Trump's military parade is bad, actually
There isn't a good case.
You’re standing in room with two men. Both of them are holding meat cleavers.
One is a chef.
The other is a known serial killer.
Which one do you fear?
I ask, because President Trump is going to hold a military parade in Washington D.C. of the kind we haven’t seen since the end of the First Gulf War. Critics say this is bad, a display of Trump’s authoritarian instincts that wants to put tanks on the streets of the capital in an orgy of tough-guy machismo, or something like that.
At The Altantic, Kori Schake wants everybody to hold up.
But these critics may well be projecting more general concerns about Trump onto a parade. Not everything the Trump administration does is destructive to democracy—and the French example suggests that dictatorships are not the only governments to hold military displays. The U.S. itself has been known to mount victory parades after successful military campaigns. In today’s climate, a military parade could offer an opportunity to counter misperceptions about the armed forces. It could bring Americans closer to service members and juice military recruitment—all of which is sorely needed.
She is right, sort of. Democracies can hold a military parade without it necessarily being an authoritarian celebration.
Authoritarians, however, cannot.
The point of Schake’s essay is that the military is having a tough time making recruitment goals right now because young Americans are either fat or otherwise averse, particularly after the U.S. just spent two decades in the middle of big active wars that killed and maimed a few people. Anything that maybe inspires young Americans to serve, she maintains, can’t be all bad.
Under any other president, that might be true.
But America has this president right now.
Trump is itching to use the Insurrection Act to put troops into defiant U.S. cities. He is replacing the military’s black and female leaders with a new set of generals he clearly expects to be more loyal to him than to the Constitution. And he has been quoted praising the loyalty of Hitler’s generals.
Bad stuff from a bad president.
In that context, a military parade — on Trump’s birthday, no less — is not neutral or benign. It cannot be, because Trump himself will not brook neutrality in federal servants.
Trump is bad for democracy. And that makes his military parade bad for democracy, too.
Spot on, and I would add this: The military is, sadly, a necessity. It -- and the men and women of all races and beliefs -- are to be appreciated for the dangerous service they provide. But that is different from *celebrating* the military and its members. We should be grateful for those who serve, but reserve celebrating for the times in which we don't need to call on them to risk their lives. Importantly, we shouldn't be publicly flexing our military might, which should only be deployed when absolutely necessary.