LTG Flynn

Prof. Rachel VanLandingham writes here on Lawfare about "American Democracy, Coups, and Retired Generals." Excerpt:

Perhap distasteful speech from folks like [LTG Michael T.] Flynn and other former senior military leaders will help reduce the public’s extreme veneration of the military—veneration that has helped contribute to cracks in civilian control as well as skew the outsized influence the military establishment has in the American political constellation. Experts have claimed such an effect, though mistakenly decry it as a bad thing. And as for an increasingly politicized military, is retired senior officers’ speech a cause, an effect or neither? Any potential and highly speculative negative effect in that regard is minimal if it does exist, and part of the price American democracy pays for freedom of speech; the actual causes of politicization are what demand attention (such as exploitation of the military by sitting presidents).