Is Trust Eroding?

In this case the trust I am referring to is the trust of the American people for our military.

The Reagan Institute wanted to find out where our military stands with the population just before the last election….their findings listed below….

Americans’ trust and confidence in the military increased slightly over the past year, but remains near a five-year low, according to a new survey by the Ronald Reagan Institute

Conducted in early November after the U.S. midterm elections, the study found that 48 percent of the American public trusts and has confidence in the military, up from 45 percent last year but way down from 70 percent in 2018.

“No other public institution has seen this stark of a decline as we have seen for the U.S. military,” said Rachel Hoff, the institute’s policy director. “I’ll note that it does still rank at the top of the list of the institutions we poll.”

Why the decline? The perceived over-politicization of military leaders was cited by 62 percent of respondents as the top reason for their decline in confidence. And 59 percent cited “the performance and competence of presidents, as the Commander-In-Chief.”

Also of note: 57 percent of those surveyed said the U.S. “must continue to stand with Ukraine and oppose Russian aggression.” But 33 percent said that “America has enough problems at home and cannot afford to spend more on the conflict.” More Democrats favored continued support for Ukraine (73 percent) than Republicans (51 percent). Some 76 percent of respondents said they view Ukraine as an ally, up from 49 percent one year ago. And 82 percent view Russia as an enemy, up from 65 percent last year. Recall: in 2019, one in four surveyed viewed Russia as an ally of the United States.

Some 77 percent of those surveyed said they were concerned that Russia might use a nuclear weapon, while 74 percent said they were concerned the war in Ukraine might spill over into Eastern Europe and force the U.S. to get involved. And some 70 percent said they were concerned that the war in Ukraine is distracting U.S. policymakers “from the threat posed” by China.

“To me, the way I read it, despite these very real concerns, and the survey makes the respondents aware of those concerns, there’s still this continued support for Ukraine,” said Roger Zakheim, the institute’s Washington director. 

Some 71 percent of those surveyed said they are concerned that Russian aggression “will inspire other authoritarians to invade their democratic neighbors,” Hoff said. 

Finally, 54 percent of those surveyed said that the United States does not have a clear strategy for managing its relationship with China, while 27 percent said the U.S. does have a clear strategy. And 54 percent said they support efforts to reduce the amount of trade between the United States and China. Also: “a bipartisan majority of Americans support efforts to discourage a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.”

(defenseone.com)

At the same time another survey was taken of the American people on our involvement in world affairs…..

According to a new poll, perhaps not surprisingly, many Americans across party lines would like the U.S. to have a less interventionist and meddlesome foreign policy. 

The results of a Morning Consult survey show that there continues to be substantial public support for scaling back U.S. military entanglements. Large blocs of Republicans and Democrats are in favor of less involvement in the affairs of other countries in general, and a plurality of Americans supports decreasing overseas deployments and reducing involvement in foreign conflicts. 

While there were slight fluctuations over the course of the three-month survey, there were more voters that said they wanted a decreased military presence and a reduced role in foreign wars than chose the status quo or a larger role. The disconnect between what this plurality of voters wants and what the government is doing in different parts of the world is as big as it has ever been.

Unfortunately, the survey report frames these results in the crudest terms of “isolationism” vs. engagement. Morning Consult’s pejorative framing of this sentiment as support for “greater isolationism” seems likely to reinforce policymakers’ habits of dismissing public skepticism of U.S. entanglements out of hand. Calling something “isolationism” is never merely descriptive, and it is almost always inaccurate, so whenever it is deployed it is a sign of sloppiness or hostility, or both.

Survey: Americans want to scale back military entanglements

None of this means anything for us mere mortals are not listened to or given any considerations for our concerns.

The involvements will continue until all the profits have been milked out of the situations and then move on to the next sacred cow to be milked.

Your concerns mean NOTHING!

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

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6 thoughts on “Is Trust Eroding?

  1. Do not be dismayed — if the shells start falling in their back yards, the American appreciation for their military will increase by exponential leaps and bounds. And as far as surveys go, I wo uldn’t wipe my (You know what) with any surveys because surveys can be made to say whatever people who make them want them to say in order to try to prove some point or the other … and besides that, more than half the people who respond to surveys are armchair idiots who think they know things they have no idea about and who like to blow off opinions just so someone can think they are smart or something …so I say again, let the bombs start falling and they will all be in love with our military once more.

    1. The American people could care less these days…..as long as their kid is safe on Wall Street they look the over way…..as it is now they could care less. chuq

      1. Americans are totally unprepared for any kind of war on home soil — no functional civil defense program — no public bomb shelters of any significance — no survival training — nothing but vain, arrogant idiots — titting ducks!

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