(LAT) US Military No Longer Majority Republicans

[StrictlyRockers]

For the first time in over 30 years, a majority of people enlisted in the US military no longer identify themselves as "Republicans," down from a high of 70%.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brooks5jan05,0,3406790.column?coll=la-opinion-center

Rosa Brooks:
Weaning the military from the GOP
A less partisan military is good for democracy and allows a more frank debate on national security.
January 5, 2007


BURIED IN THE NEWS last week was one of the most potentially significant stories of recent years. The Military Times released its annual poll of active-duty service members, and the results showed something virtually unprecedented: a one-year decline of 10 percentage points in the number of military personnel identifying themselves as Republicans. In the 2004 poll, the percentage of military respondents who characterized themselves as Republicans stood at 60%. By the end of 2005, that had dropped to 56%. And by the end of 2006, the percentage of military Republicans plummeted to 46%.

The drop in Republican Party identification among active-duty personnel is a sharp reversal of a 30-year trend toward the "Republicanization" of the U.S. military, and it could mark a sea change in the nature of the military — and the nature of public debates about national security issues.

For most of U.S. history, issues of national security rarely divided Americans along sharp party lines: The old adage that "politics ends at the water's edge" generally held true. The military, while institutionally conservative with a small "c," was not closely identified with a particular political party. But somewhere between the end of the Vietnam War and the middle of the Clinton era, the U.S. military began to look like a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party.

The rightward shift was dramatic: In 1976, 25% of civilians characterized themselves as Republicans, while 33% of military officers were Republicans — a military-civilian "gap" of only 8%. By 1996, the military-civilian gap on party affiliation had grown to 33%; while 34% of civilians self-identified as Republicans, so did a whopping 70% of military officers.

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The Republicanization of the professional military came about for many reasons, some obvious, some less so.
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This has to be good news.

:thumbsup:

SR

[Gman]

1. FR will blow a gasket on this one

and see it as the end of civilization. They'll condemn the LAT even though the article is about a survey by the Military Times. They are in so much pain when they try to think.

[stillcool]

2. I'd say that was very good news!!

right in time for the coup..

[JohnnyLib2]

3. Innnn-credible!

And I've been saying that Bush is destroying the armed services. Maybe there is some hope ahead.

[muntrv]

4. The GOP brainwashes people into believing that they can fight wars better

than Dems, especially after Vietnam. Now the shoe's on the other foot.

[ktlyon]

7. they also brainwashed the young people as they join

for a while I could not find a military person that believed Dems were not anti-military, all from right wing propaganda and indoctrination

[ShortnFiery]

8. I know, but thank goodness SOME are finally waking up.

I was confronted by another parent at my daughter's elementary school a day in January 05. He blurted out, "I don't understand you at all! You have an Army Sticker, a Retired Marine Corps sticker, an Airborne sticker BUT that KERRY sticker doesn't make any sense?"

Then it really hit me ---> The success of the right wing propaganda spearheaded by FOX News and radio right wing talk show hosts. I merely replied to him, "It makes perfect sense to me." No use, at that time, in an attempt to explain my logic to those who are fully indoctrinated in right wing propaganda. Some of the RW need a full deprogramming course but most, IMO, are hopeless. :shrug:

[MADem]

5. Ya know, I never believed that 70 percent number

I always thought it was about sixty-forty, worse case, or thereabouts. And the number of kids who just didn't bother to vote at all, even with the whole voting officer outreach business, was rather disheartening.

[usregimechange]

6. Does anyone have the Military Times link? k/r

[intheflow]

9. k&r

for the morning crowd. :kick:

[Wednesdays]

10. During the 2000 election theft

My nephew, who was in the National Guard at the time, responded to a wingnut talking-point email mass distributed throughout his unit. He calmly tried to refute the letter point-by-point, but this sparked a deluge of flames from his comrades, and the major in charge sided with the rightwingers, and he told my nephew to stop politically-related email "spam." (No such admonition was given to the others, apparently.)

[StrictlyRockers]

11. Conservatism is so entrenched that they think this kind of bias is ok.

But the swing away from Republican identification may help to alleviate this mindset.