How can Newsmax distinguish itself from other right-wing cesspools? Heightening the level of racism, maybe? It’s hard to say as the think tank that is Newsmax seems to have just skimmed the scum off the top of Fox News and conservative talk radio and broadcasted it. Former Trump and Bush W. administration adviser Christian Whiton was on Newsmax to discuss the left-wing takeover of our government. You know, the one where we turn everyone into Muslims and then the Chinese government—well known for their religious tolerance of Muslims—comes in and makes us all Stalinists and then steals our white cultural heritage? No, not the Jewish white heritage. No, not the Italian white heritage. No, not the Irish white heritage. No, not the South American white heritage. No, not the Eastern European white heritage. The white heritage!!!! The one that the Pillsbury Dough Boy represents!
Anyways, Whiton was on television mostly because he’s a former white guy that worked for white guys and failed upwards. He was explaining to the Newsmax audience that Joe Biden’s newly confirmed secretary of defense, Lloyd J. Austin III, a relatively recently retired 4-star general who served in the United States Army for 41 years, was "chosen probably for his skin color rather than qualifications." To be like a crystal glass here: With the exception of Jim Mattis, Secretary Austin served more years in the military than all of Donald Trump’s secretaries of defense combined. He served just about the same amount of time as Mattis did and, as far as we know, he isn’t a fan of torture. But that doesn’t stop the truly underdeveloped ideas of Whiton from being presented as an expert opinion.
Let’s first get clear on a few things: Whiton is working with less than zero argument. His anger is based on Austin’s order that all military commands “stand down” at some point over the next 60 days in order to analyze extremist (right wing) views within their ranks. He’s so intellectually dishonest that without providing the basest level of criteria, he paints the most pathetic racist brush over the entirety of Secretary Austin’s qualifications. The rank bigotry this serves, the pandering to the lowest denominator of racism, is a hallmark of cowardly, insecure, and cynical charlatans like Whiton. Whiton’s great claim to fame was working as a policy adviser to both the George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations. Those are the qualifications of someone who should be in federal prison, not giving advice to anyone about anything.
Whiton’s weak rhetorical game is old news. HIs use of hack 1980s sexist jokes to attempt to undercut serious criticisms of the conservative movement, and this old-school faux affirmative action trope used against Secretary Austin is just a symptom of an atrophied mind.