October Surprise: Truth versus Ideology

 

by

Rod Bishop and Ron Scott

           On October 14, 2020, The New York Post broke a story (here and here) involving Hunter Biden.  

            The leftist mainstream media worked hard all week to discredit the story (see here, here, and here, for example). We watched with dismay that none of the major networks even mentioned the story at all on their prime-time news programs the day the story broke in The New York Post. Crickets.  Absolutely no mention of the story.

           Here is an important article that speaks from first-hand associations and authenticates the story (note: in the interest of full disclosure, the computer repair shop owner is Ron’s nephew).  More importantly, the revelation demonstrates how the FBI sat on the story since December 2019 when it could have provided exculpatory evidence during the impeachment proceedings.

           For an organization that should be apolitical, the FBI has demonstrated that it has an ideological allegiance.  This was clearly demonstrated in July of 2016 when the Director of the FBI provided tremendous details of crimes committed by Hillary Clinton but exonerated her because there was no evidence of “intent” to break the law.  How deep is ideological corruption?

           Developments at our Service Academies, which should represent one of the purist crucibles for an apolitical culture, provide additional evidence to the extent political ideology has infiltrated these institutions.  The U.S. Naval Academy is in the process of discharging a senior for violating its policies against racism.  This midshipman (MIDN), who has roomed with a fellow black cadet for three years, issued a Tweets while COVID-19 evacuated to his home in L.A.  His parents are police officers, who at the time were working overtime to provide some safety for the citizens exposed to Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots.  The MIDN tweeted that he was concerned about his parents’ safety, yet some of his tweets were not without some controversy.  The issue is how the leadership conceptualized “racism” and to the extent that it violates policy.  This “interpretation” in and of itself is controversial because it appears to stem from an ideological perspective as opposed to a legal one.  Here is an excellent article, “US Naval Academy’s Cancel Culture Targeted the Son of Two LA Police Dept Officers for Expulsion,” that partially describes the circumstances. 

Two excerpts speak loudly regarding the ideological disposition of the USNA Deputy Commandant:

 The “adjudication” before the Deputy Commandant was straight out of Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”  Ignoring our legal arguments, he made clear to MIDN Standage that there was only ONE acceptable position with respect to the subject matters of the tweets – the Command’s position (informed by the BLM and Anti-Racism movements), and that MIDN Standage’s statements to the contrary were racist and prejudicial to good order and discipline. The Deputy Commandant’s comments and his rant about the supremacy of the football team left no doubt that the Deputy was pandering to the Brigade’s social justice warriors. It is also important to note that one of the clear undercurrents of the adjudication was the Deputy’s contempt for the President. For example, he asked Standage, “You really think the President sets the standard of conduct for officers?” The specifics of his comments are in the complaint filed. MIDN Standage was found guilty of both charges, received the max on demerits and restriction, and his case was forwarded to the Commandant recommending separation from the Naval Academy.

“You were not found guilty for what you said, but how you said it.”

           Other relevant articles related to these issues can be read here, and here.          

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point provides mandatory courses on critical race theory.  Recent graduates, one a former Corps Captain (#1 cadet within the cadet organization) who is black and a Rhodes Scholar, authored a 40-page document complaining about systemic racism at West Point.  On its face, one cannot help but wonder, that if systemic racism did exist, how did the cadet rise to be the number one cadet in charge of the entire cadet corps?  Why is “systemic racism” only being discovered now if it has been existing? Military ranking is based on peer evaluation.  The Superintendent, a black lieutenant general, initiated an investigation (no published results as of the date of this article).B

           Traceable ideological indoctrination began to seep into the culture of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) following the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson Missouri.  According to The Atlantic Monthly, the Superintendent, at the time, presumably with every good intention (but perhaps without full knowledge of the ideology of the institution), arranged for the Knapsack Institute from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs to conduct seminars with the cadets.  Here is an excerpt from their website:

The name, “The Knapsack Institute” hails from Peggy McIntosh’s renowned article, "White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women's studies,” in which she states: 

"I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was 'meant' to remain oblivious.  White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks."  (Peggy McIntosh, 1988 "White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women's studies."  Excerpted from Working Paper 189, Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Wellesley, MA.)

