Have you ever felt like the world was slipping sideways beneath your feet, like we’re right at the edge of the Earth, and the ground we assumed was solid suddenly isn’t? Of course you have as that is now our status quo.
I feel disoriented. I feel the chaos and fear to my core. The rules we thought held us in place are being quietly unbolted. And in the middle of that, I keep coming back to this person. This is Senator Mark Kelly. Naval officer, combat fighter pilot, aeronautical engineer, astronaut and U.S. Senator. Four space shuttle missions. Nearly five million miles traveled in space. One hundred and eighty-six orbits of the Earth. More than 5,000 flight hours in over 50 aircraft. Almost 400 aircraft carrier landings. Married to Gabby Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt and lives every day with its consequences.
And now, he is being called a traitor and that he is seditious. Someone whose rank, pension, and standing are being actively targeted. How American is that?
I didn’t expect that, in the span of a year, we would be talking this seriously about war again, or about the military being dragged into political loyalty tests. I certainly didn’t expect to hear that sanctioning Mark Kelly is no longer just being floated, but is proceeding. When I heard that, I could barely breathe. What makes this even more grotesque is that it was Pete Hegseth himself who once argued that service members have a duty to refuse unlawful orders, because their oath is to the Constitution, not to a person. Let’s just park that hypocrisy for a moment.
Last night, I listened to Congressman Jason Crow (D) speak about the video he recorded with Mark Kelly, reminding service members that they are obligated to follow lawful orders and refuse unlawful ones. Crow told a story that matters deeply right now.
Before deploying to Iraq, he gathered his platoon of paratroopers, young men barely out of high school and showed them the film Platoon. That film includes a recreation of the My Lai massacre, which happened in real life. Crow used it to ask a hard question: how do people lose sight of their humanity under fear, chaos, and pressure? He had that conversation before combat, so that when they were in the fog of war, making split-second life-and-death decisions, they already understood their moral, ethical, and legal obligations.
That is not undermining the chain of command. That is reinforcing it. It also matters to be honest about how military training actually works. Officers who come through military colleges or advanced programs may receive extensive education in the law of armed conflict and military ethics. That is not the reality for most enlisted soldiers. Many are very young. Many are new. Many are asked to make decisions under extraordinary pressure with limited time and incomplete information.
Expecting perfect legal judgment in five seconds, without prior discussion, is not strength. It is abdication of responsibility.
I want to pause here, because many people who follow me have served, are serving, or come from military families. Some of you may disagree with me. This is not a conversation I’ve had broadly across my larger military circle, outside my very small inner one. And that’s okay. You don’t have to agree with me on this. But I stand firm in where I land.
I do not believe Mark Kelly should be treated this way. I do not believe reminding service members of their constitutional obligations is disloyal. And I do not believe we should be punishing people whose entire lives have been defined by service under pressure, simply because they refuse to collapse the Constitution into blind obedience.
We talk endlessly about sedition. We talk endlessly about patriotism. And yet here we are, on January 6, unable even to agree on a plaque honoring the police officers who defended the Capitol while a man like Mark Kelly is penalized for a lifetime of service.
If anyone believes this is about legality, constitutionality, or morality, we should be honest with ourselves. This is being done ‘to’ Mark Kelly. And the real question is whether that distinction matters at all to Donald Trump or to those who serve his cause.
Donald Trump talks endlessly about patriots. You would be hard pressed to find someone who has done more for his country than Mark Kelly. Naval service, combat aviation, space exploration and public service. That doesn’t mean there aren’t others. It means this man is the very definition of patriotism.
Just not patriotic to Trumps cause. And maybe that’s the point.
When the world feels like it’s tilting toward the edge, the people who still believe in rules, restraint, and responsibility are the ones treated as expendable. They are proceeding. And that should alarm all of us. And we’ve seen this before.
Senator John McCain (R) was a prisoner of war. He endured years of torture. He refused early release so others could go home first. He lived a lifetime defined by service and sacrifice. And Donald Trump mocked him. Dismissed him. Reduced his service to a punchline, all from a man who has no lifetime of service of his own, military or otherwise, and no visible legacy of service in his extended ancestry either.
I know what the word seditious means and the people I see fitting the description are running the White House.
Nancy's Notes 