US Confidence In Military Hits Lowest Point In Over 20 Years
Confidence in the military has fallen to its lowest point in over 20 years in the United States, according to new data released by Gallup.
As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, in a survey conducted in June, 60 per cent of respondents said that they had either a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the military. The last time it was this low was in 1997, and before that in 1988 when confidence levels dipped to 58 per cent.
Gallup analysts highlight how confidence in the military has declined since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Republicans have historically shown greater confidence in the U.S. military than Democrats, and while they still do so, the rate has dropped from 91 per cent in 2020 to 68 per cent in 2023.
As of this year, confidence levels among Democrats stand at 62 per cent, while Independents’ confidence is at 55 per cent. Belief in institutions has generally been on the decline in the U.S. in recent years.
According to a wider Gallup poll, last year saw a drop in public confidence in 11 out of 16 institutions, including the Presidency and the Supreme Court. According to the poll conducted June 1-22, 2023, the five institutions with the lowest ratings were newspapers (18 per cent), the criminal justice system (17 per cent), television news (14 per cent), big business (14 per cent) and Congress (8 per cent).
We give the final word to Kurt Schlichter, who wrote an emotive op-ed this week on the reality that, ‘of course, young patriots are rejecting joining our failing military’: The generals and admirals are in a tizzy because the cannon fodder is refusing to sign on the line that is dotted.
Here is the hard reality.
If you choose to join this military, you’re putting your lives in the hands of people who, at the highest level, don’t care about you at best and hate you at worst and are grossly corrupt and grossly incompetent. When you die, likely because of their utter failure to adequately perform their duties at even the most basic level of proficiency, your families going to get shafted and you’ll be forgotten or disrespected.
There are consequences for squandering institutional trust for short-term advantage, and one of them is that no one will want to die for you. And if you think this makes me happy to write, you’re dumb or dishonest enough to be a modern general or admiral.
