gin and malicious intent.

motherjones:

Chart: Contributions from military members to presidential candidates.

Not quite what you expected, eh? Full story here.

I see this everywhere, and this is exactly what I would expect. Most people actively enlist in the military either post high school or post college, with the average enlistment age being 21 years old, the average time spent enlisted is just under two years. They’re also, worth noting, growing more diverse but still mostly white men (source for all those demographics).

Here’s some important other things to keep in mind: In the military, President Obama’s approval rating floats around 25%, while for the general population it is closer to 50%. I’m going to use my Sherlock Holmes style power of deduction to come to the conclusion that this means the average military member is more conservative than the average civilian.

But that’s not really all we can look at here. Not only are most military members conservative, they are YOUNG conservatives (as stated earlier, the typical tour of duty for a soldier would be between the ages of 21 and 25). Now, I know this website is kind of shady, but according to this internet data mining, more young people support Ron Paul than any other (Republican) candidate.

So is this data surprising? No. No it is not.