Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on Friday said that the U.S. Army is failing to meet its recruiting goals among white Americans because President Joe Biden’s left-wing policy initiatives for the Pentagon have little appeal to Southerners.
During his “Firebrand” podcast, the Fort Walton Beach Republican commented on a recent report about the U.S. Army failing to hit annual recruiting targets, primarily because fewer whites are volunteering.
As the Tampa Free Press posted earlier this week, a recent analysis by Military.com found that the number of white Army recruits fell from 44,042 in 2018 to 25,070 last year. In terms of percentages, whites went from 56% of new enlistees to 44%.
On his broadcast, Gaetz attributed that to “the wokeness.”
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The drop in the recruits from the nation’s biggest demographic group raises serious questions about how America can sustain the all-volunteer force, especially as recruiting among blacks and Hispancs remains flat even as they become a larger share of the population, said Gaetz.
But Gaetz also said he was intrigued by the fact that the Army would not release its regional recruiting data to Military.com.
“I think I know what the regional data would show,” said Gaetz.
“It’s the white boys from the SEC [Southeastern Conference] states in the South that made a very large contribution to the United States Army’s recruiting pool, and that’s where you’re not seeing that same pull factor.”
The GOP congressman noted that the Army explained away the shortfall by saying the data may be off or incorrectly recorded.
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But, he added, “I think it’s the wokeness.”
He attributed the Army’s recruiting woes among whites to the “compounding impact” of Biden’s left-wing priorities for the military.
Those include the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, indoctrination through Critical Race Theory, the “embrace” of socialism, and drag shows on military bases, according to Gaetz.
“That’s the kind of stuff that depresses the important recruiting activity that we’ve gotta have in the United States military.”
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