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.
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Data doesn’t line up perfectly but I gotta think at least part of this is that Republicans (since at least Vietnam) were historically the more military-loving party, but their party leader since 2016 is isolationist and thus less reverent of the military as a separate institution.
Numbers stay flat in 2016-2020 because partisanship keeps the Republicans saying that any part of the government is good, but then the numbers fall off a cliff when the next administration comes to power and partisanship flips, Republicans turn against the government institution when controlled by people they disagree with politically, and they were the party that approved more to begin with so there’s a bigger drop than normal. Their usual military loyalty does not prevent this as it once did.
That would line up well with what had happened in the past. Approval of military action in Syria had like a 70 point swing under Trump vs Obama with conservatives. Liberals pretty much stayed at the same level.