Sanders leads in contributions from the military

[booley]

I admit while I knew Sanders had more individual contributions than any other candidate, I didn't realize how many in the armed forces donated to him.

Despite the presence of two veterans and an incumbent president in the race, no candidate has raised as much as Sanders in military contributions.

“I would never have guessed that. [Sanders] would have been way down my list of possible answers if this were a Final Jeopardy question,” Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, wrote in an email. “He’s mainly about economic equality and Medicare for All.”

A Sanders campaign aide pointed to the senator’s promises to “end the endless wars” and the many years he has spent on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee as reasons for his popularity with military employees. “It shouldn’t be a surprise that these things draw support from so many in the military, but Bernie is extremely proud to have it,” the aide said.

Link

Buttigieg is second as he leads in contributions from Homeland Security, the State, and Justice Departments. Though overall that's 60,000 less than Sanders.

[CentralMass]

1. K&R

[msongs]

2. gee bernie and bloomberg both raking in the donations. excpt bloomie only has one donor lol nt

[Vacri]

3. Military members are mostly White males

So it makes sense.

[HerbChestnut]

4. ...

[JonLP24]

6. Actually that isn't true

Fort Lewis had the highest African American % in Washington when I served. Also while I was in I served with a lot of people from Puerto Rico. It is just not true the military is an all white club. My 1st Sergeant, Platoon Sergeant and Battalion Command Sergeant Major were all African American.

There are also a lot of Somoans in the Armed Forces like my squad leader.

Also there are a lot of women in the Armed Forces.

[Vacri]

7. Actually it is true

Only 14% are women.
So 86 out of every 100 members are male.
Since a large majority of those males are white, it's safe to assume most are white males.

Note that your comment didn't contain statistics. Only an anecdote with vague terms such as "a lot of Somoans (sic)".

[JonLP24]

9. There were 2 American Somoans in my squad alone

There were others in other platoons. The Non Commissioned Officers ranks are full of African Americans.

Actually Fort Lewis having the highest % of African Americans in the state of Washington is a real stat.

[Vacri]

11. Your squad is not the entire military

I'm talking about the military as a whole.

[JonLP24]

13. I am too

The military as a whole is full of Puerto Ricans, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, etc and I proudly served with them.

[Vacri]

16. Give me numbers

You claim the military is"full of" minorities.
What does "full of" means in terms of percentages"

[JonLP24]

17. I'd bet the military is probably more diverse than message boards like DU

I served in the 2000s so maybe it was a different time. We even had Phillipino & Ecuadorian in our unit.

[Vacri]

21. I tried to get statistics from you but

You just don't have any.
It's all about your single squad, as if the military were one squad. Since this subthread will become huge before you come up with statistics, I will end my participation in said subthread, having elicited no relevant response (stats) from you.

[JonLP24]

23. No it is not about my squad All I said was my squad alone had 2 Somoans

Squads are very small I was talking about my whole Batallion which had a black woman as Batallion Command Sergeant Major.
Basic Training & AIT was very diverse as well.

I did give a stat. Fort Lewis has the highest percentage of African Americans in the state of Washington. A military base has a higher % of African Americans than any city in the state of Washington.

Join the military and you'll realize how diverse it is. I just can't pretend I only served with white males as that is the furthest thing from the truth.

[JonLP24]

28. Some stats

Demographics of the U.S. Military


How diverse is the military?
Federal agencies categorize race into five groups—white, black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. Ethnicity, which the government considers distinct from race, is divided into two categories: Hispanic or Latino, and not Hispanic or Latino. Among enlisted recruits, 43 percent of men and 56 percent of women are Hispanic or a racial minority. Female recruits are consistently more diverse than the civilian population; they are also more diverse than male recruits.

https://www.cfr.org/article/demographics-us-military

I was speaking of enlisted. Officers are probably less diverse.

[progressoid]

43. LMGTFY... except for the Marines, more Black men and women are in the armed forces than

the civilian workforce.

[James48]

30. You want numbers? Here-

The US Army enlisted, iN 2016:


53% of the new enlisted were white.
24% were Black
17% were Hispanic
6% were Asian.
1% were something else.

Women make up 17% of the Army.

So no, it’s not dominated by white males- there are actually more % minorities in the military than in the general population.

There are slightly more whites than non-whites. But not a lot more. The face of our military has changed significantly since the end of the draft in 1974.

Source:

https://m.goarmy.com/content/dam/goarmy/downloaded_assets/pdfs/advocates-demographics.pdf

[TwilightZone]

36. Overall and "new enlisted" aren't the same thing.

It's about 60/40 overall.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/13/6-facts-about-the-u-s-military-and-its-changing-demographics/

[grantcart]

24. Not true

54% of enlisted males are white

54% of 86% is 45%

White males constitute 45% of all enlisted personnel, while the single largest group is not a majority or "most".

[rpannier]

27. I checked (from 2015) Pew Research

Racial and ethnic minority groups made up 40% of Defense Department active-duty military in 2015, up from 25% in 1990. (In 2015, 44% of all Americans ages 18 to 44 were racial or ethnic minorities.)
You are basically correct about women. They make up 15% of the military

[Zambero]

8. My wife is retired military

21 years including Women's Army Corps (WAC) and Oregon Army National Guard.

