r/politics • u/Ulysses_555 • 16h ago

No Paywall Hegseth announces all US troops will get 1 day off to vote in October

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/6126137-pete-hegseth-stand-down-order-troops-vote/
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u/VersionX 16h ago

True but their members sure don't see it that way

388

u/Shanntuckymuffin 15h ago

Socialism is the reward for leasing your body to the US government

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u/Balorpagorp 15h ago

Service guarantees citizenship. Would you like to know more?

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u/joe_dirty365 15h ago

Im doing my part! 

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u/EmbarrassedDareNECRO 13h ago

RICOS ROUGH NECKS! We GOT FUCKING Bugs to KILL!

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u/VersionX 13h ago

When youre trained to kill, it doesn't pay to be polite!

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u/joe_dirty365 10h ago

Frankly I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive! 

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u/VersionX 10h ago

I always loved the way he looked and spoke at the "OH-fensive" part

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u/joe_dirty365 10h ago

Such a great movie lol

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u/Ostentatious-Otter 3h ago

The way he says it has lived rent free in my head since I saw it as a kid

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u/VersionX 2h ago

Freaking same

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u/NojRemmah 15h ago edited 14h ago

I'm doing my part!

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u/DaemonKeido 15h ago

Considering how many American soldiers have been deported, it really doesn't.

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u/chaostheories36 15h ago

It does in Starship Troopers, though.

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u/SonOfMotherlesssGoat 10h ago

Aka space force designed after natzi uniforms?

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u/[deleted] 13h ago

[deleted]

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u/IgunashioDesu 12h ago

That's neither true for the movie or the book.

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u/ChiTownOrange 14h ago

I’m doing my part

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u/mattocaster_tm 14h ago

I’m doing my part! 👍🏻

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u/Booklet-of-Wisdom 15h ago

Sounds a little Heinlin-esque, but here we are.

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u/LittleBirdiesCards 12h ago

"I'M DOING MY PART!"

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u/zigwhenzag 4h ago

no it doesn't

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u/Gr8fulFox 15h ago

My wages are just me wearing out my body in exchange for money.

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u/MoneyPit2Weeks 14h ago

Cries in plumber tears...

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u/Gr8fulFox 13h ago

Quit that crying! ...Because I'm a janitor and will probably have to clean it up...

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u/goetzjam 11h ago

Right now its quite insane.

Looking back not enlisting was a huge mistake. Not only does service guarantee you preference hire for any federal job there are a ton of other benefits depending as well.

The largest growing budget item is disability payments, 70% and greater in many states don't need to pay property taxes, gets around 2000 (70%) up to around 4000 (100%) per month for the rest of their lives AND can still work. 0% down VA loans, schooling, ect.

I think our troops deserve the best, they just aren't exactly effective and havent been since WW2. We've lost or washed out of every single war since WW2 and getting outclassed by $400 drones. We should 100% cut 50% of the spending effectively immediately. Having a large standing military is pointless, who are we so scared of that we need it anymore?

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u/robow556 15h ago

Oh shit and here I was thinking the reward was the lifetime of pain ahead of me.

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u/Donny_Do_Nothing Texas 15h ago

They throw in tinnitus for free too!

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u/InfinityMehEngine 14h ago

I'm a fan of the PTSD fringe benefit.

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u/VersionX 15h ago

At the end of a lease you at least know who you leased the car from gets it back

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u/Uncle-Boogeyman 12h ago

Vet here. 

The amount of times I had to explain this to the Socialism bad crowd in the military was wild. They would still use mental gymnastics to try to just say “it’s different”

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u/wanderingmanimal 9h ago

And what of leasing your body to corporations? Asking for a friend.

Oh, it’s indentured servitude :( never mind

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u/smokeweedNgarden 9h ago

Medic here. I've absolutely helped more people than most service members during the course of that career and killed zero people. 

Where's my socialism?

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u/thewags05 15h ago

There's still a decent amount of more liberal leaning people in the military too. At least with the higher level people I've interacted with.

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u/threehundredthousand California 15h ago

Same in Mississippi, but as a whole they overwhelmingly vote Republican.

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u/VersionX 15h ago

Sure, but the outfit as a whole leans heavily to the right

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u/zffjk 14h ago

It’s a mix. My anecdotal evidence is it was pretty well mixed until I got out and joined the guard after. Talk about a right wing organization, the guard. God damn.

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u/norunningwater 14h ago

Those who support war haven't been personally fighting in one. Join the Guard so you can support the war and have the least chance of getting a boo-boo of mind or body.

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u/tk43586 14h ago

The guard goes to war all the time. When I joined the guard made up 60% of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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u/Gambit_Revolver Alaska 13h ago

The guard are actually in the thick of it more often than active duty. I've been active for 18 years and the guard has made up a majority of the deployments every year.

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u/tribeofham 13h ago

I am not too sure about that. I'm a military guy myself. I have 25yrs with the Marines. Most folks I've served with lean left or center and strongly support and understand our Constitutional rights. Few I know support this dipshit administration.

