Most veterans are horrified the words even have to be uttered, but apparently, nothing’s off limits under Joe Biden’s radical excuse for Pentagon leadership. “DRAG SHOWS HAVE NO PLACE IN OUR MILITARY,” Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) tweeted in all caps — not for the first time. “How many times do we have to say it?” Several, it appears. But thanks to House and Senate Republicans, the GOP is doing more than saying it. They’re fighting it.

In the first major showdown over Biden’s wildly woke policy, conservatives came out swinging with amendments to gut the extreme ideology infecting our ranks. “I think it’s time for us to do something, to make our voice known that … we will not let this happen in the U.S. military,” Alford insisted in the House Armed Services Committee mark-up for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). “Woke ideology … [has] no place in our military. Zero. Bupkis. That’s not the way to recruit …”

Of course, if you asked Army Secretary Christine Wormuth (who said last October that she wasn’t even sure “what ‘woke’ means”), she’d tell you that it isn’t the radicalization of the military that’s hurting recruitment — it’s the people pointing out the radicalization of the military who are. “That drip, drip, drip of criticism about a ‘woke’ military is having some counterproductive effects on recruiting. … We are a ready Army, not a ‘woke’ Army.”

Call it what you want, Republicans say, but whatever it is, it’s incapable of finding and retaining good men and women to serve. “We’ve reached a critical point, a critical juncture in our nation’s history,” Alford told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch.” “With recruitment falling, [we missed] our mark in the Army by 25% last year. The Navy [is] just barely meeting its goal. The Marines did meet their goal. But as we’re facing this [persistent] threat from communist China, we need every able-bodied American who wants to sign up to be in our military to do so. Only 9% of Americans, young people, want to join the military.”

And there’s a reason for that, he continued. “We’ve lost a sense of patriotism in our country. But also the woke indoctrination of our young people is creeping into our military. The drag shows that we’re seeing on naval asset ships and on military bases, and also [these] digital ambassadors [who are] trying to recruit people into the military who agree with their woke lifestyle. We need to put an end to that. And last Wednesday, I’m proud to say I was part of a team of Republicans who did something about it.”

One reporter characterized what the GOP did as “tak[ing] a buzzsaw to wokeness in the military.” With a slew of amendments on the House and Senate side, Republicans defunded or outright purged Biden’s outrageous changes from the Trump era. Together with Reps. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), and even Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Alford and company took direct aim at some of the president’s worst cultural offenses. Under the language adopted, the GOP is one step closer to:

• Deciding Defense Department positions on merit and “equal opportunity,” not the Democrats’ phony notions of “equity”;
• Killing the Navy’s controversial Digital Ambassador program, which used the salacious posts of 2nd Class Petty Officer Joshua Kelly (stage name “Harpy Daniels”) to help with recruitment;
• Banning drag shows and Drag Queen Story Hours on military bases;
• Cutting the political position of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) Chief at the Defense Department; and
• Banning taxpayer-funding for critical race theory at U.S. service academies.

“These things together are going to work in concert to try to restore some sanity back to the process,” Alford explained, “and, in return, get young people interested in joining the military again.” The bipartisan bills now head to the House and Senate floor for passage.

He talked about how his office was inundated after the news broke that the Navy was using a half-naked drag queen to promote the military to young people. “When this story came out,” Alford told Perkins, “I had people in our district — veterans, fathers, and grandfathers — call our office and say, ‘Hey, I am not going to encourage my grandson or son or daughter or granddaughter to be in the military, because it has gotten way out of hand.’”

What Republicans are doing — weeding out the tentacles of LGBT fanaticism that have taken root in the ranks — is “a first step in getting things righted in America with our military,” he believes.

But there’s more the GOP can do — including scrutinizing Biden’s leadership. “I think the next step is, as we move forward with a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it looks like it’s going to be … [Charles] Brown from the Air Force, [who] still has to go through confirmation. We need to make sure — and I’ve had conversations with him on the phone and also in committee — that we have the understanding that maybe Chairman [Mark] Milley did not have and maybe the Secretary of Defense [Lloyd] Austin does not have. …We need for our generals to not be politicians, but to be generals and lead a patriotic army, especially as we encounter the communist Chinese and this uncertain threat now from Russia and the instability there in Ukraine.”

In the meantime, the news that Republicans are tackling Biden’s social experimentation in the military is encouraging to heroes like Lt. General (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, who served 36 years in the Army. Calling them “prudent steps” that will “improve our military’s readiness,” the executive vice president of FRC added that stripping funding for CRT and the “chief diversity officer” job in the DOD alone “will go a long way.”

“These things that are being eliminated are distractions from the primary task of preparing to win the nation’s wars,” Boykin told The Washington Stand. “I thank these members of the Armed Services Committee and say congratulations to those that are a part of this, because you have proven that there are still rational people in our Congress. Thank you, all.”