The three US military service secretaries went on the offensive against Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville over his ongoing hold on senior military nominations in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, saying he is aiding communist and autocratic regimes, and being used by adversaries like China against the US.
Rhetoric aside, it is chilling that a sitting Senator would take such a step and we should all be concerned about what this could lead to.
Today it’s Tuberville’s hold on nominations for non-military political reasons. Maybe tomorrow it’s the Armed Services committees treating these appointments and promotions like judicial nominations. All of a sudden, you effectively have de-facto political appointments for in-the-ranks military leadership, and U.S. politics is far scarier than it’s ever been.
Sure, I’m committing a slippery slope fallacy here, but given the track record of our political leaders to cause institutional decay with zero-sum game partisan politics, I don’t think it’s a stretch.
One side of the political aisle is well known for open obstruction. The other is not.