Afghanistan/Iraq vets give Dubya higher approvals than Obama?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

According to this article

and WaPo polling.

[Zioneer]

According to this article

and WaPo polling.

Huh, that doesn't seem to make sense, since Bush was the one who sent them into war (and in Iraq on false pretenses) in the first place.

[Joshgreen]

Army grunts are disproportionately conservative Republicans. Water is wet. More at 11.

[Mordecai]

I remember Robert Gates mentioned this in his memoir and talked about it in interviews. He said that Bush was very good at giving pep talks and convincing people to believe in the mission and that their sacrifice was worthy, while Obama seemed reluctant to do that kind of posturing.

[Randy Bobandy]

Aren't most of them also uneducated?

[Person Man]

Its not as Republican as I thought it would be. Obama is doing as well as he does amongst the voting population. I think the Officer corps, sans the JAG (I worked with very liberal JAG officers one summer), is probably overwhelmingly Neoconservative or Nationalist. The Enlisteds are probably a better representation of the country as a whole but probably because there are more D minorities and R poor rural whites.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

To tell you the truth, I'm not usually a fan of anti-intellectual, hyper-masculine, dumb, 20- and 30-something Republicans who use their party ID to mask bigotry. I get the feeling that the army attracts a lot of people from this crowd. It doesn't exclusively attract these people, but they're a big factor. Anyway, I respect the sacrifices that soldiers make and will be the first one to jump up and applaud for the "troops" in the abstract... but... well, I'll put it this way: In my university town, there's us and the Royal Military College of Canada. I've never met anyone who goes to RMC that I've liked.

[dead0man]

Aren't most of them also uneducated?

They are smarter than the average American of the same age.

[ElectionsGuy]

Aren't most of them also uneducated?

Any evidence to back that up? Otherwise that's pretty insulting.

[Reaganfan]

You guys keep acting like those in the Armed Services are being dragged kicking and screaming. They weren't. We have an all-volunteer Military.

[Randy Bobandy]

They are smarter than the average American of the same age.

Any evidence to back that up?

Any evidence to back that up? Otherwise that's pretty insulting.

I never said that they were uneducated. I simply just asked if they were uneducated, because I'd heard that they were.

[dead0man]

They are smarter than the average American of the same age.

Any evidence to back that up?

Of course.  cite

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The cite also talks about other common misconceptions.  They ain't poor, whites aren't underrepresented....really the only "conventional wisdom" on the subject that's correct is that southerners are more likely to join than people from the coasts.

[Indy Texas]

Not a big surprise. The military - particularly the enlisted ranks - is comprised overwhelmingly of white people from small towns in what Sarah Palin refers to as the "pro-American" parts of the country. That's been the case since the 1970s, when the end of the draft meant military demographics would forever be even more skewed by selection bias and the disaster of Vietnam permanently poisoned the upper-middle and upper classes against seeing the military as a respectable place for their sons (with the exception of the sort of uber-traditional, upscale Southerners whose kids go to The Citadel or West Point or VMI and become commissioned officers because that's what their families have done for generations).

Someone like Barack Obama has little appeal to the swaggering 25 year old with the shaved head and the enormous biceps who drives a lifted pickup with a Semper Fi sticker on the back and leaves the bar at the end of the night with a girl with highlighted hair and a butterfly tattooed on the small of her back. His name is probably something like Cody or Dustin or Kyle. He probably owns more guns than he does books. And those books probably have Glenn Beck's big, squishy face on the cover.

[dead0man]

Well at least you're not using stereotypes

[Randy Bobandy]

They are smarter than the average American of the same age.

Any evidence to back that up?

Of course.  cite

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The cite also talks about other common misconceptions.  They ain't poor, whites aren't underrepresented....really the only "conventional wisdom" on the subject that's correct is that southerners are more likely to join than people from the coasts.

Well, thank you for clearing that misconception up.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Well at least you're not using stereotypes

They do exist for a reason.

[dead0man]

Sure....lucky for him that he mentioned a stereotype you can bring up in normal conversation heh?


And as somebody that see's hundreds of military member's cars a week, it's not a very accurate stereotype.  (though it's not non-existent obviously)

[Zioneer]

I thought a lot of the enlisted military was black and Hispanic?

