Here's the current Realclearpolitics map of voting intention...
...and here's the map of military enlistment ratios...
Why is it that conservative states are more likely to be the source of military recruits than liberal states?
Liberals would say it's because you have to be stupid to both vote Republican or join the army a'la John Kerry.
Conservatives would say it's because they believe more strongly in defending their country.
Neither view reflects liberals in a particularly good light.
(Nothing Follows)
3 comments:
There is a significant correlation between poverty and enlistment that is more relevent than the political leaning of each state. People living in poor neighbourhoods to enlist as a way of lifting themselves out of their situation. Thus, if you look at the US census map of states by poverty (found here: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ThematicMapFramesetServlet?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-tm_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_M00279&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U&-_MapEvent=displayBy&-_dBy=040)
You can see that apart from california and 2 or 3 Northern midwest states, the map is a good predictor of enlistment rates.
That's utter nonsense. There is a fairly even economic and educational distribution throughout the armed forces, if you include the officer corps, with no particularly disproportionate representation by lower economic levels or race.
That's a common looselugnut lib kant but the statistics are readily available to anyone who wants to get edikated about it.
Still, it's no surprise that residents of so-called blue states don't join the military. It is beneath them. They expect the umbrella of protection afforded them by others, but they certainly don't feel motivated to do their part. And many of the tony blue state universities refuse to permit ROTC on campus.
To the contrary, their national representatives actually vote repeatedly to withdraw funding for troops on the battlefield during a time of war.
You can't get much more reprehensible than that.
“I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it.” Oscar Van den Boogaard
-- Krumhorn
.....
Grendel,
The facts don't support your contention of a strong correlation between poverty and enlistment rates. Rather than make broad, unsupported generalizations from your 'view' of state maps, I recommend you check out these charts. http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/upload/85096_1.gif
http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/upload/85090_1.gif
They depict the household income of US enlistees. You'll see that the bulk of US military enlistees come from households near the median US income. You'll also note that those living at are below the US poverty level are UNDER-represented in the military.
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