[JonLP24]

10. I was in the military too and my post was based on my experience

Maybe things have changed since I was last in which is 2008. I got along with different ages, backgrounds, etc. I loved it.

[Vacri]

14. Not sure what your point is

You're not saying that the fact that your wife is a retired military member means that most members are not white males. Are you?

[vsrazdem]

15. FYI. Bernie's least favorable demographic is white males over the age of 40.

[Vacri]

18. That's mostly civilian

We're talking about members of the military, most of whom aren't 40 or older.

[vsrazdem]

19. Well, I think the military is still included in the general population.

[Vacri]

22. 99% off the general population are civilian

And out of those less than 1% who are in they military, most are under 40. Your stat didn't address demographics of the military or their preference.

[rpannier]

29. 8.9% of active duty members are 41 or over

36-40 10.4%
31-35 15.2%
26-30 21.8%
25 and under 43.8

This was also as of 2015
militaryonesource.mil

[rpannier]

26. I served in the military

There are a very high number of non-whites in the military
I'd like to see statistics to back up your assertion

[booley]

33. Putting aside that you seem to be factually wrong

Why is that relevant?

IF the implication was it's white men supporting a white man (because he's a white man I guess?) then Why Sanders?

Why not Biden or Buttigieg? Why not trump?

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread booley.

[booley]

34. thanks!

As I said, it surprised me.

Though maybe I should not have been

[myohmy2]

12. "...I didn't realize how many in the armed forces donated to him."

...face it, Bernie resonates...

...others, not so much...

[skh500]

25. Bernie has done much for Veterans and received awards

Bernie Sanders was Chairman of Veterans Affairs. He along with Sen John McCain pushed through a bill which eliminated the long list of veterans waiting on a VA hospital list. A number of veterans had already died by the time he became Chair. He received several awards from the Veterans.

https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/bernie-sanders-gets-stuff-done-5-amazing-victories/

[George II]

45. The biggest scandal in the history of the VA took place when he was chairman....

....of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. It was so damning that he wasn't even the Ranking Member for the next session of the Senate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Health_Administration_scandal_of_2014

[booley]

31. As a vet I can see that

I saw a lot more left-leaning enlisted then I think the stereotypes account for.

And not being sent off to one war after another may be appealing as well.

[George II]

38. How many? Does he say? From the link he's received only $212,000 which, at $27 each....

....(which is a misnomer, his itemized donation average is more like $400 each) that's only 7,800 people. At his true average of $400 each that's only 510 people.

This is a lot of talk about virtually nothing.

[booley]

44. what is the median?

Also, why apply this to Sanders but no other candidate?

IF Sanders's support is only 510 people than the other candidates would be even less so. Though again that assumes a lot

[George II]

46. Doesn't matter. We're talking about three TENTHS of one percent of his contributions....

And Pete Buttigieg's contributions from the same group is roughly the same %-age wise, 0.3%.

[perspectives]

20. $181,152 from individuals in the army, navy, marine corps and air force.

Put together, donations from national security employees comprise only a small portion of general fundraising, however. And when accounting for both committee money and outside money—leadership PACs, super PACs, and 501(c)(4) dark money outlets, for example—no Democrat matches even a third of the funds raised by the Trump campaign this year.

[booley]

32. That is true, however...

The point of my post was more about determining support.

Every donation Sanders gets is an individual one. And the amounts are generally small.

Which means to get to that amount means he had to have had a lot of people deciding to donate. It's a data point to gauge enthusiasm.

Ultimately it's people who vote.

[booley]

41. Again not even the point

I guess we could go into the absurdity of expecting anyone to somehow sidestep credit card companies but that would be, again, moving away from the point.


A point I already laid out. So perhaps you would like to address that instead?

[democrank]

35. Bernie Sanders earned the support he has from the military.

He gets a lot of support from the VFW and American Legion, and for good reason.

[George II]

37. To put this into perspective, all of the candidates have received tens of millions of dollars each..

This article is about a mere $760,000 for ALL candidates COMBINED, including trump!

This is much ado about virtually nothing in the big picture.

[Eliot Rosewater]

39. As usual.

[booley]

42. Actually not about the money if you think about it

IF we did want to talk about just the dollar amounts, obviously a candidate who takes in large donations from billionaires and corporations and dark money and bundlers is going to have more.

Though having more money didn't' seem to help Hillary Clinton.

But Sanders doesn't take in that money. All the money we are talking about here comes from small donations. Each donation represents individuals. Individuals who, if they donating money means they are also likely to vote for that candidate.

In this case, those individuals are in a group the common wisdom told us would be turned off by Sanders' policies and favor trump. But that isn't the case at all

I guess we could also discuss how Sanders has outraised all the other Democratic contenders if you want. Only Trump has raised more and primarily from the sources I described above. Though this is Democratic Underground so it's the Democrats that we are concerned with. Not sure why we would dismiss Sanders for not raising more when no other Democratic candidate has outraised Trump either.

And I wanted to make a specific point about the military vote.

[JudyM]

47. Interesting.

It appears that he’s the most focused on cutting the military-industrial “complex” down to size.

IMO, the reduction in the excessively generous no-bid, rarely-if-ever audited military contracts will help our coffers tremendously.