Today's Military: Right, Republican And Principled

Military Times (E-mail) | Dec. 2003 | Gordon Trowbridge

[VaMarVet]

Military Times Poll

Today's Military: Right, Republican And Principled

By Gordon Trowbridge, Times Staff Writer

Who do you think has higher moral values? Members of the U.S. military -- 66%, U.S. civilians -- 2%, Both have about the same standard -- 31%

The 2003 Military Times Poll reveals a military more conservative, more Republican, and one that considers itself to be morally superior to the nation its serves.

The figures add fuel to a debate, ongoing since at least the end of the Vietnam War, over whether there is a gap in attitudes between America and its military and whether that is a cause for concern. Especially troubling, some observers say, are indications that military members do not believe the nation’s civilian leadership has their best interests at heart.

The poll found:

*About half described their political views as conservative or very conservative; four in 10 called themselves moderate; and only 7 percent called themselves liberal.

*More than half called themselves Republicans, and just 13 percent said they are Democrats. Recent polls of the general public show the nation evenly split, with Democrats, Republicans and independents making up about a third of the population each.

*Two-thirds said they think military members have higher moral standards than the nation they serve. More than 60 percent called the country’s moral standards only fair or poor.

In follow-up interviews, service members repeatedly said the choice to serve, by itself, demonstrates moral quality above most civilians. Once in the military, many said, members are wrapped in a culture that values honor and morality.

“Even if you don’t have it when you enlist, they breed it into you to be a better person,” said Army Sgt. Kevin Blanchard, a cavalry scout with 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. “When you go home you see how you’re different than the people you grew up with.”

Many also mentioned what they considered an increase in sex and vulgarity in popular media.

*Respondents were evenly split on the question of whether civilian leaders have their best interests at heart.

To some observers, the figures are yet more evidence of a troubling divide between the military and civilian society.

“The country and the military profession are best served by an officer corps that is apolitical,” said Andrew Bacevich, a retired Army colonel and professor of international relations at Boston University. “That doesn’t mean that officers don’t vote, but for them to collectively identify themselves with one or the other party strikes me as simply unhealthy.”

University of North Carolina professor Richard Kohn co-authored a 1999 study on the civilian-military gap issued by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies. That study, which surveyed thousands of students at staff colleges, also found a military sharply more Republican and conservative than the nation, and one at odds with civilian leaders on a host of issues.

“The alienation from the 1990s continues, and was not simply based on hatred of Bill Clinton or distrust of the Democrats, as some argued about our results,” Kohn said in an e-mail interview. “It’s endemic to the highly professionalized, all-volunteer military of the last generation.”

[desertcry]

What else should we expect, that those who risks all, to defend freedom and values of our founding fathers, are left wing liberals? It is very difficult for someone to serve in the military , particularly in war time to be a hypocrite.

[Salgak]

Why is this a problem ? It's more of a simple FACT. Civilians DON'T sacrifice until they are FORCED to by circumstance, as a general case. You don't find very many drug users in the military, as opposed to the general populace. In most neighborhoods, you barely know your neighbors: this is almost never the case in military housing. . .

[desertcry]

Why? If the morals of the USA is mostly based on the Judeo- Christian values, those who are in the military are putting their lives where their heart is, while people in civilian life, particularly those people like the howler monkey dean and clinton were and are doing their best to avoid doing their duty to defend the USA in time of war and we are at war.

[BushisTheMan]

It doesn't exactly take a genius to figure out that people who hate the country (or are at best ambivalent towards it) are much less likely to be willing to put their life in harm's way for it.

Wow! I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. Truer words have never been spoken.

[Steel Wolf]

Then obviously the military are being forced into a life with higher standards than the society they are to serve and protect. Would the military have these same high standards without the threat of punishment?

Maybe not, but these people volunteered to accept living up to high standards. For some, the positive reinforcement gained from the pride of being a soldier is enough. For others, the stern hand of the UCMJ is needed to keep them on track. Either way, they chose to go in and chose to stay in.

That having been said, there are some real punks, thugs and criminals in the military. Always have been, always will. Those guys will always need the swift boot of the UCMJ applied liberally to their backsides. Some of them turn around and become excellent troops. Some of them don't. Either way, they're better off being held to higher standards.

