Meatstick Question: Why Does the Military Vote Republican?

During my five years in the military I often felt uncomfortable around the majority of my peers whenever the topic of politics came up. More often than not I was the lone liberal in a sea of conservatives. Being a Democrat in the military is like being the Jewish kid at public school during Christmas, or like being a White Sox fan at Wrigley Field during a Cubs game, or like being the person in the group who doesn't like wine when you are on a trip to Napa Valley. Sometimes I would try to explain to others around me that it makes no sense for people in the military to support Republicans but most times I would just keep my mouth shut and realize that they have been brainwashed and I wasn't going to change their mind. Most people in the military I talked to were Republicans long before Sept 11th. I assumed that they thought all Democrats wanted to take away their hunting rifles and let gays get married. Then came Sept 11th. That terrible event in history, along with the war in Iraq, oddly seemed to only strengthen their beliefs because soldiers felt that Republicans were sending them off to protect the American soil.

A few days ago Jim Webb, a Democrat from Virginia, gave a speech in reference to an amendment he was proposing to the Defense Authorization Act. You can read his moving speech at this site. Senator Webb has a long military history (US naval academy graduate, Vietnam veteran, former Secretary of the Navy) and is the father of a Marine who has served in Iraq. He simply wanted to attach an amendment to the current Act that would allow soldiers to have as much time at home that they served overseas. For example, if your unit was deployed in Iraq for 14 months, you would have at least 14 months at home until the next deployment. Furthermore, he was trying to get reservists three times the amount of time home that they spent overseas. This bill is clearly a non-partisan issue that supports the soldiers and their families. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue.

Yesterday, Republican Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, and his fellow Republicans were successful in striking down this amendment and never giving it the chance to see the light of day. He was quoted as saying he was pleased that the amendment "failed to advance to a final vote."

Sadly, I had to dig around to find out about this in the news. It wasn't talked about on any of the major "news channels." For example, a friend told me that Bill O'reilly started off his show by talking about the San Diego Padres having a "gay day" at the ballpark. I don't have much hope, but hopefully someday the people in the military will wake up and realize that Republicans don't really support them and their families.