As I wrote last week, we’ve seen some disturbing hero worship of white male vigilantes recently — from liberals and conservatives alike. And that pattern continued over the weekend, as prominent Republicans doubled down on their praise for Daniel Penny, the white former Marine acquitted last week in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a homeless Black man, on a New York City subway.
At a gala hosted by the extremist-friendly New York Young Republican Club on Sunday, Rep.-elect Brandon Gill of Texas said the country needs “a lot more Daniel Pennys” because there are “far too many Jordan Neelys,” in what appeared to be an endorsement of vigilantism.
Gill’s alarming remark came a day after President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance appeared in a stadium suite with Penny at the Army-Navy football game.
Some imagery emerged from Saturday’s game that offered a powerful symbol that speaks to the current moment we’re enduring as a country. On the field and in the stands Saturday, honoring and interacting with service members, were Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, two veterans of the U.S. Army.
As someone with several family members who’ve served, these snapshots embodied the diversity of the military, and the true strength that that diversity represents for the military at its best: not just physical might, but technical brilliance and empathy, and cross-cultural camaraderie between different races and genders.
For me, those photos presented a stark contrast to the displays of machismo that emerged from the suite where Trump and his allies, who frequently rail against diversity initiatives, watched the game. Trump — a man who has been accused of privilege for relying on deferments to avoid military service, has been known to insult veterans (including the late Sen. John McCain), and has claimed avoiding sexually transmitted infections was his personal Vietnam — enjoyed the game alongside Vance, a former corporal and war correspondent who never saw combat and has been accused of repeating Kremlin talking points about U.S. sanctions on Russia, among other things; Pete Hegseth, Trump’s scandal-plagued pick to lead the Defense Department who has downplayed the importance of diversity in the Pentagon; and, of course, Penny.
So, despicable as it was, I think Saturday’s events provided a helpful side-by-side and showed the dichotomy between hypermasculine MAGA militarism in the skybox and its diverse and effective alternatives on and around the field.