[4mer Liberal]

There are no common values, so the only military liberals are the ones that were liberal when they showed up and have remained liberal

I don't think many remain that way, at least in my experience. I was a long-haired freaky type when I joined in '75. Even voted for Jerry Brown ( if I remember right)... I found that the culture of the military changed me so much that even my own parents didn't recognize me.

Later, I went through 4 years of hell in Europe under Jimmy Carter. We actually got laughed at. RR came along and raised our pay by 14%, and nobody wanted to laugh any more after Reagan got elected. That started my journey.

Got out in '95. Couldn't stand to see how Bill Clinton was systematically trying to destroy the military we built under Reagan and Bush I. So BC completed my journey to conservatism.

[armymarinemom]

Whoa! this just jumped out at me. This is a serious problem in a democracy.

I guess that depends on your definition of a Democracy. Our government is a Republic. One definition of a true democracy is a lynch mob acting as one in goals and amibitions..

[4mer Liberal]

Maybe not, but these people volunteered to accept living up to high standards. For some, the positive reinforcement gained from the pride of being a soldier is enough. For others, the stern hand of the UCMJ is needed to keep them on track. Either way, they chose to go in and chose to stay in.

Exactly right! Most wear the higher standards as a badge of honor. It is for the ones who don't and can't stay out of trouble that we have the UCMJ. Allows us to seperate the chaff from the wheat.

[jordan8]

The military is quite politically correct, polls like this mean nothing.

[CyberAnt]

Yes they are! And .. the nation is NOT evenly divided. There is a new poll which shows America is more conservative than it was in 2000.

[ETCM]

"Then obviously the military are being forced into a life with higher standards than the society they are to serve and protect."

This was not lost on the military when Bill Clinton was caught having sexual relations with a subordinate. The contrast was like night and day compared to the handling of similar cases involving military. Any military caught in a relation with a subordinate is dealt with swiftly and usually severely. The more senior the offender, the worse the punishment. Had Clinton been a flag officer, he would have been fired/retired.

Yes, we are in some ways held to a higher standard. Most of us realize we are better for it.

[meenie]

Democracy is the problem, not the solution. There is very little democracy in the military. This is why discipline, attitude, character, morality is better in the forces. We should be so lucky as our young people could be trained in that manner by their parents. This is one reason our society has suffered since the draft was eliminated. I know the arguments, forced slavery, etc. will be leveled against this but the service made a lot of men out of pretty weak boys. I was one of them and have never regretted my opportunity to see the world and improve my life.

[VaMarVet]

The military is quite politically correct, polls like this mean nothing.

Please expand on that statement, I do not quite understand it. The military establishment? Individual military servicemen and women? Officers? General officers? Field grade offiers? Company grade officers? Staff NCOs? NCOs? Enlisted? Combat arms? Combat support? Combat service support?....

My point being, by far, I have never been associated with a less 'politically correct' organization when it comes to expressing a belief - giving a honest answer. I will give you this - there are individuals (for whatever reason) that have expresed the PC line. However, they are by far the minority. As you can see in the above paragraph, the military is quite diverse and broad-based statements about 'the military' need some drilling down on for clarity sake.

[sean327]

Your argument is flawed, on the question of adultry it's not about the threat of punishment. It goes to the heart of our core values in the military: Honor, Courage, and Commitment. I can break it down something like this as it applies to the adultry argument;
Honor: There is no honor in messing around with a fellow Marines wife, and the Marines around you will let you know that this will not be tolerated. It all goes back to trust. If you cannot trust the Marine next to you to be near your wife, you cannot trust him with your life.
Courage: This is a double edged sword,ie Moral Courage, that courage which enables you to correct a fellow Marines inappropriate behavior, speaking out when you know a situation is screwed up knowing that it may be detrimental to your career. Then there is Physical Courage. I don't think there is a need to explain this one.
Commitment: As Marines we take our commitments very seriously, our commitment to accomplishing any and all missions given to us, our oath of enlistment, our commitment to our wives, who have to put up with more crap than we do and still stand by us proudly. Once again it comes down to trust.
These core values are what we live by day in and day out. They are applied to all situations, and that is what makes us different from civillian society, and that is why we are heavily conservative. Without these values we could not function.
Don't get me wrong we still have the 10% who are shitbirds and these values are meaningless to them, but we have ways of culling these clowns out. Semper Fi

[VaMarVet]

Gun control also means 'no better friend, no worse enemy' - Semper Fi.

