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IS THE MILITARY CONSERVATIVE?
Jason Dempsey has been researching the the political attitudes of the military, and the results are interesting. The institution may tilt right, but not nearly so much as is commonly thought. Rather, it's the officer corps which really exhibits a conservative skew:
It is true that the upper echelons of the military tilt right. My own research confirmed that about two-thirds of majors and higher-ranking officers identify as conservative, as previous studies found. But that tilt becomes far less pronounced when you expand the pool of respondents. That is because only 32 percent of the Army's enlisted soldiers consider themselves conservative, while 23 percent identify as liberal and the remaining 45 percent are self-described moderates. These numbers closely mirror the ideological predilections of the civilian population. According to data collected in 2004 by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, 37 percent of the civilian, non-veteran population identified as conservative, 24 percent as liberal, and the remaining 39 percent as moderate or undecided.Of course, understanding the opinions of "the military" through the beliefs of the officer class is akin to evaluating "workers" through the voting patterns of executives. Doesn't really hold up.The political differences between officers and enlisted personnel can be partly explained by a demographic divide. Whereas officers are predominantly white, have at least a bachelor's degree, and draw incomes that place them in the middle or upper-middle class, the enlisted ranks have a higher proportion of minorities, make less money than officers, and typically enter service with only a high school diploma.
Nevertheless, even when controlling for factors like race and gender, officers are significantly more likely than soldiers to identify as conservative. They do not, however, share a uniformly right-wing outlook on social and political issues. Interestingly, self-identified conservative officers often supplied moderate responses when asked about spending on Social Security, health care, and education. The same held for social issues such as the role of women in the workplace, affirmative action, gun control, and the death penalty. In fact, one-third of the officers who answered such questions in a consistently liberal manner still said they were conservative, suggesting that self-identification as a conservative may be as much a cultural norm among officers as a reflection of ideological preference. Soldiers and non-commissioned officers, on average, also gave moderate responses to questions on social issues. They were, however, more likely than officers to have liberal attitudes on economic issues.
COMMENTS (12)
Regarding the economic moderation of officers, remember that members of the military are essentially part of a titanic welfare state, one with state-provided health care, groceries, general stores, gas stations, theatres, health clubs, and, should they serve long enough, pensions (and they all deserve these perks, too). It shouldn't surprise anyone then that these otherwise-self-described-conservatives have softened a bit on their economic views during their tenures in the military.
Posted by: KobayashiMaru | October 31, 2008 2:41 PM
I've heard rumblings of a bias tilting conservative for promotions in the military.
Posted by: Alex | October 31, 2008 2:47 PM
This was shown somewhat on the PBS documentary "Carrier" from last spring. The naval officers and fighter pilots were always gung-ho about their jobs and about U.S. foreign policy, and the pilots were disappointed every time they flew and didn't drop bombs. But many of the grunts that were shown expressed reservations about why they were there (and hated how hot it was in the Persian Gulf).
Even if you're not particularly interested in military matters (I'm sure not), I highly recommend this documentary--one of the most interesting I've seen in a while.
Posted by: carrar | October 31, 2008 2:48 PM
Wouldn't understanding the opinions of 'the military' through the beliefs of the officer class be more akin to understanding the opinions of GM through its executive class, which is what we often do?
If we are talking about "the military" i think it is right to look at the predilections of officers and generals. They are the ones that make decisions and steer the military. The military as an institution is almost certainly conservative because (just like big corporations) it is self-serving. Conservative ideologies and policies keep them active and in business. This is what "the military" wants and needs - it may not be what "Joe the Private" wants and needs, just like "Jane the autoworker" may not care too much about corporate tax loopholes.
When it comes to the political significance of the military, we should be looking at the institution, not the individual personnel, per se.
Posted by: Kiril | October 31, 2008 3:00 PM
From my experience in the Army, officers over 30 tend to look at recent history through a "Reagan won the Cold War" lens.
And consequently tend to be rather National Review esque.
Posted by: Amanda in the South Bay | October 31, 2008 3:03 PM
Duh! All you have to do is look at the demographics to know how the political identification will skew.
Given that so few pundits and bloviators have any military experience or have family members serving, I'm not surprised that they're all surprised by these findings.
Posted by: CParis | October 31, 2008 3:31 PM
It shouldn't surprise anyone then that these otherwise-self-described-conservatives have softened a bit on their economic views during their tenures in the military.
Or more likely, they end up like John McCain, the guy who sees government-provided health care as a horror even though he's had it his entire life. It's not government benefits for ME that are ruining America, it's government benefits for those OTHER people, you know, the ones who don't deserve it.
Posted by: Steve | October 31, 2008 3:50 PM
From my experience in the military, military members often identify as conservative while actually holding few if any conservative views entirely as fallout from the culture war. Even today many young people in the military feel "the left" dislikes them. When even mainstream democrats talk about how people join the military not out of service or patriotism, but rather some form of economic conscription - there is a justifiable resonance. At the same time, in the military, views of liberals often have more to do with talk radio inspired fantasies than with reality.
Posted by: MAX HATS | October 31, 2008 4:22 PM
Dempsey's article is good (probably because it conforms with my experience)
HATS comment above 'checks with chart' as well.
Posted by: Kolohe | October 31, 2008 8:37 PM
From my experience in the military, military members often identify as conservative while actually holding few if any conservative views entirely as fallout from the culture war.
This is why I think that the Republicans are screwed for the next 20 years. They had 40 good years of winning elections by running against "those 60s hippies." I know that Giuliani gave it his best shot by calling out "cos-mo-pol-i-tans" in his convention speech, but somehow I doubt there will be much electoral mileage to be gained out of evoking the threat and mistakes of "the metro-area information-era professionals of the 90s and 00s" who are undermining what America is all about.
Posted by: Tyro | October 31, 2008 9:44 PM
I don't remember ever discussing politics during my time in the Navy. All we cared about was the best bars and where we could find women and score smoke on shore leave. And not getting killed by Iranians while we were fighting for Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war.
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