Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the toll on American sailors enduring nearly nine months at sea on the USS Abraham Lincoln as concerns escalated about mental health and supply issues aboard the aircraft carrier supporting U.S. operations against Iran.
In a brief exchange with reporters before flying to New York for an event to highlight falling violent crime rates across the U.S., Trump refuted that family members have raised concerns about the deployment’s length and even said that the deployment — which includes a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days — is “not nearly long enough.”
The military is more democratic than you think… it leans Republican significantly, but only about 2:1.
I wonder if most of the enlisted are the boot lickers and when you get to being a CO you have to develop your understanding of the world and geopolitics so you have more exposure to truth of lies.
Funny enough, typically the opposite.
The enlisted corps is a much more racially, ethnically, and financially diverse corps than the officer corps. Enlisted across the active duty is 66% white, 34% minority group, with 22% Hispanic or Latino, according to the most recent annual demographic release (2024). For officers it is 74% white and 26% minority, with only 10% Hispanic or Latino. This tends to bring in more diverse opinions as well. Officers tend to come from heavily white and upper-middle class households, which skew Republican. Enlisted come from all over, and more closely mirror the general population.
The enlisted corps also skews much younger than the officer corps, due to the revolving nature of enlistment. Most guys do a single 4-6 year enlistment and get out, while most officers are career. Only 25-40% of enlisted re-up, and only 10-12% make it to 20 years, while 60-70% of officers go beyond their initial contract, and 45-50% make it to 20 years. The average age of an enlisted troop is 27.4 years old, with 49.2% being 25 or younger and only 5.1% being over 41. For officers the average age is 34.3, with 22.4% being above the age of 41.
You’re also MUCH more intermingled in the enlisted corps. You’re in forced proximity to people that are diverse and get exposed to diverse opinions, whereas the officer corps generally stick to their own kind away from the enlisted and stay insulated.
That ends up resulting in officers being much more reliably Republican, and Republican specifically, than enlisted. Enlisted still skew conservative, but there are far more registered Democrats in the enlisted corps, and the enlisted are FAR more likely to identify as independent rather than with either party. Officers skew more conservative AND identify as Republican more than independent.
Got any links to peruse? THis is interesting.
https://demographics.militaryonesource.mil/chapter-2-active-duty-personnel/
Military demographics.
https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/91dd0811-cf0a-40e5-9f63-7e536b3a6ff8/content
Report showing that enlisted tend to swing independent more than officers.
Also, my own lived experience. I was enlisted, my father in law was a career officer. I married his daughter when I was just a young junior enlisted guy so I have spent a lot of time around both enlisted and officers, all the way up to General level.
Thank you for the resources. I greatly appreciate it.
I was enlisted and served with plenty of guys who think like me. Probably more who don’t, but I wasn’t alone in my left leaning. And this was the infantry, where you’d probably expect guys to lean more right.