(Republicaninformer.com)- According to a new survey conducted on behalf of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, while public trust in the US military has increased slightly from last year, it remains below 50 percent.
Confidence in the US military has been plummeting in recent years. In 2018, nearly 70 percent of Americans said they had a great deal of trust in the military. Last year’s drop to 45 percent was the first time Americans’ trust in the military dropped below 50 percent in the Reagan Foundation survey.
According to this year’s survey, about 48 percent of Americans say they have a great deal of trust in the military.
While many government institutions have seen a steep decline in public trust over the years, including the Supreme Court and Congress, according to the Reagan Foundation, “no other public institution” in its surveys has seen as sharp a decline in public trust” as the US military.
In the Reagan Foundation survey, which was conducted by Beacon Research, respondents were also asked why their trust in the military has eroded.
The leading answer was the over-politicization of military leadership, with 62 percent selecting that answer.
The other top reasons for the loss of trust included the performance and competence of the military’s civilian leadership as well as the performance of the president’s role as Commander-in-Chief.
Around 47 percent said the war wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were reasons trust in the military has fallen while others blamed it on the US military going “woke.”
According to an op-ed last month from the Wall Street Journal editorial board, many Americans think that the US military “is no longer an institution that runs on excellence, merit, and individual submission to a larger cause.”
The Reagan Foundation survey was conducted among over 2,500 US citizens from November 9 to November 17.
