By one measurement, the answer would have to be that they are.

The residential patterns for current veterans and the patterns of state-level contributions of new recruits to the all-volunteer military have a distinct geographic tilt. And tellingly, the map of military service since 1973 aligns closely with electoral maps distinguishing red from blue states.

In 1969, the 10 states with the highest percentage of veterans were, in order: Wyoming, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, California, Oregon, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio, Connecticut and Illinois.

In 2007, the 10 states with the highest percentage of post-Vietnam-era veterans were, in order: Alaska, Virginia, Hawaii, Washington, Wyoming, Maine, South Carolina, Montana, Maryland and Georgia.

Over the past four decades, which states have disappeared from the top 10? California, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Illinois, all big blue states that have voted Democratic in the past five presidential elections. These states and another blue state, New York, which ranked 12th in 1969, are among the 10 states with the lowest number of post-Vietnam vets per capita. New Jersey comes in 50th of the 50 states; just 1 percent of current residents have served in the military since Vietnam.

Now IÂ’ll be the first to concede that there are any number of ways to interpret those statistics, as well as a host of reasons for them. And IÂ’ll also concede that military service and love of country are not the same thing. But it does show a certain cultural divide that exists in this country that runs deeper than mere voting patterns. After all, we heard statements time and again about who was serving in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Turns out that it was the people of the states who were voting in support of those conflicts by voting in support of the GOP.

Posted by: Greg at 02:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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