Jeffrey Goldberg takes a long look in The Atlantic at the role of retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley in defending the Constitution against the Malignant Loser. Here's a brief snippet:
“... [Milley speaking] 'There are bumps in the road, to be sure, and you get through the bumps, but I don’t want to overstate this. What did I do? All I did was try to preserve the integrity of the military and to keep the military out of domestic politics. That’s all I did.'
"These assertions will be debated for a long time. But it is fair to say that Milley came close to red lines that are meant to keep uniformed officers from participating in politics. It is also fair to say that no president has ever challenged the idea of competent civilian control in the manner of Donald Trump, and that no president has ever threatened the constitutional underpinnings of the American project in the manner Trump has. The apportionment of responsibility in the American system—presidents give orders; the military carries them out—works best when the president is sane. The preservation of a proper civil-military relationship is hugely important to democracy—but so too is universal acceptance of the principle that political officials leave office when they lose legitimate elections..."
It's a long, but worthwhile read. We can only hope the lessons of January 6, continuing to the present day, are not lost on Milley's successors. We have a fascist demagogue leading one of our major parties whose only interest is regaining power for himself to exact revenge on anyone trying to uphold Constitutional order and the rule of law, and to stay out of jail and stay in office for life. It remains the duty of every American who believes in our democracy to stand up and fight back against that possibility.
