Survey: Troops shift political parties

[kpete]

Source: Navy Times

Survey: Troops shift political parties

By Brendan McGarry - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Apr 12, 2010 20:26:05 EDT

Political party affiliation has fallen sharply among those wearing the uniform today, a new Military Times survey shows.

An exclusive survey of some 1,800 active-duty troops shows the percentage of self-identified Republicans has decreased by one-third since 2004, from 60 percent to 41 percent, while the percentage of self-identified independents has nearly doubled to 32 percent during the same period.

These career-oriented officers and mid-grade and senior enlisted members are still far more conservative than liberal, but they are less likely today to identify with the GOP, the survey shows.

Much of the shift appears to have occurred only very recently, with the percentage of troops identifying themselves as Republican dropping nine percentage points from 2008 to 2009 and the percentage of those calling themselves independents increasing 10 points over the same period.

Read more: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/04/military_poll_advance_041110w/

[xultar]

1. Fighting for a lie and wanting to come home will change a person. Rush

has no effect on truth longterm.

Make it right Obama.

[TacticalPeek]

2. They must have moved that link.

404 for moi.

[tomm2thumbs]

6. add slash ' / ' mark at the end of the link in the address bar and reload

I think this has happened before with their links - but the slash seemed to fix it

[Alcibiades]

3. It's still up at Army Times

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/04/military_poll_advance_041110w/

[phaseolus]

4. Some hearsay I've read, but it sounds plausible:

An Army vet on another forum says that Republicans' reputation is that they pay for the newest toys, but Democrats put more money in the troops' pockets. I bet that Blackwater's connections to Repub politicians helped a lot to tarnish the Republican brand, too.

[CLANG]

5. Corporations vs people

[DesertDiamond]

7. A heartening sign that they are waking up - not permanently brainwashed by Fox propaganda

[Lasher]

8. Junior enlisted personnel do not seem to have been included.

I have seen this before in similar polls, where officers and senior enlisted were included but junior enlisted were not. I believe it is likely that the percentage of Democrats would be higher among junior enlisted personnel.

[EFerrari]

10. I wonder how many have given up on parties altogether.

[craigmatic]

9. They're all republicans and they're still right wing they just don't id themselves that anymore. n/t

[amyrose2712]

11. I was thinking the same. Teabags call themselves independent too.

Although I have noticed some of the talking heads try lump those independents with dems so as to make the "bags" see more "fair and balanced" but its really just bull. Although, a friend of mine has started to lean more left since he has been home. To be honest, I don't think he was very political when he joined. Just a troubled kid. Now he is a much more troubled man. Sad it is.

[EFerrari]

12. Nope. If they were all republicans, the Bush admin wouldn't have f#cked

with their vote at every opportunity. :)