The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Say goodbye to patriotism, tradition, and pride inside our armed forces.
"Anheuser-Busch, the beer manufacturer, has suffered a huge self-inflicted wound by employing transgender “woman” Dylan Mulvaney as a brand ambassador for Bud Lite.
"Anheuser-Busch has put the female vice president of marketing who thought up the Mulvaney campaign on a presumably permanent leave of absence and fired the ad agency that helped her do it. Anheuser-Busch has reportedly lost about $6 billion in market value and as much as 20 percent of its market share.
"That loss of market share and the reduced revenue that accompany it have been enough to bring Anheuser-Busch back to reality and make the company remember that its primary mission is to brew good beer. Unfortunately for our national security, there are no market protections against President Joe Biden’s political agenda, which is destroying the readiness and lethality of our military.
"Anheuser-Busch’s transgender mess came late to the party. From October 2022 to March 2023, the U.S. Navy made an active-duty drag queen one of its “digital ambassadors” to help recruit new sailors, which we’ll get back to in a moment.
"Back in the olden days of the 1990s, the military had a culture unto itself, defined by patriotism, tradition, and pride. Young men and women join the military for any number of reasons. Some do it to satisfy family tradition. Some join simply out of patriotism. Some join to get a job or to get away from their family and friends. Some join to earn GI Bill benefits, which is the only way they can go to college.
"Two vignettes: My late great friend, former U.S. Navy SEAL Al Clark, once told me that he wanted to become a SEAL because it was the toughest group with the toughest training regimen. About 20 years ago, I was privileged to visit the John F. Kennedy Army Special Forces school at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for its Special Forces Robin Sage graduation exercise. When I talked to the Green Beret applicants, their most common refrain was that, after the 9/11 attacks, all they wanted to do was get a piece of the bad guys.". . .