Reports indicate that the President has instructed his staff to prepare an Executive Order for him to sign on the first day of his new administration banning DEI from the military.  Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth has made similar statements.  Some in Congress have also indicated intent to introduce legislation to ban DEI from the entire government.  How will orders or laws to eliminate DEI be received by those now serving and how will the military react especially those in senior positions who are all in for DEI? 

Reality is that DEI is now deeply embedded in the institutions of the military from decades of infiltration and from the previous mandates of both Presidents Obama and Biden.  The early roots of DEI in the military can be traced back a long way to the general liberalization of American society.  The baby boomer generation was conservative and ideas like Critical Theory, Critical Race Theory, and DEI were unknown concepts.  Had they been advanced earlier, military personnel would have rejected them as nonsense.  CRT and DEI date back decades in academia where they are now a permanent part of those institutions.  In more recent years they were also gradually introduced into our K-12 schools.  The liberalization of our society had already begun with anti-government, anti-war protests during Vietnam and in the decades following.  American schools began liberalization decades ago with the abolishment of prayer in schools.  Since at least the 1960's academia has been becoming more and more liberal with the trickle-down effect of grads in each succeeding decade being much more liberal than the previous one.  The teaching profession from K-12 was long ago taken over by liberals and liberal teachers' unions nationwide.  So, the roots of a more liberal military can be directly traced to a general liberalization of American education and society beginning decades ago.  The military draws from the general populace, so naturally the manpower of our military over time has become somewhat more liberal in beliefs than was the case from previous generations.

Fast forward to the present day and it should be no surprise to anyone that a large percentage of today's military is liberal in their political outlook.  When in 2011, President Obama launched DEI in a big way into the military, it was not only policy because as the Chief Executive it was within his authority to establish policy for the military, but it was also accepted enthusiastically as the right thing to do by a large segment of the military leadership and serving members.  Surveys indicate that today probably the military still leans conservative but there are more liberal military members than ever.   Ronald Henderson of Military Modelling in an article published November 28, 2024, reports the following data: