Post by Amadan on Oct 12, 2017 11:07:36 GMT -5
The case of 2nd Lt. Spenser Rapone is the latest ripple in the "culture war." He initially hit the media when he tweeted support for Collin Kapaernik. NBD - while military officers tend to be ideologically conservative, there certainly exist left-leaning officers. They are generally discouraged from making partisan political statements (and forbidden to do so as an official representative of the military), but lots of officers have and do sound off about various issues, what they think of the President (they're really not supposed to do that publicly, but it rarely results in formal discipline), etc.
Rapone, however, seems to be something special.
West Point grad behind pro-communist photos reportedly was flagged to superiors in 2015
He's not just left-leaning, he is apparently a committed Marxist who appears to be a full-blown SJW.
While he's now being investigated and people are calling for his discharge, it's not clear to me that he's actually violated any laws. It is likely that posting things like "Fuck this country and its fake freedom" and how he wants to dance on Sen. John McCain's grave are minor violations of the UCMJ, but more generally, the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution does not technically preclude being a Marxist. (Though it's hard to see how a Constitutionally legitimate Marxist government could ever come about.)
It does appear that 2LT Rapone is either suffering from deep cognitive dissonance, or he joined the Army with either some sort of infiltrate-and-subvert agenda, or as one epic trolling stunt. I can't imagine his men wanting to follow him into battle.
This prompted an open letter from a retired West Point officer and professor:
What is Happening at West Point?
You'll note that the top link is from Fox News, and almost all the links I found to this story came from conservative or military news sites. Not a lot of coverage in more mainstream media. So I am a little wary of taking LTC Heffington's long, disturbing letter at face value without hearing from other staff and faculty at the USMA. Is he a crank hiding an ideological agenda of his own, or is he saying what everyone else has been thinking, now that he's safely retired? It's hard to figure out how much is a legitimate warning cry and how much is the eternal soldier's gripe about how much standards have declined and how soft new recruits are compared to "Back in my day..."
(I find this ironic because LTC Heffington graduated from the USMA just after I left the Army, and of course we'd been told by our leadership that we were the weakest batch of soldiers ever. Boy do I feel old.)
I also worked at the USMA briefly, about the time that Heffington identifies as the "start" of its decline.
If what Heffington alleges is true, the USMA (and the US Army) is in deep trouble. But I'd really like to hear from his peers.
Rapone, however, seems to be something special.
West Point grad behind pro-communist photos reportedly was flagged to superiors in 2015
He's not just left-leaning, he is apparently a committed Marxist who appears to be a full-blown SJW.
While he's now being investigated and people are calling for his discharge, it's not clear to me that he's actually violated any laws. It is likely that posting things like "Fuck this country and its fake freedom" and how he wants to dance on Sen. John McCain's grave are minor violations of the UCMJ, but more generally, the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution does not technically preclude being a Marxist. (Though it's hard to see how a Constitutionally legitimate Marxist government could ever come about.)
It does appear that 2LT Rapone is either suffering from deep cognitive dissonance, or he joined the Army with either some sort of infiltrate-and-subvert agenda, or as one epic trolling stunt. I can't imagine his men wanting to follow him into battle.
This prompted an open letter from a retired West Point officer and professor:
What is Happening at West Point?
You'll note that the top link is from Fox News, and almost all the links I found to this story came from conservative or military news sites. Not a lot of coverage in more mainstream media. So I am a little wary of taking LTC Heffington's long, disturbing letter at face value without hearing from other staff and faculty at the USMA. Is he a crank hiding an ideological agenda of his own, or is he saying what everyone else has been thinking, now that he's safely retired? It's hard to figure out how much is a legitimate warning cry and how much is the eternal soldier's gripe about how much standards have declined and how soft new recruits are compared to "Back in my day..."
(I find this ironic because LTC Heffington graduated from the USMA just after I left the Army, and of course we'd been told by our leadership that we were the weakest batch of soldiers ever. Boy do I feel old.)
I also worked at the USMA briefly, about the time that Heffington identifies as the "start" of its decline.
If what Heffington alleges is true, the USMA (and the US Army) is in deep trouble. But I'd really like to hear from his peers.
