A 50-Year "Swing" to the Hard Right??
So help me God!; I can't "figure-out" Allen West! At first, I thought he was "play-acting" to appeal to Sarah Palin, and those "Batista-Cubans" she supports in our Senate. But then, he didn't connect with Sarah until Sarah "became" Sarah; and that was after McCain tried to foist her off on us as V.P. during the 2008 election campaign.
No, it has something to do with his military career, I'm afraid. He finished his career "under a cloud", relieved of command in Iraq; tried by the military, and retired at the rank of Lt. Colonel, in 2004. So, he was a black officer, I was a black officer, and Colin Powell was a black officer. What's the same, and what's different?
Colin's the oldest (born in 1937 - two years older than me); West is the youngest (born in 1961 -- one year before my own son was born). The time line doesn't support any argument for "progress"; unless you think movement to the Hard Right denotes progress; for an individual or a nation.
Colin "rocketed" to the top after he caught the eye of "Cap-the-knife" Weinberger in Nixon's administration, where Colin served as "white House Fellow", at the rank of Lt. Colonel. I retired, at the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Air Force in 1982 -- the same year Allen West entered on active duty. Colin retired as a 4-Star in 1993. he was later "hung-out-to-dry", on T.V., before the entire world by his right-wing buddies in the Republican Party.
I served during the time of Colin's career and before West's career began. Both Powell and West were "ground pounders"; I was completely focused on RDT&E (research, development, testing, and engineering), and in a different service. We can, however, get a glimpse of the effects of the times and the impact on each of us that was made by the "progress" of the Military Services toward a racially integrated force. Powell and I were in the throes of "integration" stresses. While Powell, as a Lt. Colonel was in the White House, I, as a Captain, completed my Master's Thesis featuring the tremendous impact of racial integration on the military services. Readers of this blog, may know that I noticed a swing to the Hard Right within the military at the time of my retirement in 1982 -- the early Reagan years. Powell was ordered to "crack down" on black militants following one of the many race riots that took place in the 70's, in all services, and around the world.
West arrived after "racial stability" was achieved, but in a more "conservative" climate. West was born in the deep South, while Colin and I were born outside that region (I was born west of the Mississippi, and Colin in New York, our only "Dutch" colony).
As retired General Benjamin O. Davis explained to me, we were (Colin and I) the "shock troops" serving to racially integrate the military. Davis, leader of the "Tuskeegee Airmen" was key to the success of the early integration of the services, and the Civil Rights Movement. It saddens me that someone like West represents the "beneficiaries" of all of that.
Stay Vigilant! "This too, shall pass!"
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