Enough with the statements already. Enough with the lie that diversity “is our greatest strength.” Our greatest strength used to be that we hired and promoted the best. Period.

That’s not so anymore — at least not when a Democrat president is in office. In that case, we count by race and by gender, and we choose the one who checks the most boxes. General Charles Quinton “C.Q.” Brown, 61, our nation’s new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and thus its highest-ranking military officer, is the latest such example of this obsession — a career military man whose résumé is impressive enough but whose rise through the ranks doesn’t appear to be due to his unmatched warfighting acumen or his genius as a military strategist.

No, this seems to be a case of mistaken identity politics. Although Brown isn’t the first black man to serve as Joint Chiefs chairman — that was Colin Powell — by joining Joe Biden’s defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, at the Pentagon, Brown’s appointment marks the first time that our Department of Defense’s top uniformed and civilian leaders were black. Congratulations to the Democrats. But are they making our nation safer, stronger, and more able to defend itself against threats from abroad?

At the recent retirement ceremony of Mark “White Rage” Milley, the smarmy Princetonian he’s replacing as Joint Chiefs chairman, Brown started by saying the right things: “As chairman, every day, I will focus on strengthening the bonds of trust across our force, ensuring the American people know their military and its service members, active, Guard, Reserve, and civilian only, as the unwavering defenders of the Constitution and servants of our nation.”

But then: “When I became chief of staff of the Air Force three years ago, I expressed the need to accelerate change. My conviction has not wavered. The journey of change must continue to strengthen our national security.”

Brown’s commitment to “change” sounds a lot like that of Barack Obama, who just prior to his election in 2008 promised his legions that they were just days away “from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

Anyone bent on fundamentally transforming something is a radical, a revolutionary. That was true of Obama, and it’s true of Brown, albeit under the guise of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” And while it’s true that both our nation and its military have undergone radical changes in recent years, only an America-hating leftist could argue that these changes have been for the better. This is especially true with our military, which was once the envy of the world but today is shot through with wokeism and can’t even meet its recruitment numbers.

“I mean, I get so much out of it,” said Brown, riffing on diversity in a 2020 interview with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, an organization that itself “committed to weaving DE&I throughout the fabric of the Council.”

“I purposely build my office, my front office, and my team with [diversity], and I hire for diversity because they all bring a different perspective.”

Here’s an idea: Why not hire for warfighting ability instead of diversity?

Alas, all this is par for the course for Brown, whose career as a racial grievance-monger is well documented. Get the load of this video, which he posted for distribution across the Air Force and beyond in the wake of the George Floyd riots.

“As the Commander of Pacific Air Forces, a senior leader in our Air Force, and an African-American, many of you may be wondering what I’m thinking about the current events surrounding the tragic death of George Floyd. Here’s what I’m thinking about…” - Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. pic.twitter.com/I2sf1067L6

— PACAF (@PACAF) June 5, 2020

This sounds like a guy who has other priorities, other things on his mind besides warfighting. So does this: “The things I think about is not only having diverse, you know, slates of candidates for some key positions, but it’s also that you have to select some of those individuals into those key positions.”

Unfortunately, it’s too late. C.Q. Brown was sworn into his new role on Friday, and his first day on the job was Sunday.