The outgoing USAFA Superintendent achieved national notoriety when he lectured Academy cadets about racism and acceptable values following an incident at the Academy Preparatory School on the same campus.  Ron wrote about it here.  The incident turned out to be a hoax perpetrated by the same black prep school student who made the complaint.  One of the USAFA’s Superintendent’s themes during his tenure at this time was the existence of “systemic racism,” as indicated in this letter to the “Academy Family.”  A review of minutes from the USAFA Board of Visitors provides absolutely no evidence of systemic racism.  Further, we filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documentation on racism complaints back on August 4, 2020.  Despite the statutory requirement for a response within 10 work-days (or 20 for exceptional circumstances), the only response received so far was to let us know we went from number 64 to 48 in the queue.

More egregiously, the Air Force Academy football coaches posted a video on their Facebook page supporting “Black Lives Matter” seven times during a three-minute video.  We learned about the video from a Colorado Springs Gazette article, “Air Force football takes firm social stance with video in support of Black Lives Matter,”  on July 7, 2020.  Two days later, Ron posted a rebuttal here.  The issue is that whether wittingly or not, the coaches supported a Marxist organization that created the expression “Black Lives Matter.”  A group of Academy graduates have invested a considerable amount of time to convince the coaches that the video presents false information and apparent support for a Marxist organization.  To this day, the coaches, supported by USAFA Superintendents (outgoing and incoming), have refused to take the video down.

           On September 14, a group of Academy graduates filed an Inspector General (IG) Complaint at the Secretary of the Air Force level expressing concern about the Air Force Academy coaches’ video.  There are four concerns:  (a) the video violates Air Force Instruction 51-508; (b) the video violates DoD Directive 1344.10; (c) the video violates the President’s Executive Order; and (d) the video is extremely divisive.  A subsequent addendum, September 28, 2020, provided additional arguments/evidence for the complaint.  The complaint referenced OMB Memo dated September 4, 2020 and the President’s Executive Order, dated September 22, 2020.  We are still waiting for an answer, which strongly indicates the issue is political—perhaps waiting for the outcome of the Presidential election to determine how to respond to the IG complaint?

           The “slow-rolling” status of the above actions speaks volumes as to the political and ideological transformation of the Department of Defense.  If the military is to preserve the essence of its apolitical nature, we would suggest that some actions are in order, at least for the U.S. Air Force:

·       Direct the football video be taken down from social media;

·       Initiate a review of the Academy academic curriculum to eliminate Marxist indoctrination (i.e., critical race theory); and

·       Through the Center for Character and Leadership Development, develop a case study to (a) analyze the emergence of indoctrination, (b) integrate the importance of recognizing such indoctrination and (c) apply measures to stem it.

The Secretary of Defense should advance similar considerations for other Service Academies in accordance with the OMB Memo and Executive Order from the Commander in Chief addressing Critical Race Theory Training (referenced above in the IG Complaint). 

The phenomena described above are not unprecedented.  History has documented similar developments.  Hannah Arendt in her seminal work, The Origins of Totalitarianism, analyzed and explained similar examples.  The Dreyfus Affair (which justified political divisions and a systemic anti-Semitic ideology) represents the manifestation of ideology similar to claims of “systemic racism” in today’s American narrative.

More existentially, current movements are contrary to the essence of the inalienable rights asserted in our Declaration of Independence and codified in our Constitution as a system of self-governance.  Current movements are multicultural, secular, and antithetical to the unifying constructs of a Constitutional Republic.  Human nature has not and will not change.  Thus, history can and does repeat itself.  Cicero observed similar dynamics when he wrote: 

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.

Evidence on the Hunter Biden hard drive provides a glimpse into this type of behavior.  The left diminishes it, even dismisses it in favor of their favorite Russia conspiracy meme. 

America faces a similar existential moment as she did in 1860 when America was confronted with acquiescing to an ideology of slavery versus the ideals of her Declaration of Independence.  America risks enslavement by ideology as opposed to being liberated by truth.  The dangerous ideological culture at our Service Academies is just one example.

Rod Bishop is a retired Air Force lieutenant general, member of the Class of 1974, U.S. Air Force Academy.  Ron Scott is a retired Air Force colonel, member of the Class of 1973, U.S. Air Force Academy.