The politicization of the U.S. military is not a one-party problem. Both Republicans and Democrats have systematically pulled the armed forces into partisan territory, and the damage may already be showing in public trust, defense scholar Kori Schake has argued in The Atlantic, as "Hvylya" reports.
The examples span administrations. President Donald Trump has given campaign speeches to military audiences and "encouraged their participation in partisan activities." President Joe Biden had uniformed Marines standing behind him during a 2022 speech about democracy. Both parties showcase veterans at their conventions and seek their endorsements. More recently, several Democratic members of Congress recorded a video reminding the military not to obey illegal orders - a move Schake noted risked "making compliance with the law seem like a political act."
The results are not encouraging. Research cited by Schake indicates that veteran endorsements have a "small-to-negligible effect" on voters but may actually "negatively affect their attitudes about the military as an institution." In other words, the political utility is minimal while the institutional cost is real.
The most acute pressure comes from the current administration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of military leaders to Quantico for what amounted to political-rally-style speeches. He has cut Pentagon ties with elite universities, ordered the removal of books from military libraries, and cancelled courses at service academies on ideological grounds.
Schake warned that the military's resistance to politicization "rests almost wholly on the professionalism of the force itself." At Quantico, the assembled generals sat in total silence throughout the political program. But that professionalism has limits: the armed forces "will not long remain immune to our febrile politics if we keep dragging them into it."
Also read: Foreign Affairs Reveals Trump's Hidden War Doctrine - and Why It Inverts Everything Powell Built.