The United States Marine Corps does not have a Commander for the first time in over 100 years. This is all because of Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville. Tuberville, who has never served in the military, is holding hostage hundreds of military assignments to force his MAGA social agenda on the women in our military because he doesn’t like the healthcare provisions approved by the Pentagon. This is freezing up promotions for over 200 top military posts that are critical to the safety of our national defense.
This shameful display of childish drama has been going on for months. While Tuberville plays political games with our national security, the entire Republican Congress does nothing. Not one single Republican in Congress has stood up to him so that our troops can keep us safe. And their complicity has made them as guilty as he is.
Every living Defense Secretary from the past quarter century that includes two Republican members of the Senate recently signed a statement to Senate leaders that Tuberville is hurting our military with his hard-headed blockade. Tuberville actually gives us an opportunity to see this in action. Seemingly all Democrats and many Republicans in the Senate agree that one person obstructing military promotions is disrespectful to the armed services and potentially harmful to national security.
Tuberville has proven that he is not the sharpest tack in the box when he could not name the three branches of our government even though he had been elected to one of them. There are consequences to electing people like Tuberville to office. A lot of people in Alabama blame Tuberville as the reason why our State lost the Space Command.
Tuberville has always used our military as a backdrop in making his claims about his father’s military service. During this tantrum of his, it has come to light that Tuberville has not been totally truthful about the senior Mr. Tuberville’s military service. His Father did serve in the military but he did not receive five Bronze Stars as claimed by Senator Tuberville. Tuberville claimed that his father was a commander with the 101 Infantry and that is not correct.
The exaggeration of this father’s military service is not Tuberville’s only misspoken mistake. He said that he would use his Senate office for fundraising. Apparently, he did not know that was a felony under Federal law.
Tuberville publicly praised the $1.4 billion that Alabama got from the Federal money to help provide broadband to our rural areas, however, he voted against it. There is also the infamous statement that he made calling “white nationalist” Americans and did not think of himself as racist. White Nationalists are a militant group of white people who espouse white supremacy and advocate racial segregation.
We have always expected our elected officials to serve as an aggregate of American intelligence. No pun intended but we dropped the ball on this ex-football coach with no government experience or knowledge that is important to his job to serve the people. That means putting personal opinions aside and working for the people whom he was elected to serve.
Tuberville may have been elected in Alabama, but until his colleagues stand up and speak out against this biased act of misogynistic behavior that is bringing harm to our military, he is everyone’s problem.
Lynda Kirkpatrick
Marion County Democratic Party Chair
SDEC 17th District Rep Alabama Democratic Party