Republicans May Like War, But They're Less Apt to Be In One

Posted by the good folks at Pensito Review, a nice big dish of whoop-ass chickenhawk stew:

President Bush is having a disastrous effect on his party, including separating it from one of its more reliable constituencies:

The Military Times released its annual poll of active-duty service members, and the results showed something virtually unprecedented: a one-year decline of 10 percentage points in the number of military personnel identifying themselves as Republicans. In the 2004 poll, the percentage of military respondents who characterized themselves as Republicans stood at 60 percent. By the end of 2005, that had dropped to 56 percent. And by the end of 2006, the percentage of military Republicans plummeted to 46 percent.

The drop in Republican Party identification among active-duty personnel is a sharp reversal of a 30-year trend toward the “Republicanization” of the U.S. military, and it could mark a sea change in the nature of the military — and the nature of public debates about national security issues.

The de-Republicanization of the military as a result of Bush’s incompetent leadership is actually a benefit to the nation. It is dangerous for our military to be under the control of a political party, especially one that is run by delusional demagogues.