(ANTIMEDIA) Popular online military personality, Doctrine Man, conducted a poll among troops to determine which presidential candidate they support most — and the results are nothing short of remarkable.
Instead of pledging allegiance to the candidate with the most experience sending troops to war, Doctrine Man’s poll showed that Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate — whose “skeptic” foreign policy outlook makes him favor nonintervention over other more popular approaches — is the number one candidate of the active soldier.
The survey, which was not a scientific poll and lacked a margin of error, found Johnson had 38.7 percent of the votes while the Republican nominee Donald Trump earned 30.9 percent. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton got 14.1 percent, The Hill summarized.
According to The Hill, this poll is important because “it provides a snapshot of the preferences of about 3,500 active duty, reservists, retired and former members of the military and their family members, 95.7 percent of which were registered voters.”
With the exception of the Navy, Johnson fared better than Trump and Clinton among all services.
Among Army members, former members, and reservists, Johnson got 35.4 percent of the vote, with Trump following close behind at 31.4 percent. Over 44 percent of members of the Marine community gave preference to Johnson while Trump got 27.1 percent of the vote. Among the Air Force, 39 percent chose Johnson as their president while 29.9 percent preferred Trump. Among the Navy community, however, Trump beat Johnson with 32.4 percent of the vote versus 31.7 who went with the libertarian candidate.
Hillary Clinton garnered about 12 to 15 percent of the vote among most sectors, except among the Navy community, where 22.9 percent of likely voters claimed to prefer the Democrat.
Unlike their loved ones, family members of active duty troops who took part in the survey picked Clinton, giving the Democrat 29.4 percent of support. Trump followed closely, earning 27.5 percent. Johnson came in third with 24.5 percent. Among military members who retired after 20 years, Trump beat the other two candidates with 37.4 percent of the vote while Johnson obtained 32.2 percent and Clinton only received 11. Among members who served and left the military before the 20-year mark, Johnson again came out on top with 36.1 percent of troop support.
Another survey conducted by the Military Times recently produced similar results, with “[m]ore than 61 percent” claiming “they are ‘dissatisfied’ or ‘very dissatisfied’ with Trump” and more than 82 percent who “said the same about Clinton.”
In 2011 and 2012, libertarian Ron Paul, who at the time was a primary presidential candidate for the Republican Party, made headlines for having a great deal of support among troops.
“Representative Ron Paul, the congressman who favors the most minimalist American combat role of any major presidential candidate,” The New York Times reported in 2011, “has more financial support from active duty members of the service than any other politician.”
In 2012, left-leaning news organization Mother Jones cited the fact that “Americans in the service have grown tired of a decade of war” as one of the reasons behind the troops’ support for Paul.
In recent history, troops have increasingly leaned libertarian in presidential elections, prompting the public to ponder whether we would be involved in fewer wars if troops had the power to pick the leader of the armed forces.
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