Final Protective Fire

Friday, January 02, 2004

 

The current installment of the excellant Inside the Ring has this bit, copied here as the link expires: Republican army
A new Army Times poll shows something that candidate George W. Bush found out during the Florida presidential recount: The all-volunteer military is growing more Republican.
Mr. Bush won the original Florida tally by garnering a majority of absentee votes from service members counted after Election Day.
The Army Times, an independent newspaper, said this week that its 2003 poll "reveals a military more conservative, more Republican and one that considers itself to be morally superior to the nation it serves."
Only 7 percent of those polled considered themselves liberal, while 50 percent said they are conservative or very conservative, and 40 percent said they are moderates.
More than 50 percent identify themselves as Republican and just 13 percent as Democrats.

This is the unfortunate result of the Democratic Party's swing to an extremist party dominated by its idiotarian wing. And while I'm pro-Republican, I don't think that this is a good thing. Having a military that thinks itself morally superior to the nation it serves is the beginning of the road to military intervention in politics. Now I don't think we are anywhere near a military coup, despite the silly posturing of the reality-challenged DU crowd, it would take decades of this trend to get anywhere near that. But in nations that have a history of military government, often the military has a culture of believing that it is the force that preserves that nation's values or integrity against destructive forces among either the people or politicians. Often this culture is deliberately inculcated into military officers.

In our case, this growing divide between the military and the Democrat party is a bellweather that the Democratic Party is doing both itself and the nation great harm in its irrational behavior. There should not be such a great divide. The answer is not that the military should suddenly go forth and recruit left-wing members but that the Democratic Party should reclaim more of the center again.

Robin 10:06 AM