Don’t attack the integrity of National Guard members

On the heels of the unjustified drubbing of the entire law enforcement profession over the reprehensible, unjustifiable, and highly publicized conduct of a relative few, we can now feel the focus turning towards the members of another noble profession — our National Guard.

As a direct result of the seditious and insurrectionist violence at the U.S. Capitol last week, the National Guard from across the country were called to active duty and sent to Washington, D.C. for the purpose of ensuring the peaceful transition of power as expressed by the will of American voters. That is a legitimate, albeit tragic and necessary use of our National Guard members.

But that is what the National Guard has done since its founding: they answer the call. Without question or hesitation, they leave their families, jobs, communities …everything that constitutes their “lives” to serve our state and our nation. Fires, floods, distribution of vaccines, our nation’s wars…the National Guard is always the first and best answer to disasters of man or nature. I have served with them in peace and in war, here and abroad. They are masterful in their performance of their duty to our country and Constitution.

Enter Congressman Steve Cohen. During an incendiary CNN interview two days before the inauguration of President Joe “Unity” Biden, Cohen responded to a question about his level of concern over an insider threat with these words:

“I was thinking, the guard is 90 some odd percent, I believe, male. Only about 20 percent of white males voted for Biden. You have got to figure that the guard, which is predominantly more conservative and I see that on my social media, and we know it, they are probably 25 percent of the people that are there protecting us who voted for Biden. The other 75 percent are in the class that would be the large class of folks who might want to do something.”

This is an outrageous, unjustifiable indictment by a congressman from Tennessee, ironically, a state whose nickname originated from the “volunteers” who shed their blood in defense of the U.S. in the War of 1812. Also, his statistics are completely wrong.

The suggestion that the loyalties of three out of every four members of our National Guard are suspect merely because of their gender, skin color, or even owing to their vote for president is disgusting and anathema to American values. Subsequent to being confronted with this ludicrous statement by the CNN reporter and asked if had anything to substantiate it, Cohen did not quickly apologize and walk back his comments.

Instead, he vomited up this: “You draw a circle of people who work for Trump and not for Biden as far as people who would be within the zone of folks who you would be suspect of. The suspect group is large.”

Huh? All of this was said as 200 or so members of our Colorado National Guard joined another 25,000 like them who left their lives to provide security in Washington, D.C. during this important moment in our history. We have all seen the images of uniformed members sleeping on the hard marble floors of the Capitol and in other federal venues. No complaints. Just commitment to doing their duty. And their service was predictably top shelf. Peace, law and order prevailed and the most powerful position in the world passed from one person to another.

A mere twelve Guard members were sent home, two for claimed ties to “extremist groups” and ten for some other background check issue. I am glad our troops are scrutinized, including for those with dangerous, extremist affiliations that put our democracy at risk, but we deserve to know which groups were considered “extremist.”

QAnon? Absolutely.

NRA? TurningPointUSA?

Is this the future? Now that every lever of the national government is in the hands of a single party, a party heavily influenced by extreme progressives, will we now see a new focus on screening our volunteer military for their political beliefs and party affiliation? We cannot, we must not judge the patriotic and selfless many by the malicious conduct of the few.

Whatever accolades our men and women in uniform rightly receive, the silence from our elected officials in calling out the slander of their character and patriotism is notable and unforgivable. Lightning quick to vehemently denounce Republicans in our own congressional delegation for objectionable comments, Colorado’s elected officials have been inexplicably silent to call out a Democrat congressman for maligning and impugning the integrity of our Colorado National Guard. Why sit on your hands? Defend these fine men and women.

As President Biden has said for years on multiple issues, “silence is complicity.”