Democrats discuss who the military would side with

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I think you are right that whoever has control of the military would win but it's hard to say who that would be. The people in leadership in the military are all officers with education / college degrees who do not like Trump. A lot of enlisted soldiers don't have a high level of education and do like Trump. As a veteran myself (I was enlisted, not an officer) one of the things that drives me crazy is how Republicans have sort of "claimed" the idea of the military and of patriotism, I think democrats should fight harder on that front.

All that to say it's really tough to say who would come out on top with the military, I think a lot of people assume it would be the right, but as a veteran myself I'm not so sure.

I also really hope my comments about education aren't offensive, they are just statistics that can help give context to the situation. (I personally do not have a college education so I'm certainly not trying to be condescending!)

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Also a veteran here, and I don't like to advertise it, but because it's very relevant to this situation, still enlisted in the reserves. I have almost a decade total time in.

There a so many variables to what the military would do, can do, and how it would be done. I truly believe the armed forces aspect of this whole situation is probably the most unpredictable, but I reckon I'll try.

The scenario is Trump loses and refuses to leave the Whitehouse. He's got Secret Service for life having been president and even if he loses the election, he's president until January. I think how the Secret Service handles his refusal, whether this month or in three months, will set the baseline for what military action could potentially be.


Now let's talk military makeup. In my time in, I've seen the service become increasingly progressive. It's slow as goddamn molasses, sometimes one step forward, two steps back, but some of us are really trying to move in a positive direction, be it like Sisyphus rolling his boulder.

Every branch has a personality. Anybody who's been in for more than a minute knows the Navy has the worst retention rates because they have the worst service culture. That said, the Army and the Navy are so large, it's impossible to say which direction they swing more politically. My bet is it will depend heavily on rate/MOS and officer specialty - so basically what their job revolves around, just like in civilan life, blue collar and combat specific jobs are usually draw more conservatives whereas medicine, law, and many support rates are have a tendency to pull more progressives.

The Air Force, Coast Guard, and Space Force now too I guess, are the highest educated on average. Still going to draw certain political leanings to certain jobs, but you take a branch like the Space Force or Coast Guard which has largely science based roles and missions and you are probably going to see a progressive trend in membership.

And finally the Marines. The wild card. I genuinely don't know. My perspective is extremely biased because all of my Marine friends are *extremely* liberal and no longer serving and at this point in my life I don't know any personally still in. In my experience Marines are either hardcore manic conservatives or the military fricked them up so bad they'd rather die than vote red. Not a ton of in-between - in my experience of course, which is limited.

Soooo all that fleshed out, my personal, somewhat educated guess, is that you probably won't see any major split in the six branches of active duty and ready reserve. I think you may - *may* - see a rise in AWOL and desertion depending on the situation. But for the most part, I expect most service members will look to their leadership on what to do and as long as it makes sense, most will probably do it. If January comes to head and Trump still refuses to leave and is inciting all types of violence across the country the Secret Service says we don't know, I assume Joe Biden would swear in and order the Chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff to send in whatever military unit to go and forcibly remove Trump from the Whitehouse.

Of course that sounds simple but with tens of thousands of raging supporters on Pennsylvania Avenue and likely chaos nationwide, that's a whole different ball game.

Then there's something a friend of mine brought up the other day, what if Trump leaves the Whitehouse voluntarily but sets up Mar-a-lago as the Trumphouse and has enough traitorous Florida guard soldiers and fanatic paramilitary supporters to keep himself from being arrested and in a position to continue to do what he's been doing the last for years and running amok. I don't think that would happen, but I definitely didn't immediately dismiss the concept, so there's your testament to how bad I think the next few months are going to be.

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It seems like veteran's rights are getting more and more common as a talking point of the democrats, and veterans have been standing up against trump and joining leftists (if they weren't already leftists) in protest. I'm pretty much as far left as you get, but healthcare and support for veterans is an extremely important issue to me. In general I want the people in the military to be healthy and safe. Leftists just typically don't want wars, that's all.

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Most leftist people are know are very supportive of the military, which is why they don't want wars (less physical and mental health problems for soldiers and veterans) but are also in favor of healthcare and support for veterans, because to them both positions are linked.

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Trump support among enlisted tanked. More military personnel dislike him than do.

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I completely agree. Having military friends is very frustrating. I’ve asked them what they know they are and aren’t able to do and a lot of it doesn’t make sense. I understand that they can’t be in uniform and seen protesting or publicizing their political opinion against either party. But with trump/republicans being against human rights issues which isn’t a republican vs democrat thing, I don’t see why they can’t support those things.
If they fight for our country, and supposedly our rights, then why are they so shy to speak up about it? And I’ve also been informed that the military isn’t EXACTLY under lock and key if the president. Their chiefs,bosses and head of whatever make their calls. And that’s kind of reassuring but that could also mean that they could choose to give orders/comply with the trump campaign that repeatedly invites hatred and discrimination etc.
so if there’s a war and they give the call to shoot down blm,lgbt,etc. then we’re given a lot less hope and support. But even then, I feel like a GREAT amount of those soldiers will lay down their arms for the greater good.

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