by Mohamed Younis


Story Highlights

  • Public confidence in the U.S. military continues to decline
  • Drops seen across party groups, but Republicans remain most confident
  • Independents least likely to express confidence this year

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Americans are now less likely to express “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the U.S. military, with a noticeable decline that has persisted for the past five years. The latest numbers are from a June 1-22 Gallup poll that also captured record lows in public confidence in several public institutions.

  • YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Who have no confidence in the U.S. Military?

    I have no confidence in the Supreme Court, low confidence in Congress, mild confidence in the Executive, but high confidence in the U.S. Military.

    • Purplexingg@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah I’m confused by this too. Everyone I’ve talked to has just expressed concern in regards to who’s running the military, the direction its internal politics are going, sexual assault issues. I’ve never met anyone who thinks it couldn’t execute its mission properly. As a veteran, trust me people, there are some white-hot shit people at the tip of the spear and running all the way down it too. There’s shit bags for sure but I’m pretty confident in it meeting most expectations.

      • YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Throughout nearly all of the past 48 years, Republicans have been the most likely to express confidence in the military, and they remain so today – but the rate has declined by over 20 percentage points in three years, from 91% to 68%.

        So it is MAGA Republicans upset the military didn’t support Trump’s insurrection from the looks of it. Also probably enforcing vaccine standards.

          • YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The Department of Defense has been the most progressive division of the U.S. Government since it was created.

            It was the first U.S. Government division to allow all black units (1778), the first to allow remote absentee voting by mail (1864), the first to allow women to serve equal to men in the draft (1914, yes skilled women were elisted into non combat military roles in WWI & WWII), the first U.S. Government division to integrate in 1948, began accepting lgbtq members silently in 1993 and openly in 2010.

            As a left leaning military veteran it floors me that so many young progressives have a negative view of military service. The amount of humanitarian service opportunities I had during my time serving was incredibly, far more than you would see in the Peace Corps.

            I was on the ground in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I helped built a school in Kabul Afghanistan in 2008, I worked logistics on Operation Tomadachi to aide Japan after the 2011 earthquake.

            That doesn’t even touch that progressives in the military promote faster on average and become the best leaders. Eisenhower being a major progressive as was Theodore Roosevelt.

            • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              Young progressives are not the ones watching Fox and hearing that the military is weak because it’s woke.

              • YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I’m not sure many young progressives are ever exposed to what the military is like unless they come from military families.

                • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.ca
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                  1 year ago

                  You’re focused on young progressives for some reason. I’m talking about the Fox viewers. The Fox viewers are the ones that have had “wokeism is destroying our military” being yelled at them since Biden took office.

            • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              Thank you for your service, and I am happy that you had some positive experiences.

              Otoh, I had a friend conduct 4 tours in Iraq/Afghanistan…

        • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          “Peace” has also been the main thrust of the Russian psyops since the invasion of Ukraine.

          Republicans believe whatever they’re told to believe.

    • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m wondering if this is the “military has gone woke” crowd, or if this is part of deep state conspiracy theories. The decline in confidence started pre-Trump though, so I’m not sure that tracks. It could just be a part of the overall decline in institutions as a whole. Interesting result though whatever the cause.

      Edit: Someone linked the Gallop poll below. They don’t really offer an explanation, buts it’s notable that the drop was biggest among Republicans, down from 91 percent to 60 something percent. Democrats and independents confidence also fell, but not nearly as much. I’m still not sure what to make of this.

      • YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Hard to prove but the DOD vaccine stance and the military not joining in the insurrection are good places to start.