{"id":4023,"date":"2015-07-27T19:29:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T19:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=4023"},"modified":"2016-08-09T06:24:39","modified_gmt":"2016-08-09T06:24:39","slug":"donald-trump-supporters-caught-between-respect-for-military-and-hatred-of-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/donald-trump-supporters-caught-between-respect-for-military-and-hatred-of-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump supporters caught between respect for military and hatred of government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Critchlow<\/a>, Arizona State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s recent derogatory and off-the-wall attack on John McCain\u2019s heroism, denigrating him because he was captured during the Vietnam War, struck an especially sour note in Trump\u2019s self-serving presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

It also placed Trump\u2019s supporters in a awkward position \u2013 pitting their respect for war heroes and members of the military against their hatred for government and politicians.<\/p>\n

What Trump said<\/h2>\n

Attacking Senator John McCain before a Republican crowd in Iowa, Trump declared<\/a>, \u201cHe\u2019s not a war hero. He\u2019s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that were not captured.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed on this, Trump doubled down. \u201cPerhaps he\u2019s a war hero, but right now, he\u2019s said bad things about a lot of people.\u201d Trump had taken umbrage because McCain had denounced Trump\u2019s rally in Phoenix a week earlier as having fired up \u201cthe crazies.\u201d<\/p>\n

A history of heroes<\/h2>\n

As I explain in my book American Political History: A Very Short Introduction,<\/a> respect for war heroes has a long tradition in American presidential politics.<\/p>\n

George Washington, Ulysses S Grant, Dwight D Eisenhower, and John F Kennedy won election to the White House because they were seen as war heroes who had served their country. Even Abraham Lincoln, who as a congressman from Illinois opposed the Mexican-American War, modestly spoke in a self-deprecating way of his limited military experience in the Illinois militia in the Blackhawk War.<\/p>\n

The appeal of war heroes in American politics is not about idle hero worship but exists because military veterans such as Washington, Grant, Eisenhower and Kennedy displayed genuine and committed patriotism through combat experience.<\/p>\n

Americans trust the military above any other institution. In a recent Gallup poll<\/a> conducted in June 2015, Americans were asked which institutions they have confidence in today. Heading the list was the military. Over 70% of Americans declared that they have a \u201cgreat deal\u201d or \u201cquite a lot\u201d of confidence in the military. This was followed by the police at 52% and organized religion at 42%.<\/p>\n

Compare the depth of this respect for the American military with public confidence in other institutions<\/a>: the presidency garnered only 33% and the Supreme Court 32%. This support for the military was consistent with other Gallup polls<\/a> dating back to 1973.<\/p>\n

Americans, even when antiwar sentiment ran high, as during the Iraq War in 2010, expressed overwhelming confidence in the military. Respect for the American military and veterans finds affirmation in other surveys<\/a>, which show consistent support by parents for their sons and daughters entering the military.<\/p>\n

In light of this history, Trump\u2019s attack on McCain seems especially obtuse, especially given that McCain was held in a North Vietnamese prison for five years and tortured while Trump himself received a deferment during the Vietnam War because of a sore foot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Trump misunderstood American feelings toward veterans because John McCain lost his presidential race in 2008, just as John Kerry, a former Vietnam Navy veteran, did in 2004. Being a war hero and veteran in itself might not be enough to win the presidency, but Trump should not conclude from these losses that denouncing McCain as a kind of faux war hero was not going to get blowback.<\/p>\n

The appeal of straight talkers<\/h2>\n

So why do Trump\u2019s poll numbers remain high?<\/p>\n

A Fox News poll<\/a> conducted just as news of Trump\u2019s attacks began to spread showed Trump leading the Republican primary field over his rivals. He captured 18% among Republican primary voters, closely followed by Scott Walker at 15 and Jeb Bush by 14. No other Republican candidate broke into double-digit figures.<\/p>\n

Whether Trump can maintain this lead remains to be seen. But he has one thing going for him: He is the anti-politician\u2019s politician. Americans are attracted to candidates who \u201ctell it like it is,\u201d no matter how cockamamie their ideas. Witness Bernie Sanders and Trump.<\/p>\n

In my study of American conservatism and research for my forthcoming book, Future Right: Forging a New Republican Majority, the single most consistent attribute of American voters is their dislike and distrust of politicians.<\/p>\n

Trump is playing on this sentiment.<\/p>\n

How Americans parse their respect for veterans with their disgust for politicians will be played out in the coming months with the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Donald Critchlow<\/a> is Professor of History at Arizona State University<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\nRead the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Critchlow, Arizona State University Donald Trump\u2019s recent derogatory and off-the-wall attack on John McCain\u2019s heroism, denigrating him because he was captured during the Vietnam War, struck an especially sour note in Trump\u2019s self-serving presidential campaign. It also placed Trump\u2019s supporters in a awkward position \u2013 pitting their respect for war heroes and members of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":5340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46,47,36,4],"tags":[479,1126,892,885,891,1127,1125],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4023"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4024,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4023\/revisions\/4024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}