Something has gone deeply wrong when the military an institution grounded in duty, discipline, and the apolitical defense of the nation begins to smell like a campaign rally in camouflage. Yet this is precisely the path that Rep. Jay Obernolte and the Trump administration are pushing us down, with scant resistance.
A recent report reveals that Pentagon officials are considering a recruiting campaign built around the legacy of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist recently assassinated, with slogans like “Charlie has awakened a generation of warriors” and outreach tied to Turning Point USA chapters on college campuses. Consider what that means: turning military recruitment into a partisan memorial, collapsing lines between the state’s defense apparatus and a political movement.
The service is outside partisan politics and serves the Constitution, not a party or the president. When the Trump administration and Obernolte stoop to leverage the uniform as a megaphone for political messaging, they undermine that trust. Trump’s repeated calls to use U.S. cities as training grounds and his aggressive framing of protests against his administration as a kind of invasion already crossed the line. Are Victorville, Hesperia, or Adelanto one of these training grounds?
Inlanders, our congressman Rep. Obernolte is far from a neutral actor. His alignment with Trump’s rhetoric, his votes and public posture, embed him in the project of weaponizing American institutions for partisan ends. Obernolte's silence is pure cowardice. The Founders envisioned a civilian-led military precisely to avoid the fate of many republics before us: where the armed forces become a tool of a faction, not of the nation. When Obernolte helps legitimize or promote a politicized military, they blur the lines between oversight and complicity. That’s dangerous. We need stronger guardrails, not weaker ones. Once the uniform is politicized, the damage will outlast any administration.
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