By Richard Kline, USMA 1967

The woke forces in government are deeply entrenched. There are more of them than can be identified by organization and title. Many government positions that have seemingly innocent names are, in fact, filled with woke sycophants.

Fighting to remove, or even just temper, the influence of these woke forces is a monumental task.

Despite the heroic and patriotic efforts of a few proud Americans, if Biden is re-elected, America is lost and the woke forces will drive this country into bankruptcy and moral decay. Our sovereignty as a nation will vanish with the opening of our borders and our military decline will accelerate.

If Trump prevails, the battlefield is somewhat leveled. But the embedded woke forces will not go without a determined fight.

As much as I think Barack Obama was a plague on the prosperity of America, one must give him his due. He said he would “fundamentally change America” and he did.

Yes, all Presidents pledge to alter America’s course for the better. Reagan had a significant impact and so did Trump. But compared to the lasting legacy of Obama, Reagan and Trump are just pleasant fleeting memories.

To forcefully punctuate the woke infection that continues to spread throughout America, the United States Military Academy at West Point has now announced that it will award Obama the 2024 Thayer Award.

The Thayer Award is the highest honor West Point can bestow on an American. It is given to those who have truly exemplified “Duty, Honor, Country” in service to America.

Will we now honor a man who:

• In 2010, fired 197 generals and admirals to make way for more woke officers to fill their jobs;
•  Forced a Naval Academy graduating class to not wear sabers at their graduation ceremony because he feared for his personal safety;
•  Traded five senior terrorists for one U. S Army deserter;
•  Slashed military budgets, thus depriving the services of much needed training, maintenance, and modernization; and,
•  Showed outright contempt for the military on many occasions.:

Is this the sort of man that makes us want to think about “Duty, Honor, Country”?

Initially awarded in 1958, past Thayer Award recipients include Senator Elizabeth Dole, H. Ross Perot, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, and many other giants of industry, entertainment, politics, military service, and religion.

West Point has previously awarded this prize to a lineage of America’s cherished leaders. Not so today.

A small, almost secret, committee oversees the Thayer Award nomination process and selects the awardee. The West Point Association of Graduates then confirms the awardee and oversees the arrangements for the award ceremony. It’s all draped in pomp and circumstance.

What were these people thinking? Did they truly believe no one was watching?

I’ll wager if the West Point Association of Graduates had surveyed the graduates themselves, Obama would not have been selected. Obama ranks in popularity with West Pointers right next to Jane Fonda. Uttering his name almost always brings forth a stream of four-letter epithets.

But I suspect the woke element in our government pushed Obama to the front of the line. It was a real and tangible demonstration of their power.

So, yes, those of us who have taken up the fight to remove the Marxist influences of CRT/DEI have been taught a lesson. It has been an awakening as to how formidable a foe the woke forces are.

We must not bring a knife to a gunfight.

First published on American Thinker