Well At Least They Like One Thing…

The Military Times did their annual survey of servicememnbers and President Obama got high ratings in one area according to CNN…

But the publication's readers are more supportive of the social changes the President has enacted in the military.

Support among active-duty troops for allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the military has grown to 60% three years after "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was reversed. About 41% of servicemembers said some combat roles should be off-limits for women.

The Military Times survey report said that,

During years of intense political debate about gays in the military, the military's top brass repeatedly voiced firm opposition and warned that such a sweeping change could create a serious morale crisis. But in the three years since the law changed, military leaders have seen virtually no problems.

"We have heard no reporting of the kinds of disruptions that were predicted," Kohn said. "It has been unsurprisingly smooth. It's not surprising because military people have always known of gay people and lesbians in their units, and have either accepted them, or abused them based on the quality of their leadership. There's been a change of public opinion, and the fact that the force is made up largely of young people," who tend to be more tolerant of homosexuality."

Another cultural change that the troops are accepting is women in combat positions,

From 2011 to 2014, the percentage of survey respondents who felt that all jobs in combat arms units should be opened to women remained unchanged at 24 percent.

But the percentage of troops who felt some combat-arms jobs should be opened up to women — while allowing the military to continue to place some jobs off-limits — increased from 34 percent to 41 percent, while the percentage of respondents who felt the military should not change its policies excluding women from combat arms units fell from 43 percent in 2011 to 28 percent in 2014.

One finding that CNN reported that I had mixed feelings of was the political party affiliation of our troops,

The survey revealed another interesting trend in troops' political identities, revealing that fewer identify as Republicans and more are calling themselves libertarians or independents today.

The report said,

"The military follows national trends but lags and skews conservative," he [Duke University political science professor Peter Feaver] said. "The libertarians' sensibility fits with some of the military's profile more naturally, particularly the 'don't tread on me' kind of mentality."

Army Maj. Wayne Lacy describes himself as a libertarian but said he has seen some of his fellow soldiers gravitate away from the Republican Party line and toward tea party candidates.

I’m glad less servicemembers are Republicans but I am disturbed that some of them are identifying with the libertarians and the Tea Party.