The Constitution and the Soldier

Every member of the US Armed Forces takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. But as the Annenberg survey (Annenberg 2024, Annenberg 2023 ) reports, many Americans have a limited understanding of the Constitution. For example, in 2023 and 2024, only two-thirds or respondents could name the three branches of government. The results were even lower when they delved into the articles of the Constitution and the amendments. I’ll admit that even though I went to good schools and took honors courses, I never read the Constitution itself, just the course notes in the few courses that even mentioned it. Political Science courses at the Ph.D. level did not discuss it. One associate professor did not even know that until the XVII Amendment (1913), senators were not popularly elected; the states appointed them.

Forget about understanding the Federalist Papers, which explains how the founders developed the Constitution. Forget about understanding the US is a republic and not a democracy and why.

Says a lot about the quality of our educational system at all levels.

But back to our servicemen and women and the Constitution. How can you swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution if you do not know what it says and means? In that light, the oath is essentially an empty promise: form, but no substance.

But we can spend millions—hundreds of millions by some estimates—and many precious training hours instructing/indoctrinating soldiers on DEI and other social justice initiatives. This diversion of time and funding away from the military’s core mission takes leaders’ and soldiers’ eye off the mission.

Service members do not take an oath to social justice initiatives. They take an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Yet the military does not put its money where its mouth is. To make matters worse, DEI is antithetical to the values in the Constitution and sets up divisiveness in the military as it pits one group against another and destroys the concept of merit and excellence.

I think it is time to change that. While soldiers do not need a political science degree, they need to understand what they take an oath to defend and how founders created the Constitution created works and how it is supposed to work. This is not a left/right, Republican/Democrat issue. It is a citizenship issue.

A modest proposal

The military should replace the current time spent on DEI training and indoctrination with citizenship courses, starting at initial entry training (IET). Recommend:

• IET: 3 1 hour blocks of training on the Constitution:
• Why we have a written Constitution and the founding of the Republic.
• The articles within the Constitution and why they are there.
• The Bill of Rights: why did we amend the Constitution with and why were these ten amendments so important?
• Guided reading of the Constitution.
• Quarterly citizenship for 1 hour of training:
• History of the Constitution.
• How does the Constitution protect liberty?
• Does the Constitution protect liberty for all citizens or just a certain class of citizens?
• Discussion of current events and how they relate to the Constitution.
• Conduct events and discussions to mark Constitution Day each year.
• Eliminate all DEI training and DEI focused departments and positions in DOD. Cultural awareness training should be focused on building strong, cohesive units and kept to a minimum. It should be rooted in Constitutional values.

Ideally, the military will purchase pre-planned training modules from non-partisan sources. This will ensure consistency and eliminate most bias from the training materials.

This effort must be non-partisan and objective. The goal is to build cohesive and lethal units that understand the values for which they fight.