How to Politicize A Military In Under 150 Days?

Yesterday, I ended up posting the same meme as a few months ago and wondered why I posted it the first time:

 And then I realized: Trump hit another item on the checklist of how to turn the military into a partisan actor--to politicize it.  

Here's the checklist:

1. Choose a highly partisan Secretary of Defense. ✅  This individual, besides the president, is the most important for managing the relationship between the civilians and the military.  The Democrats often have chosen Republicans (Hagel, Gates, Cohen) for this spot to ensure bipartisan and essentially nonpartisan leadership over the military.  Trump chose a wildly unqualified and disqualified person to do his bidding, one that is on the very far right side of the political spectrum. 
2. Fire senior officers for not being sufficiently loyal to the man in charge as opposed to the Constitution. ✅Senior officers have been fired before, but not because they were accused of being insufficiently partisan--McChrystal, MacArthur, etc. Perhaps getting rid of the JAG's, the top military lawyers, fits here (thanks to the commenter for this).
3. Encourage the troops to be partisan.✅  Trump's speech yesterday where he encouraged the troops to boo the Democratic leaders of LA and California.  In the past, leaders of the military refrained from voting because they didn't want to be seen as partisan.  While retired officers have helped politicize the military by visibly supporting candidates and parties with the aim of making it appear as if they represent the active forces (Flynn for the GOP is the most obvious case, Allen for the Dems in 2016 sort of paralleled this.), this is far worse--active troops booing Democrats.
4. Use the military to do law and order stuff domestically.☑️  This is where we are now--on the verge of this.  We have national guard and maybe Marines escorting ICE as they seek to toss people into concentration camps or deport them. But the Insurrection Act invocation, coming soon, will greatly expand that.
5. Partisan screening at all levels of the military. ☑️ We already have it at the top, but thus far the closest we get is: don't come to the Fort Bragg speech if you are not a fan of Trump. 
6. Mandatory party membership for officers.  Not there yet.
7. Commissars--placing party officials inside military units to vet the decisions of commanders.  Not yet. 
8. Indoctrination. ✅ Having political education at the various military schools is another step, and given what is happening now with the personnel at the US Air Force Academy, the courses and books at the War Colleges, this is already underway (h/t to the commenter for this suggestion). 

These are just the steps to politicize the military.  There are plenty of moves one could and Trump has made to move the US to an autocracy, such as developing paramilitary units that are loyal to one person--that would be ICE.

And, yes, to be clear, politicizing the armed forces like this has the impact of moving the US into autocracy.  A nonpartisan military is an essential foundation, if underappreciated, of democracy.  Dictators have partisan militaries.  Democracies have militaries that largely stay out of partisan politics even if they are inherently political entities.  

The Bright Line Watch folks can identify all the steps taken thus far to cross into autocracy.  My top three or so are: refusing to spend as Congress allocates, violating the due process rights of many people, and politicizing the military.    

There are other truly awful consequences besides ending American democracy: reducing military effectiveness (partisan armies tend to suck at combat), raising the risk of civil war (civil wars often start when a military breaks apart and takes competing sides), Americans getting killed (escalation of force is not great, Bob).

 The other meme I am using a lot these days: 

 

H/T to James Vizzard and other bluesky dwellers for helping me compose this list.