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Military Chic Contagion

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Traditionally, commanders hand out the [Challenge] coins to troops for exemplary service and morale boosting. That’s how Duckworth got hers. That’s why it meant so much.

But in recent years, many outside the military have adopted the tradition, turning a sacrosanct ritual, some say, into a form of military chic that is now part of the Washington power game. The coin craze extends into almost every nook of the federal government. The secretaries of education, transportation and agriculture have coins. So does the EPA administrator, and even the Department of Agriculture’s Office of Information Technology.

The coins have gone global – the Australian ambassador has one. And corporate: Boeing has a coin. So does Starbucks.

Just another symptom of America’s aping military culture for hollow status and plain jock sniffing. It’s part of a pervasive tapestry of military jargon and even practices seeping into our domestic lives. What’s remarkable about the HBGary story is how little coverage it generated in the traditional media. Defense contractors gleefully and mostly without internal debate turning external cyber warfare techniques inward on domestic civilian targets. The slides prepared for Hunton & Williams are redolent with military style phraseology and fixated on taking down enemies. No one really blinked an eye.

Just more change we can’t believe in. The Obama Administration enables the cult of militarization to spread with the Boy Kings aspirational ‘bi-partisanship.’ He agreed to CIA’s self-promoting exponential increase in drone strikes in Pakistan which have polarized Pakistani politics. In return for negligible effect on the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Or Agencycontractors shooting Pakistanis in politically volatile Lahore. (Everyone in this town was calling Davis a CIA contractor weeks ago, so the current press bubble is either shameful or a sham). McChrystal did propose a decoration for restraint which followed him out the door. Meanwhile, NSA and Cyber Command want more pervasive control over private sector networks and ‘kill switch’ legislative moves through Congress.

What’s perverse about Obama? While he bestows bipartisan gloss on militarization (he has his own Challenge Coin, after all), he’s utterly incapable of applying that ethos to defend his base or rebuff those bent on his political extinction. America has Internet connects. We have Facebook. We have Twitter. If these tools are truly transformational, one would think Americans would self organize and take a stand against plutocratic/oligarchical oppression, wealth transfer and a downward spiral from middle class to the disenfranchised, interchangeable, atomized poor. Apparently Facebook, Twitter and the like don’t work for sheep.

The Fabric Begins To Rip

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Wags might note the country’s first collective glimpse of consequences from its 2010 elections were Wisconsin Democrats fleeing and hiding from Movement activists wearing the Republican brand. But it’s past as prologue. If Wisconsin seems somehow ‘new’ that’s another symptom of decaying American collective short term memory. Karl Rove years ago recognized that a minority can take power in American ‘democracy’ and govern (he was probably thinking rule).

For the Movement under Bush, the 9/11 attacks gave the greenlight to pervasive radicalization and looting. Lacking that, Wisconsin Governor Walker fabricated a budget crisis. He didn’t burn down the legislature. Same results either way: radicalization, de-stabilization and wealth transfer. The Wisconsin status quo, like the hapless Colin Powell, Benchpresser, Wilkerson et al., are caught flat footed, unprepared, blinking.

Why? Current RNC Chair Reince Priebus was the Wisconsin GOP Chair in 2010. In October he called for Obama’s execution thinking of Bin Lin Laden. Wisconsin overall shouldn’t be shocked. The new governor won by the same margin fellow GOPer Johnson beat Russ Feingold. In fact, all state wide races went GOP by essentially the same margin.

Personal views of Governor Walker aside, one can’t say he’s a stealth candidate. He made commitments a visible part of his campaign. He promised to slash government radically. To grant massive tax cuts to corporations. Somehow generate new jobs without spending an extra dime. Walker once elected to make even a gesture to his agenda would have to start by breaking existing, signed state contracts, prevent any further Amtrak funding, etc.

Launching his agenda serves larger national goals, too. De-stabilizing and radicalizing the status quo allows the naturally prepared agents of de-stabilization to market themselves as the defenders of law and order. The roused status quo painted as divisive. And on cue Fox, etc. start the violence memes, etc. We’ve already lived through this show, Dear Reader. We all saw 2001-2008 how radicalism leads to de-stabilization which opens sluice gates for other — in this case — plutocratic interests. We all also know Act III of the script: the smirking governing entity proclaims the sinking floor our new normal.

How can Democrats both in Wisconsin and especially nationally be so surprised? Didn’t everyone say at the time November 2010 would be felt most at the state level? Christie reminded AEI this week he dragged New Jersey down this same road *last year.* We get stunned Democrats playing meme defense, and MSNBC pandering, both badly. Again.

Obama’s comments on Wisconsin today put things in perspective. Thank goodness in 2012 we will be able to choose between two Republicans. Can you imagine the feebleness of an actual Democratic campaign?