I have a
theory about the Transgender Military Ban (TMB).
If you take
the TMB at face value, it is obviously despicable, and openly discriminatory
toward a segment of the population who has volunteered to serve their
country. Personally, I feel that if a
person is able and willing to defend their country – at the possible cost of their
life – they should be shown all the respect and honor we can give.
On the other
hand, if you take a step back and look at the TMB in a broader light, it
appears to be more of a political move by the GOP, intended it influence the
midterm elections. A political move so
brilliant, that I don’t believe President Trump conceived it on his own.
Allow me to
explain.
According to
the various reports that have been floated, there are anywhere from 6,000 to
15,000 transgendered people serving in the military. If you take the most liberal of these
estimates, this ban will directly impact 0.00005% of the population (15,000
transgendered military members / 323,100,000 US population). Granted, it will “piss off” a lot more than
that, but it will only DIRECTLY impact 5/100,000ths of one percent – a
proverbial “drop in the bucket”.
In light of
that fact, I don’t believe that the TMB is about transgendered people in the
military AT ALL. In fact, I think that
whoever conceived this plan (someone smarter than Trump) probably doesn’t care
one way or the other whether or not transgendered people serve in the
military. It is actually a “long con” –
and it’s only real purpose is to impact the midterm elections. After all, this
is the end of July 2017. We are about to
enter the midterm campaign season.
I believe
that the sole intent and purpose of the TMB was to get progressive, liberal,
democrats to “blow up” social media, cable news channels and other information
outlets with posts and stories bemoaning Trump (and by association the GOP at
large) for being uncaring, hateful, bigoted scum. They want to see Facebook and Twitter flooded
with posts by liberals about how they are “literally in tears” or “too angry
for words” over this ban, implying that anyone who doesn’t share their view
must also be a hateful bigot.
For the most
part, the LGBT community generally congregates together in large metropolitan
Coastal areas, i.e. San Francisco, New Orleans, New York, etc.
The GOP is
focusing more on Middle America – places like Dubuque, IA, Topeka, KS, and
Muskogee, OK. In these more rural “heartland”
areas, the vast majority of people have no connection to the transgendered
community at all – they are not transgendered, no one in their family is
transgendered, and they don’t personally know anyone who is transgendered. Therefore the Transgendered Military Ban has
no impact on them whatsoever. These are
people who get up and go to work every morning, come home, eat supper, drink a
beer, watch a little TV, and go to bed – only to get up tomorrow and do it all
again. They also don’t like being “preached
to” about how they should be more tolerant and inclusive of people they don’t
know, don’t know anything about, have never met, and probably never will meet.
The GOP is
counting on these blue-collar, rural Americans to enter the voting booth next
November and associate all the condescending Facebook “bitching & whining”
with the (D) column on the ballot – and as a result, place their checkmark next
to the (R) column.
I believe
that this whole “Transgender Military Ban” is simply a long con designed to
gain seats in the midterms.