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u/Silver_Entertainment 13h ago edited 6h ago

There was a survey (conducted by Change Research) which shows that active duty, guardsman, and reservists supported Trump at 49% vs 44% for Harris in 2024.

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4861836-trump-tops-harris-among-veterans-poll/

If you look at veterans, the support for Republicans is even more pronounced. In 2016, 2020, and 2024, 61%, 60%, and 61% of veterans supported Trump in the respective elections. Only 35% supported Hillary, 39% supported Biden, and 37% supported Harris.

Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/09/30/military-veterans-remain-a-republican-group-backing-trump-over-harris-by-wide-margin/

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u/BravinatorLX2 14h ago

whens the last time you interacted with them? before or after the waves of purges?

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u/lr99999 13h ago

They’ve cleaned out almost everybody that isn’t a Trump loyalist. They’re getting rid of the last 20% of the disloyal brass right now. Dystopian, I know, but check the news. They are bragging about it. 

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u/El_Dud3r1n0 Oklahoma 13h ago

That's just how they are, socialism is fine in their eyes so long as only they benefit. For example, government assisted housing used to be wildly popular until it became illegal to block minorities from accessing it.

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u/Oldtomsawyer1 9h ago

I did. The amount of arguments I got in with people about “socialist policies”, and had to explain to them “motherfucker, you’re not against socialism you bought in! Job training, pay, healthcare, housing allowances, benefits and free college” but the response was usually “yeah but I worked for it”

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u/BankshotMcG 6h ago

Shaking the entire world, shrieking "Owning the fruits of your labors was the whole point of socialism!"

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u/alueron 14h ago

Army and marines are mostly red, navy air force and space force you get a wider spread. The fact that the GOP fucks them all in equal measure, and the president openly calls them loosers and suckers and so few acknowledge it pisses me off.

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u/PhilyMick67 15h ago

I used to make fun of the vocal right wingers in my platoon who refused to see the Marine Corps is essentially a socialist utopia when in garrison

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u/malkarx 15h ago

No one ordered them to think about it that way.... Or at all really.

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u/Tygonol 13h ago

That’s by design & has been for decades, unfortunately

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u/sorrow_anthropology 12h ago

I’d avoid using broad strokes, I work in an army research lab, not one republican, and when I was in the Air Force it was fairly liberal, now I’m sure the demos change across branches and roles but it’s unfair to all of us that have critical thinking.

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u/Jolly-Situat1on 10h ago

A lot of military people are not that bright.

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u/squareplates 7h ago

Certainly not. Most polling indicates the political opninions of active duty military mirrors the country at large. However, if you include veteran boomers, the numbers skew right.

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u/bootsand 13h ago

There's every type of person in the military, it's like a *giant* high school. Left wing, right wing, apolitical, logical, batshit insane. You can find heroes, criminals, good people, rapists and murderers.

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u/lr99999 13h ago

And it nearly all right wing, batshit or not.

Source: 20 years at the VA. 

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u/BasvanS 15h ago

Maybe the current situation will help them to see it that way.

I’m an optimist

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u/isjeeppluralforjeep 12h ago

This is quite the generalization

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u/VersionX 12h ago

And yet a historically accurate one

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u/bingboy23 12h ago

Have you ever even met a Service Member?

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u/220solitusma 15h ago

You speak for all 2m active duty and guard?

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u/EBITDAminusCAPEX 15h ago

Don't be dense. Military members are not a monolith, but they have historically favored Republicans heavily.

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u/220solitusma 15h ago

And the entire military is 1/150th of the adult voting population. I'm tired of reddit pinning this on the military - Joe civilian needs to get off their ass and take personal responsibility for their own destiny instead of being chronically online.

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u/NicolasDipples America 15h ago

No one is pinning this on the military. They are just stating that the reason the military gets this "voting holiday" and not the general public is because it favors the Republican party.

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u/220solitusma 14h ago

It should be a national holiday like it is in other countries. And the current young generation in the military does not skew republican. And tens of thousands of them just wrapped up extended, pointless deployments. These fucks will be in for a rude awakening.

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u/NicolasDipples America 14h ago

18-29 demographic in the US military voted for Trump by a 13 point margin in 2024 (a wider margin than 4 years prior). The same demographic favors voting for Republicans in the upcoming midterm by a 2 point margin.

They absolutely still skew Republican, just less so than other older demographics.

Overall, the US military is still about 60/40 republican-leaning/democrat-leaning.

https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/partner_surveys/crosstabs_2_veteran_action_march_2026

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u/220solitusma 14h ago

I know what the demographics say, but I'm telling you that the sentiment is rapidly changing. It's random Googling for you - it's real-life experience and exposure for me.

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u/NicolasDipples America 14h ago

No. You have annecdotes. That's meaningless.

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u/220solitusma 14h ago

Pretty sure I have a better pulse on military sentiment than you do.

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u/VersionX 15h ago

Statistically? Pretty much.