Posted on 07/24/2015 8:58:57 AM PDT by Hojczyk
What makes those numbers even more amazing is that veterans are outliers on this. Among the wider public, McCain’s favorable rating is 40/45 while Trump’s is 34/60. You tell me:
Why don’t vets prefer McCain, even as the lesser of two evils? One theory is that veterans tend to be conservative, which means they have many years of political grievances against ol’ Maverick piled up. If that were true, though, we should see McCain struggling among Republicans generally. We don’t. His favorable rating among GOPers is 57/36, slightly better than Trump’s at 57/39. Another theory: Maybe vets appreciate Trump for his fearlessness in being politically incorrect. McCain has incorporated most of the pieties of Beltway Republicans into his political persona. Trump hasn’t (yet).
Veterans might respect the guy for going his own way no matter how much heat he takes for it. Or maybe this is simpler than all that — maybe, having watched America’s political class make a hash of foreign policy over the last 15 years, vets prefer someone who’s outside that class to someone who’s in it, even if the insider is a bona fide war hero. No one believes professional politicians anymore when they talk about making America great again. No one really believes Trump when he says it either, but at least he doesn’t have the stink of years of failure at the task on him.
I am a vet and I don’t care for McCain at all.
McCain is inevitably going to have a hard time with two groups of veterans (which of course have some overlap): (1) those markedly more conservative than him; (2) those who dislike hawkishness and unnecessary wars. Might surprise some to hear this, but Ron Paul had notable support among veterans.
I am a vet as well. McCain is a senile, hateful and spiteful man. I remember decades ago seeing him on Sunday morning shows when the RATS controlled everything. I saw a rising star in the GOP. What a pathetic disappointment. We’re onto his sham. The jig is up and has been for a long time. Shame on him!
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