Ft. Bragg and Dog Whistling in the Dark

Today, the nation's Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth (nee National Guard veteran and Fox News media persona) renamed the military base Fort Liberty and restored implemented the old new name of Fort Bragg.

(You can read about it in explanatory detail here: https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/politics/hegseth-fort-bragg/index.html)

You might--as I initially did--think that this is another MAGA example of reclaiming America and striking down Woke overreach. And it is that. But not (?) in the direction that is at first obvious. 

The Bragg being honored here is not the original Bragg who was indeed a Civil War general and thus was the target for renaming initially by the well-meaning politicians and people who wanted to avoid honoring people in active rebellion against the United States. Rather, as Hegseth explained, this Bragg is a World War II private who won a Silver Star and a Purple Heart.

So . . . that is progress in a sense. At least we aren't returning to the Bragg that was considered "one of the worst generals of the Civil War" and someone who was "widely disliked . . ."

And still . . . why waste even a few minutes of the government's time? What was wrong with promoting the concept of (Fort) Liberty? 

And even the most important part of this act (in my opinion) . . . is the calculated way that Hegseth has his cake and eats it too. To most people who see the headline and scroll along with their day, they will think that an actual restoration to the Confederate Bragg was achieved. And those people to whom that matters will feel a frisson of excitement that the libs were owned again. Woke was weakened and MAGA rose again.

Was that Hegseth's intent? Did he want the easy headline, assuming that a deeper investigation would not really occur. And if it did, he would have coverage by pivoting to the matching name but for a better person?

I don't know. But the part of me that is daily angry about the performative nature of politicians feels that this is just another example of superficial crap that shows how shallow people in power truly are and how much time and energy is wasted on stuff that doesn't actually end up helping anyone.

(And yeah, I wasted 10 to 15 minutes writing out this to be read by no one.)