# How important to you is military service of a Presidental candidate? {Poll now in OP} **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 23, 2022, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-you-is-military-service-of-a-presidental-candidate-poll-now-in-op/968439 "2022-07-23T16:18:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2022, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-you-is-military-service-of-a-presidental-candidate-poll-now-in-op/968439/41 "2022-07-24T16:22:23Z")
The poll wasn’t available when I first posted, but I’ve gone back and voted “I don’t care.” That’s because the mere fact that “Candidate X served in the armed forces” tells me next to nothing about that individual. People sign up for all kinds of reasons, from patriotic fervor to just wanting to get some GI benefits. And they leave the military with all kinds of perspectives from and on their service – Tammy Duckworth and Dan Crenshaw are both combat-wounded veterans and pretty far apart ideologically. I think the charge that military service conditions individuals to a constrained way of thinking is a bit overstated, although it’s truer the longer someone has been in the service. But this is true of any profession – such as a candidate who spent his entire career in the Senate [cough]. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2022, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-you-is-military-service-of-a-presidental-candidate-poll-now-in-op/968439/42 "2022-07-24T16:53:33Z")
I don’t care if a candidate served or not. If you’re a hawk, I don’t want you. I posted before the vote was available. To me, it’s a net negative. Maybe thirty years ago, I might have felt different. Of course there are exceptions just like there are Democrats in Kansas, but nowadays the enlisted ranks seem to skew politically far to the right. As far as officers, they’re used to saying “jump” and having people under them say “how high?” That isn’t how politics works. So having military experience is likely to either make you skew to the right or have no clue how government works. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-you-is-military-service-of-a-presidental-candidate-poll-now-in-op/968439/43 "2022-07-25T02:43:27Z")
> [@Kedikat](#): > > I would also give much consideration to a conscientious objector, who accepted some penance for that. I really do not understand why you would expect someone to “make penance” for a sincerely held belief regarding war. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-you-is-military-service-of-a-presidental-candidate-poll-now-in-op/968439/44 "2022-07-25T03:16:39Z")
Penance is not the word I should have used. But did some alternate service. Not just ducked out completely. It really comes down to what a candidate convinces me of their character. Military service is not a guarantee of good or bad character. Neither is avoidance. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-you-is-military-service-of-a-presidental-candidate-poll-now-in-op/968439/45 "2022-07-25T03:35:31Z")
I still don’t understand why someone would be required to serve, even alternative service, if they object to such. Yes, I do understand there are different types of conscientious objection. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-you-is-military-service-of-a-presidental-candidate-poll-now-in-op/968439/46 "2022-07-27T07:18:33Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Very little on its own, but if it enhances a candidate’s apparent electability, then it might influence my support. This. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-you-is-military-service-of-a-presidental-candidate-poll-now-in-op/968439/47 "2022-07-27T18:54:34Z")
I kind of feel like in past generations, it was something that could be looked at as proof that you put the group/society ahead of yourself (even if Uncle Sam made you). Since so many men in those eras were part of the military, I can see how not serving might look suspect to many people. But now, with so few people serving in the military relative to years past, it doesn’t really work the same way- someone has to want to serve, and be qualified to do so. Which is great, but I don’t begrudge anyone for choosing a more lucrative, prestigious, or less demanding career path these days. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2022, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-you-is-military-service-of-a-presidental-candidate-poll-now-in-op/968439/48 "2022-07-28T10:10:19Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > My feeling is that the American public by and large does not really care about the military or about someone’s status as a veteran. It was very different 50 years ago, when military service had been a rite of passage for a larger percentage of the population, but today the military is more niche and its activities more obscure and abstract to the public. It might be very different in state and local elections, depending on the kind of community Case in point, Representative Elaine Luria, D-VA, who recently became a star of the Congressional hearings. She’s a creature of the Navy, which she emphasized heavily in her campaign in the Hampton Roads area, which is only one of the biggest concentrations of active service and veteran populations in the nation. For my part, I put “I don’t care.” It’s irrelevant in and of itself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-you-is-military-service-of-a-presidental-candidate-poll-now-in-op/968439.md?page=2)