Believe It or Not, Pete Hegseth Did Something Good
Pete Hegseth is giving service members a day off to vote. Even though he is doing so to help the GOP in the upcoming midterms, it would be great if others, like Donald Trump, followed his example.
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We don’t agree with a lot of the stuff that former Fox News morning show host Pete Hegseth does – certainly not his religious fanaticism, paying off a woman who accused him of sexual assault, his war crime apologism, and all the “Department of War” nonsense.
However, this week, the least competent secretary of defense in US history did something good (although we suspect for the wrong reasons).
Of course, we’re not talking about the establishment of the “Office of Religious Affairs” or whatever this was:
No fatties.
No trannies.
No beardos.
No weirdoes.
No wimps.
No radicals — JUST WARRIORS. pic.twitter.com/mDktwOmn6F— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) October 1, 2026
No, we mean the “stand-down” order he signed on Thursday which gives members of the military a day off to vote and help their families cast their ballots.
In a video announcing his directive, Hegseth noted that “voting for our men and women in uniform has been time-consuming and complex” in the past, in part because many service members live outside the state where they are registered.
“They face unnecessary, difficult ways of obtaining, completing and returning absentee ballots while serving far from home,” Hegseth added.
What he did not mention is that his boss has tried to make it more difficult to vote for Americans living overseas, whether they are part of the military or not.
In addition, we suspect that the decision to give troops a day off to vote was politically motivated. Republicans will need all the help they can get to limit their losses in the upcoming midterms, and members of the armed forces are one of the few demographics that still support Donald Trump and the GOP.
Still, this is clearly the right thing to do, and it should serve as an example to the rest of the country.
It should be as easy as possible for all eligible Americans to vote, no matter where they live, and that includes giving everybody a day off to cast their ballots.
Unfortunately, that’s not how it works, which helps to explain the low voter participation in the US.
Even in presidential elections, turnout in the United States lags behind many of its peer nations. In midterms, however, that difference is even more pronounced as more than half of the eligible population doesn’t bother to show up.
One of the reasons why is the one that Hegseth’s order addresses: time.
The US is among a minority of democracies in which Election Day is a regular workday, which makes it hard for people to cast their ballots in person (or nearly impossible for those who need more than one job to get by), especially in states that are trying to suppress the votes of certain demographics.
In most peer countries, Election Day either falls on weekends or it is a holiday to ensure that more citizens can exercise their right to vote.
Of course, if it is so important to this administration that everybody votes, maybe Donald Trump should give all federal employees the day off. The fact that he does not shows that this supposed commitment to democracy only extends to those people on the federal payroll who are more likely than not to vote for the GOP.
