GRAPEVINE, TEXAS — Joseph Bolick feels betrayed by President Donald Trump. And it’s because of the war in Iran.
The 30-year-old Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran voted for Trump in 2024. But at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference gathering this week he sported a hat emblazoned with “America First” — a slogan Trump championed during his campaign, along with the promise not to start new wars in foreign countries.
“He’s lied about everything,” said Bolick. “If you go into a war where there’s no end game, how is it going to end? There’s no clear objective.”
I think “shaky ground” is doing a lot of work here.
The head of the “you’re hurting the wrong people” party will have those chronically online young MAGA men back in his good graces with ease. All it takes is one situation where these men are faced with a situation where they are asked to acknowledge transgender people as human beings, or lord forbid, a black pilot is flying their plane.
Besides, if those things never happen, it still won’t matter. The thing about chronically online young men is that next year there will be a new crop ready to replace the ones that got shipped off to die or be crapped on after they come back disabled.
I don’t know about the trans bit, but I expect servicemen will be a bit more tolerant of black people: I’m of the opinion that black people are over-represented in the military since they are also far more likely to be from economically disadvantaged areas and this more likely to enlist so they can get any job vs none.
One of my workmates immigrated to Canada to be with a really sweet and beautiful girl, but his background is Montgomery, Marines artillery, and Navy. He said a massive portion of servicemen are either out of prison or avoiding the poverty-driven choices that leads to prison. He’s the only one of his childhood friend group who is not in a cell or a grave right now.
So I would anticipate servicemen to be aware of class struggle a bit more, and will have learned that blood is thicker than water.