[dead0man]

Slightly more black than the population at large, less Hispanic.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Not a big surprise. The military - particularly the enlisted ranks - is comprised overwhelmingly of white people from small towns in what Sarah Palin refers to as the "pro-American" parts of the country. That's been the case since the 1970s, when the end of the draft meant military demographics would forever be even more skewed by selection bias and the disaster of Vietnam permanently poisoned the upper-middle and upper classes against seeing the military as a respectable place for their sons (with the exception of the sort of uber-traditional, upscale Southerners whose kids go to The Citadel or West Point or VMI and become commissioned officers because that's what their families have done for generations).

Someone like Barack Obama has little appeal to the swaggering 25 year old with the shaved head and the enormous biceps who drives a lifted pickup with a Semper Fi sticker on the back and leaves the bar at the end of the night with a girl with highlighted hair and a butterfly tattooed on the small of her back. His name is probably something like Cody or Dustin or Kyle. He probably owns more guns than he does books. And those books probably have Glenn Beck's big, squishy face on the cover.

You really couldn't hide your contempt for these folks for less than two paragraphs, could you? (not that the rest of your description isn't contemptuous, but it becomes quite clear with the climax of the last sentence)

[Indy Texas]

Not a big surprise. The military - particularly the enlisted ranks - is comprised overwhelmingly of white people from small towns in what Sarah Palin refers to as the "pro-American" parts of the country. That's been the case since the 1970s, when the end of the draft meant military demographics would forever be even more skewed by selection bias and the disaster of Vietnam permanently poisoned the upper-middle and upper classes against seeing the military as a respectable place for their sons (with the exception of the sort of uber-traditional, upscale Southerners whose kids go to The Citadel or West Point or VMI and become commissioned officers because that's what their families have done for generations).

Someone like Barack Obama has little appeal to the swaggering 25 year old with the shaved head and the enormous biceps who drives a lifted pickup with a Semper Fi sticker on the back and leaves the bar at the end of the night with a girl with highlighted hair and a butterfly tattooed on the small of her back. His name is probably something like Cody or Dustin or Kyle. He probably owns more guns than he does books. And those books probably have Glenn Beck's big, squishy face on the cover.

You really couldn't hide your contempt for these folks for less than two paragraphs, could you? (not that the rest of your description isn't contemptuous, but it becomes quite clear with the climax of the last sentence)

It's my contempt for Glenn Beck (and his big, squishy face) that I couldn't hide. I think the rest of my illustration was largely observation-based. I have no contempt for Cody/Dustin/Kyle. Someone willing to put himself in harms way and endure extremely dangerous and trying circumstances for extended periods of time can read whatever books he damn well wants.

[Badger]

The arrogant elitism in some of these posts by the "pro-working man" side.....

[Gertrude26]

Not a big surprise. The military - particularly the enlisted ranks - is comprised overwhelmingly of white people from small towns in what Sarah Palin refers to as the "pro-American" parts of the country. That's been the case since the 1970s, when the end of the draft meant military demographics would forever be even more skewed by selection bias and the disaster of Vietnam permanently poisoned the upper-middle and upper classes against seeing the military as a respectable place for their sons (with the exception of the sort of uber-traditional, upscale Southerners whose kids go to The Citadel or West Point or VMI and become commissioned officers because that's what their families have done for generations).

Someone like Barack Obama has little appeal to the swaggering 25 year old with the shaved head and the enormous biceps who drives a lifted pickup with a Semper Fi sticker on the back and leaves the bar at the end of the night with a girl with highlighted hair and a butterfly tattooed on the small of her back. His name is probably something like Cody or Dustin or Kyle. He probably owns more guns than he does books. And those books probably have Glenn Beck's big, squishy face on the cover.

You really couldn't hide your contempt for these folks for less than two paragraphs, could you? (not that the rest of your description isn't contemptuous, but it becomes quite clear with the climax of the last sentence)

It's my contempt for Glenn Beck (and his big, squishy face) that I couldn't hide. I think the rest of my illustration was largely observation-based. I have no contempt for Cody/Dustin/Kyle. Someone willing to put himself in harms way and endure extremely dangerous and trying circumstances for extended periods of time can read whatever books he damn well wants.

IndyTX, no offense, but this totally reminds me of "What's the Matter with Kansas?".  I know you're not trying to be offensive, but to the Codys, Dustins, and Kyles, it probably is.