[Antoninus]

Whoa! this just jumped out at me. This is a serious problem in a democracy.

It's a serious problem because it is a correct statement--I believe that on the whole, the military is morally superior to the country it serves right now. Let's not forget what our courts have done over the past year: sodomy is now a civil right; several state courts are trying to impose homo-marriages; and homo-promo is taught in the public schools and forcing its way even into the Boy Scouts.

At least the military still has "don't ask, don't tell." To my mind, that in itself makes them morally superior to the rest of the country. And personally, I thank God that they are. If the military was run by critters who were the moral equivalent of the Constitution-ignoring skunks in the Massachusetts Supreme Court or the Nth Circus Court of Appeals, I think we truly *would* have to worry about our military being used on us.

[SLB]

Honor: There is no honor in messing around with a fellow Marines wife, and the Marines around you will let you know that this will not be tolerated. It all goes back to trust. If you cannot trust the Marine next to you to be near your wife, you cannot trust him with your life.
You must be in a perfect setting. I have known privates sleeping with other private's spouses, and general officers who kept a mistress on the side for those "special" occasions. Adultery does not have to mean both parties are married.

Courage: This is a double edged sword,ie Moral Courage, that courage which enables you to correct a fellow Marines inappropriate behavior, speaking out when you know a situation is screwed up knowing that it may be detrimental to your career. Then there is Physical Courage. I don't think there is a need to explain this one.
I salute anyone in today's society who has the moral courage you describe here. I know of one Coast Guardsman who has that courage, he is a devoted Christian, but it has cost him dearly. His buddies who could be needed to pull him out of tight spots have ostracized him to the point he has no friends, and all because he will not sleep around with some of the females in the unit.

Commitment: As Marines we take our commitments very seriously, our commitment to accomplishing any and all missions given to us, our oath of enlistment, our commitment to our wives, who have to put up with more crap than we do and still stand by us proudly. Once again it comes down to trust.
No argument here. Military wives as a whole are probably more faithful than their husbands.

Too bad we cannot find the perfect society to live in.

[little jeremiah]

one that considers itself to be morally superior to the nation its serves...

I don't think that is exactly the way people in the military would express it. (Don't have one around to ask at the moment, so this is my conjecture, FWIW.)

I also would be among those who "consider themselves morally superior" to the general public - but not because I think I'm great, but because the general public is being degraded by the secularist moral relativist ACLU types. IOW, I (and very likely, many of those in the military) are struggling and trying to become more morally strong, while the hedonism and socialism promoters are actively trying to drag the culture into the muck.

This is an interesting experiment. Don't watch TV for a year or two (as well as hardly any movies) and then watch some. It'll blow your mind. It's the "how to boil a frog" exactly. Me and spouse didn't watch TV for two or three years, and then had to stay in a motel and watched. Incredibly horrible how things had degraded in a short time, as far as explicit crap and junk being spewed.

[section9]

Set aside the politics for a moment.

I love Republicans. I really love fighting Republicans. A lot of these guys in uniform are Republicans who are Walking the Talk.

But the downside to the All Vol is a growth in the Praetorian Guard aspects of the military. The service should have one loyalty: to the Constitution. That servicemen, in the main, identify with Republicans is a troubling result of the choice we made when we abandoned the draft.

The Armed Services must remain resolutely apolitical. They must eschew Bonapartism in all its forms.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[little jeremiah]

I agree; I can understand your concern. It is a concern. No one would like to see a military coup and then a dictatorship. But with the Democraps being what they are - a voice for aboriton, for "gay" rights being shoved down everyone's throats, for treason, for hatred of religion (practically speaking), owning the media (with a few exceptions), for separatist interests, for vote buying, vote suppressing, and judicial oligarchy - how can principled people serving in the military remain apolitical?

It doesn't seem possible.