“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”
Arthur Ashe
It seems fitting to launch the new op-ed category “The Rampaging Moderate” (that’s a podcast name if I’ve ever heard one!) with this post commemorating Veterans Day 2024.
Veterans Day for me tends to be a day of solemn and sober reflection whilst I’m also wrestling with the feelings of the veteran I served alongside for those many years whilst growing up.
Today, it is even more so given the events of the past week and the results of an election that was at best nasty and full of insults and dreadful behaviour whilst at its worst echoed themes of a truly harrowing and horrifying future for this country where there is more than a little possibility of the character attributes and caring for others in need or being persecuted that have long made American society the envy of the world may be cast aside in the quest of attaining immense political power.
If I’m brutally honest, there’s a small part of me that thanks whatever higher power might care that my father never lived long enough to see just how far our society has slipped into very dark times.
I’ve never kept it a secret how dreadfully unprepared and unfit for the office of President that Mr Trump was in 2015. I didn’t hate Mr Trump (and honestly still don’t, his behaviour and obvious decline over the past eight years makes me feel pity more than anything else) but I didn’t see him effectively making the transition from a job where his word would be considered an absolute commandment from upon high to a job where he’d have to cooperate and compromise with 535 members of Congress and the nine justices of the Supreme Court to get anything of lasting import enshrined in the law.
Certainly, he certainly understood how the executive orders process worked but even that had severe limits that I honestly thought those restrictions upon his desired policies he’d find intolerable.
Even as much as Dad really was not a fan of Hillary Clinton (and to be sure, neither was I), I truly believe that had Dad lived to see Mr Trump take the oath of office, it probably would have broken his heart knowing such a person was now, among other things, the Commander-in-Chief.
“Duty, honor, country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.”
General Douglas MacArthur
To be sure, Dad had little use for politicians in general and found them utterly deficient in terms of honour and that a promise made was a promise kept no matter what. He also wasn’t much of a fan of the average politician being far more interested in serving their own interests and lining their pockets with massive amounts of cash where occasionally they’d be paid in ways that weren’t dubious if not illegal.
“Represent yourself honourably or it will cost you!”
If I had a nickel for every time I heard my father utter that phrase, I’d never have to work another day in my life!
But he meant it and he had little patience for those who did not measure up to that standard of service and honesty which was the high bar he learned first at home and was refined and purified by his tour of duty in the US Army pretty much from the start when he was commissioned as an officer and took took this oath:
I ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Oath of Commissioned Officers
(Title 5 U.S. Code 3331, an individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services)
He took that oath that he’d sworn many years ago seriously. It was a promise he’d made for life and even well after he’d retired, he still took his obligations accepted in that oath and every subsequent one he took at each promotion as well as his responsibilities and obligations as well as restrictions upon his liberties imposed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
That would include Articles 88 (Contempt toward officials) and 133 (Conduct unbecoming an officer) of the UCMJ.
The oath administered to the President is noticeably shorter and has some very big differences to the oath sworn by pretty much everyone else in Federal service:
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:– I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
United States Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 8
Even though God was discarded as an optional extra and the bits concerning mental state and faithful discharge of duties aren’t there…the important bits of taking an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and defending it are still very much there and that was Dad’s expectation of anyone who had the enormous privilege and honour to take that oath and enter the White House as President of the United States.
That’s been sorely tested in the past few years, particularly considering the events of 06 January 2021, a day I can’t imagine any of us forgetting as long as we may live.
How many veterans and active members of the armed forces were seriously aggrieved by the events of that dark day in our country’s history?
I’d imagine the vast majority wondered if the country they’ve served and fought to defend so faithfully and so well (as generations of brave men and women before them had done their duty with honour for their country) would ever be the same ever again..
I’d imagine that the veterans and members of our armed forces were wondering if the election of 2024 and the aftermath was going to be the second act of that ghastly insurrection where the democratic traditions of the Constitution itself were suffering a vicious assault.
In spite of a murderous and violent mob’s best efforts, the Constitution held firm and the Electoral College eventually completed its duty in certifying the results of the presidential election of 2020.
There have been many tests of the strength of Constitution since that afternoon between the incessant and baseless election denials as well as the Supreme Court issuing rulings severely curtailing hard won civil rights and earlier this year effectively clearing the way for a President to commit criminal acts with impunity as long as they can be construed as within the President’s official duties.
I don’t think Dad could have ever imagined that in a million years and yet here we are.
In the immediate aftermath of the election, there is a lot of very raw feelings and our country seems more divided than ever other than brief interludes when two powerful hurricanes caused much death and destruction but also showed glimpses of the character of looking out for those in need that makes Americans a great people worth defending and saving.
I have faith that the Constitution isn’t ready to pack it in at the ripe old age of 237 years.
Now more than ever, I have faith that the brave men and women who stand on the walls and defend us and the freedoms that we often take for granted but yet hold most dear will remember that their oath is to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic”.
That’s why I find it to be utterly laughable when I hear suggestions that the military be used against domestic targets in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 which explicitly forbids using the military in such a fashion and any member of the armed forces who’d refuse such an illegal order would have ample protection from prosecution under the UCMJ.
It’s equally absurd to think that honourable members of the military would ever swear allegiance to anything other than the Constitution of the United States and forsake their service to the people of this country that never stopped being the greatest on Earth.
When I thank a veteran for their service, I’ve always meant it from the bottom of my heart.
Knowing them as I do having been an Army brat of more than a few years, I know that should the Constitution need their service…they will always be there and faithful to that beautiful document and for all it stands.
Thank you for your service!