For Pete's Sake, Why Not

Who is Pete Hegseth and why is he Trump’s choice for Secretary of Defense. The long and short of it, he’s a decorated combat Infantry veteran having earned two Bronze Stars, two Army Commendation Medals, Combat Infantry Badge, Meritorious Service Medals... with deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. He has degrees from both Princeton and Harvard. He’s still a field grade officer in the Individual Ready Reserve, and he’s the former executive director of Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America. Oh, lest I forget, prior to his selection as Secretary of Defense he was a Fox News host, which is how most liberal media currently present him.

Is Pete Hegseth unconventional? No! Does Hegseth fit the requisite job description of previous Defense Secretary? No! Does Pete have the elevated rank or private defense industry credentials of previous DOD secretaries? No! Is Hegseth taking heat for being what some consider less than qualified? Yes! Hegseth will almost certainly be an upgrade over Woke, vax-mandating and AWOL Lloyd Austin and his terrible trio of General’s “Thoroughly Modern” Milley, James Mattis and John Kelly.

I, and many other active and retired Veterans agree with Hegseth’s view that the “injection of left-wing ideology in the form of critical race theory and its manifestation in diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates is the primary problem with America’s war-fighting apparatus today.” Additionally, Hegseth has said, military members are in “for warfighting” and that’s “the only litmus test” we as Americans care about. Furthermore, Pete Hegseth will rid the military academies of DEI and CRT. In other words, there needs to be an “ethos change.” When war fighters, past, be they veterans of the Army, Navy, Airforce, USMC.  signed up to serve in the Armed Forces, they wrote a blank check made payable to “The People of the United States of America” for an amount up to and including our lives. The woke Left's takeover of America's armed forces is real and a present danger. 

 Is it not time that we have someone who is Secretary of Defense in who refuses to quiesce to woke advocates? Is it not about time we have someone who stands up to the progressive left wing nut jobs who loathe the military and feels good about some “dude in uniform wearing long hair and earrings and using the wrong pronouns"? Mental health disorders disqualify one from service because it undermines readiness. Left-wing social experimentation in the Armed forces has resulted in a severe shortfall of recruitment and retention.

If confirmed, Hegseth won’t have time to focus only on wokeness. He’ll immediately be confronted with foreign policy calamities. He will have his hands full cleaning up after the current administration’s dangerous policy failures with Ukraine, Israel, China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and its terrorist proxies... in addition to identifying the estimated 350 terrorists who are in our country now, the direct result of the Biden-Harris open border policy. Hegseth’s critics who speak with contempt and claim that he is unqualified because he is a Fox News host are the same people who insisted that Joe Biden was compos mentis (of sound mind), Harris was competent and her running mate, Tim “Stolen Valor” Walz, who shirked combat and then lied about it, was some sort of military hero.

In summation, refocusing the military on warfighting and jettisoning the woke BS is core to the strategy of projecting strength. Our global adversaries mock us for caring more about military abortions and guys getting their nails done than winning or, better yet, preventing wars. Time will tell if Hegseth is the right choice for the job or if he is in over his head. I, for one, certainly don’t fault Trump for thinking outside the Beltway with his pick. Unequivocally, Hegseth is a patriot who loves, supports, and has defended America and its interests with devotion. For Pete's sake, why not give him a chance.

The Here and Now and America's Future

How many times in this election cycle have you had fellow people of faith, acquaintances, associates, neighbors... even strangers say to you, “I don’t like either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris” or words to that affect? Additionally, these same people claim, they are not planning to vote for either one of them for President on election day. If past election data and current polling stats suggests that millions of people of faith presently are planning on not voting for either Harris or Trump. In making this decision, such voters are exercising what some have identified as the “Pontius Pilate Option” approach to moral decision-making. When confronted with angry mobs demanding the crucifixion of Jesus, did not the Roman governor attempt to absolve himself from moral culpability for the crucifixion by ritually washing his hands with water?

Atlas, in a fallen and sinful world where we are frequently, regrettably, lamentably... are not faced with the comfort of an option abutted by good and evil, but instead an option between the greater evil and the lesser evil. In the words of Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”

I sympathize with my fellow Christians, patriots and citizens who find themselves adverse or ill-disposed towards both candidates. I find flaws in both DJT and Kamala Harris. But I am not voting for a family member, an associate, or a spiritual advisor. I am voting for a president to lead our Constitutional Republic for the next four years and a Commander-in-Chief of our Uniformed Armed Services in a perilous, unstable, and volatile world, as should be the case of every American voter.

For those who find both candidates wanting. Allow me to provide you with some information that may oblige the readers to vote one way or the other. Based on his first term as president, there is no doubt Trump he is more pro-life, pro-smaller government, and he will do far more to grow the economy, especially among lower-income workers. On the economy, we have the luxury of a clear comparison between DJT’s record in office and Kamala Harris’s record as VP in the Biden-Harris Administration. In addition to the life issue Kamala Harris is the most radical and unwaveringly pro-abortion candidate to ever head a presidential ticket. Kamala Harris is obstinately in favor of the transgender agenda and will certainly curtail parental rights to protect their children from transgender propaganda, indoctrination, and potential surgery against their parents’ will.