbey Gate certainly would disagree.  They are painfully aware that no one has resigned or been fired for their role in the chaotic retreat from Afghanistan.

• Due to the setting of a politically motivated “date certain” evacuation goal and misplaced trust in the Taliban, the Biden/Harris Administration abandoned Bagram Air Base and evacuated troops first.  According to a House Foreign Affairs Committee report titled Willful Blindness, “The Biden-Harris administration prioritized the optics of the withdrawal over the security of U.S. Personnel on the ground.” (p. 17)  “When the last military aircraft departed Kabul, approximately 1,000 Americans were left behind and over 90% of eligible Afghans were still in the country.” (p. 22)  Kamala Harris, now the Democratic Party’s nominee for President, claims to be the “last person in the room” when these inexplicable decisions were made.

• Gold Star family members also have spoken about President Biden’s callous failure to reach out to them, his watch-checking behavior at the airport transfer ceremony, and his false claim that no military personnel had died on his watch.

Weakness Invites War

The Democratic platform statements quoted above do not reflect the actual record of the Biden/Harris Administration on national defense issues.  Despite the one-word admonition “Don’t,” stated by Biden and several high-level officials, Americans have witnessed a series of foreign policy failures with adversaries emboldened by the Afghan debacle.  For example:

• After Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia invaded Ukraine, triggering a war that is still raging, and North Korea has resumed threats of missile attacks on South Korea and other Pacific allies.

• China got away with conducting electronic surveillance with a spy balloon floating over the United States in February 2023, and has stepped-up its belligerence against Taiwan.

• Biden/Harris Administration efforts in pursuit of a dubious nuclear weapons deal have enriched Iran, which has financed its proxy terrorist group Hamas, which launched the vicious October 7, 2023, attack on American ally Israel.

• Iran also funds Hezbollah, another proxy terrorist group, as well as Houthi forces that have launched relentless attacks against the U.S. Navy from Yemen and the Red Sea.

• At the same time, the Navy has suffered numerous failures of leadership and the troubled Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) pier project for delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza became a costly embarrassment.

Military/Social and “Anti-Extremism” Taken to Extremes

In the early months of the Biden Administration, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin initiated a massive “anti-extremism” campaign involving full-day stand-down sessions worldwide.  Despite the hype, a 2021 DoD investigation to find extremism in the ranks reported fewer than 100 such cases.

Nevertheless, according to a study conducted by the Center for American Institutions at Arizona State University, the DoD requested more than $68 million, $86.5 million, and $114.7 million in 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively, for divisive critical race theory and DEI programs focusing on an apparently minuscule problem.

Other sections of the platform explicitly promote controversial goals such as a “single-payer” government takeover of America’s health systems, federally-controlled elections, and draconian “climate change” penalties on “carbon emission” offenders.

The platform heavily promotes LGBTQ+ activities in civilian schools and institutions, mentioning them 37 times in Chapter Six alone. (pp. 56-57) Significantly, the word “climate” appears 81 times – 39 of them in Chapter 9 on defense.

The Democratic Platform does not mention several anti-military Executive Orders, which imposed wokeism on the military regardless of the harmful consequences.

• Biden’s February 2021 Executive Order, for example, imposed the most radical DEI mandates ever imposed on government agencies, including the Department of Defense.

• With several strokes of his pen, President Biden abolished President Trump’s 1776 Advisory Commission and imposed discriminatory “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) practices and critical race theory (CRT) indoctrination programs.  These leftist instructions, incorporated in the curricula of military service academies and DoD Education Activity (DoDEA) schools, divide individuals into racial groups and treat them differently.

• According to the organization Open the Books, when a furor arose in 2023 over the placement of self-identified woke activist Kelisa Wing to run DEI programs in DoDEA schools Pentagon officials reassigned Wing but continued her CRT programs in a DoD Steering Committee. The Open the Books report, titled “Schools for Radicals,” presented evidence of parents being denied information about DoDEA CRT programs as well as transgender indoctrination beginning with students as young as four years old.

The LGBTQ+ Agenda

The Democratic platform does not mention:

• The Biden Administration’s compulsion to celebrate and impose on the military every element of the “LGBTQ+” agenda.  These include accommodation of military personnel who identify as transgender, including lifelong treatments or surgeries that attempt to change sex by changing physical appearance.

• Annual “LGBT Pride Month observances in June, which have included outlandish drag queen performances which demean women, for adults and children attending DoD schools on military bases.
  

• Mentions of controversial hormone treatments and irreversible surgeries on military dependent children.  The Biden Administration (and Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz) have pressured to lower age limits for such treatments, established to offer minimal protection for vulnerable children under age 16.
  

• During her ill-fated 2020 presidential campaign, in response to a questionnaire from the  American Civil Liberties Union, backed spending taxpayer dollars on gender reassignment surgeries for prison inmates, decriminalizing drugs, and ending US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers for illegal immigrants accused of crimes.  (Harris affirms her “values” have not changed.)
  

• Arguments that the Biden/Harris Departments of Justice and Defense presented before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of racially discriminatory policies at the military service academies.   The DoJ took this position in litigation brought before the U.S. Supreme Court by students who successfully challenged such discriminatory practices (Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and University of N. Carolina, 2022), and in new litigation filed against the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy. 
  

• Detailed DoD directives and pronoun mandates that force commanders and medical practitioners to approve or participate in reality-denying speech, “sex transition” surgeries, and lengthy time-off options that harm readiness and morale.

• Any mention of meritocracy as the paramount consideration in all personnel decisions.

What Democratic Candidates Kamala Harris and Tim Walz Are Saying Elsewhere

The Democratic Platform mentions President Biden, but not Vice President Kamala Harris, his replacement as presidential nominee.  The American Principles Project has tracked Harris’s longstanding “obsession” with gender identity issues, specifically those involving children.

Harris’s running mate Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota has raised eyebrows for several reasons, including his longtime associations with China.  The Daily Caller has reported on Walz’s determined efforts to cut most age requirements for genital surgeries on children.  Walz also signed a “Trans Refuge” law enabling children from other states to receive state-funded genital surgeries in Minnesota.

Conclusion:

Our military is governed under principles of civilian control.  Voters have the ultimate responsibility to choose the next Commander-in-Chief and members of Congress who will put national security first.

In view of the many extremely liberal social mandate planks that appear in the Democratic Platform and policies advocated or implemented by the candidates themselves, it is reasonable to expect that a Harris/Walz Administration would continue and expand current policies that have made military life more difficult and more dangerous.

Regardless of political affiliation, every voter has the responsibility to support our troops by electing leaders who support sound priorities, not social agendas that detract from readiness or morale.

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 Prepared by the Center for Military Readiness, an independent public policy organization that reports on and analyzes military/social issues.  This document is not intended to endorse or oppose specific legislation or candidates.  More information is on the CMR website: www.cmrlink.org.

First published on Center for Military Readiness