Power, Protest, and the Parade That Spoke Volumes
In the annals of History’s thug/authoritarian regimes and their red-headed stepchildren, the military dictators and tyrants of the wanna-be persuasion, their ultimate consolidation of military power after their initial rise to political power whether by force or by the vote has been facilitated or frustrated by their militaries’ confidence or lack thereof in their leadership. Conjure an example in your own mind, and ask: “Did the military support the would-be military dictator?” Or, conversely: “Did the military not support the would-be military dictator?
Observing the sights and sounds of the US Army’s 250th birthday parade on Saturday, June 14, 2025 (which also happened to fall on the President’s 79th birthday), my immediate thought went to the person the President placed in charge of the planning of the parade as having dropped the ball. Now I realize that I may have based that initial thought on a very large assumption on my part: that the President selected someone or some entity to plan the event, and that, in typical Trump fashion, the person or entity he selected was either too inexperienced, too incompetent, or otherwise too incapable of planning such an event. And further, that the event appeared to be so poorly executed due to negligent execution on the part of Trump’s incompetent “planner” such that the reason for the debacle could only have been the President’s own incompetence in choosing incompetent, inexperienced, or otherwise incapable people to plan the event. Finally, I thought that such a public dishonoring of the celebration of the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday could have been accomplished in the way only this particular wanna-be military dictator could – by making the U.S. Army look weak and the government leadership feeble, fumbling, and feckless.
Yes, there have been far better military parades put on by History’s “real” dictators. Leni Riefenstahl films during the Nazi era depicted seas of identical SS Stormtroopers marching in synchronicity to the delight of the Führer. Victory Day parades of post-war Soviet Union and Russia feature displays of military might in the form of missiles and tanks, as well as the synchronization of goose-stepping soldiers in Red Square. We have seen the Korean People’s Army’s synchronized performances in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square. And, of course, all of those of the hombres fuertes of Latin America. Even Sadam Hussein threw himself a military parade for his birthday. This can happen anywhere, no matter the geography.
Upon reflection, however, a question arises: “Could the U.S. Army have intentionally flubbed the parade to send a message of protest and opposition to the Trump Regime? Could the flubbing have been intended to signal both its support of the millions (estimates range from a low of 5 Million to a high of 12 Million) of the People who took to the streets and plazas and squares and roads and bridges and highways and byways, as well as simultaneously to signal its non-support of the President?”
Though I am a student of History, and have a bachelor’s degree in history, I am not an expert on the incidences in history of wanna-be military dictators when it appeared their militaries did not support them. Nor am I an expert in what the history of wanna-be military dictators is when that military support is lacking, nor what eventually has happened to the wanna-be military dictator lacking such military support, and to their societies. If my theory about Saturday’s pathetic parade performance is persuasive, it raises very serious and potentially dangerous questions: Could it suggest that the U.S. Army, at least, does not support this President, or at least that it does not support his becoming a military dictator? If so, how far does this possible lack of support go up or down the chain of command within the U.S. Army? How far does this possible lack of support go up or down the chains of command within the other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces? How extensive, wide, and deep is this possible lack of support?
If, indeed, the message the planners of the D.C. Military parade intended to send was lack of support, assuming the planners were members of the U.S. Army, may I please state: “Message received.” Or, at least, serious questions must now be acknowledged about the state and level of support this President has within his own chain of command that only experts in this area of authoritarian/military dictator wanna-bes can answer, and to include publicizing now lists of “next steps” to expect from our wanna-be military dictator President, if those experts indeed believe it true that the President is a wanna-be military dictator, so that we as a society may know how to predict and publicize next moves with suggestions for resistance or successfully effectuating regime change through impeachment, conviction, and removal.
I look forward to hearing from those experts. If I am thinking about the current precarities and proclivities of the American Armed Forces, one can only wonder who else is also thinking about them, both at home (even, perhaps, in the People’s house) and abroad, which certainly telegraphs weakness to America’s adversaries. We, the People, need to begin having this conversation.