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I agree with OpEd writers Maggie Jo Buchanan and Allison McManus that Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blockade of military promotions threatens our national security. But I think they miss what may be its primary aim, which is less about imposing an ideological agenda on the military and more about keeping those positions open through the presumed end of President Joe Biden’s term in office, with consequences that potentially threaten our democracy.
Tuberville’s likely choice to succeed Biden is the most recent former president, who after losing the 2020 election, abruptly replaced senior Pentagon and intelligence officials with hardline loyalists. At the time, pundits wondered what that was about; after January 6, 2021, none of them are wondering anymore. If the former president were to regain office, I think there is little doubt he would resume his efforts to shape a military whose first loyalty is to him, a goal of every aspiring autocrat. Hundreds of senior positions left vacant by Tuberville’s procedural hold would make the job much easier.
Tuberville’s opposition to reproductive freedom, along with his persona and hallucinations of a “woke” chain of command, make him the perfect vehicle for this project. Let’s not be distracted by Tuberville or his purported goals, though. Who stands to gain the most from his sideshow act? And why doesn’t the Republican leadership shut it down? The answers are clear: I think an officer corps gutted by forced inaction serves the aims of a future autocrat, and a party that enables it demonstrates that autocracy is just fine with them.
Bruce Snider
Belfast