2024 Pre-Election Political Polls | POLL - Trump would have had 7 point lead over Biden

  • Thread starter Thread starter nycfan
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies: 6K
  • Views: 183K
  • Politics 
One of the great dichotomies of our society is that our military is trained to defend our democracies while being basically indoctrinated in using antidemocratic methods to do so. Even the ones with college educations get a dose of that by the type of education they pursue if not family tradition. Since you actually can't debate orders, question higher authority, etc. in most circumstances, it can't be much other way. It does cause an adjustment when they become or resume the function of citizens when voting. They are going to tend toward authoritarian figures, be less inclined to ask questions and more likely to rationalize more active interference, privately, nationally and internationally. With their background, it's not surprising to me that they have a strong Republican lean.
 
finesse said:
One of the great dichotomies of our society is that our military is trained to defend our democracies while being basically indoctrinated in using antidemocratic methods to do so. Even the ones with college educations get a dose of that by the type of education they pursue if not family tradition. Since you actually can't debate orders, question higher authority, etc. in most circumstances, it can't be much other way. It does cause an adjustment when they become or resume the function of citizens when voting. They are going to tend toward authoritarian figures, be less inclined to ask questions and more likely to rationalize more active interference, privately, nationally and internationally. With their background, it's not surprising to me that they have a strong Republican lean.
Click to expand...
My father served twice-Regular Navy in post war occupation duty in Japan and then in Korea in the Guard . He grew up in a pretty conservative family in the South-GI Bill made it possible for him to go to College and have a" good life " . He told me he seriously considered a career in the Armed services . But he could not shake instances -in field exercises training- where the Order was to do X -and he knew Y should have been the answer . He said he would not have lasted in such an organization
 
mpaer said:
My father served twice-Regular Navy in post war occupation duty in Japan and then in Korea in the Guard . He grew up in a pretty conservative family in the South-GI Bill made it possible for him to go to College and have a" good life " . He told me he seriously considered a career in the Armed services . But he could not shake instances -in field exercises training- where the Order was to do X -and he knew Y should have been the answer . He said he would not have lasted in such an organization
Click to expand...
I was in the almost Post-Vietnam Army and served my entire enlistment (except for Basic and AIT) in Germany. I always found our field exercises somehow comforting. We practiced the same thing everytime. A slow retreat from the border with a Warsaw Pact Country. The slow retreat part being to allow for reinforcements, in strength, to arrive at the Channel Ports on mainland Europe. We would hold our fire until it was all but certain a massed tank attack on a particular point would break our lines and allow the Warsaw Pact forces to get behind us and take/close the ports. And at that point we would launch our battlefield nuclear weapons at the massed tank assault already in a NATO country. That was where every training exercise would end. It ended because we would have conclusively demonstrated where we were and Soviet tactical nuclear weapons would be headed our way before ours even hit their massed tank columns. No real need to practice getting hit by a nuke.
 


Silver writes political nerd fan fiction about the election coming down to Alaska …
 
I just participated in my very first ever political poll, from Emerson College. Said that I am independent/unaffiliated, strongly approve of the job which Joe Biden has done as president, strongly approve of Kamala Harris, strongly disapprove of Donald Trump, will vote for Kamala Harris, strongly approve of the job which Roy Cooper has done as governor, strongly approve of Josh Stein, strongly disapprove of Mark Robinson, cannot vote for Josh Stein as I won’t live in NC this voting cycle.
 
CFordUNC said:
I just participated in my very first ever political poll, from Emerson College. Said that I am independent/unaffiliated, strongly approve of the job which Joe Biden has done as president, strongly approve of Kamala Harris, strongly disapprove of Donald Trump, will vote for Kamala Harris, strongly approve of the job which Roy Cooper has done as governor, strongly approve of Josh Stein, strongly disapprove of Mark Robinson, cannot vote for Josh Stein as I won’t live in NC this voting cycle.
Click to expand...
But you made sure to pay at least a dozen immigrants to vote for you right?
 
HeelingAg said:
Continually unsurprised but shocked at the margins ttump continues to hold with veterans. The sniveling scumbag has shit on vets over and over and over. I suppose it’s hard to break free from the hypermasculinity brainwashing and rural town milieu.
Click to expand...
What's the age breakdown on vets? I'm guessing that there are a lot of boomers in there because of the draft in Vietnam but I don't know. Obviously most vets are men, since women are still only about 20% of the armed forces and that's an all-time high.

So the category of "veterans" includes a lot of old and older men. So you'd expect a big Trump tilt regardless. I agree, it's hard to fathom how they support Trump given how much he shits on them, but a lot of the old-timers who were drafted into the military probably share his disdain of the generals. I don't know -- there are lots of people who can talk to this issue far better than I can.
 
superrific said:
What's the age breakdown on vets? I'm guessing that there are a lot of boomers in there because of the draft in Vietnam but I don't know. Obviously most vets are men, since women are still only about 20% of the armed forces and that's an all-time high.

So the category of "veterans" includes a lot of old and older men. So you'd expect a big Trump tilt regardless. I agree, it's hard to fathom how they support Trump given how much he shits on them, but a lot of the old-timers who were drafted into the military probably share his disdain of the generals. I don't know -- there are lots of people who can talk to this issue far better than I can.
Click to expand...

Veterans can really be any age. If you enlist at 18 and serve four years, you're 22 at discharge and you're considered a veteran at that point.

I think you have to consider the fact that, after the Vietnam era, this is a volunteer military. I don't work with a lot of commissioned officers so I can't speak to that group, but many of the veterans and service members I have met either enlisted either directly after high school or only completed some college. Many times they have grown up in rural areas or small towns that would skew conservative. Plus you are basically taught during service not to question authority. Based on my general experience, it's not a surprise that veterans would more frequently vote Republican.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top