The AUSA (Association of the United States Army – a pro-military and military voluntary organization) recently published:
“A new survey by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute found that 46% of Americans have “a great deal of confidence in the U.S. military.”
“What to Watch: While that figure has declined by almost 25% since 2018, the military remains the most trusted public institution in the U.S., ahead of the police and law enforcement, the president, the Supreme Court, news organizations and Congress, the survey found.“
We here at TPOL are unsure of just how low in the ratings any of these other organizations are, but sadly most surveys do not allow negative numbers to be used.
The amazing thing is not that the military has lost 25% in 5 years, but that it has not lost much more. Still, as compared to the rest of government, we old soldiers can experience (and express) a sigh of relief. Things could be worse. Much worse.
But as TPOL has pointed out numerous times, especially in the last three years, no one can really trust the military anymore. And what verification is possible indicates the rot is well advanced and continuing. The military is a close-knit community, and we hear much about how things are going inside the services: active, reserve, Natoional Guard, civilian employees, and retired.
Overall, matters are not going well. More and more political correctness and being used as guinea pigs for social experiments is driving many off . The same actions are creating major problems in readiness: training and finance, testing, exercises, deployment, and even care for family members. This is made worse by an attitude in the White House and senior appointed officials – even in the Pentagon itself – that reminds us highly of the attitude in the Obummer regime: disdain, even contempt, and at the same time more and more demands for action and results.
This and other issues are not unique to this and the last Democratic control of the White House. GOP regimes also mistreat the military personnel and take actions that have greatly damaged the capability of the armed services to serve the nations of the federal union. While more “respect” was shown, and while both Dem and GOP continue to shovel money “at the military” the demands and actions of both old parties have weakened and damaged the military. The incredible expenditure of money is itself a corruptive influence. And of course, most of that money goes to welfare queens such as private corporations and local governments. Often producing products that cannot perform the mission: electric vehicles being a prime example.
The very military virtues which are the bedrock of effective and trustworthy armed forces for a free people seem to be targeted for eradication by the politicians and bureaucrats. With the enthusiastic participation of industry, commerce, political and social activists and politicians. Ignoring the lessons of history, they seek to emasculate the military and turn it into something disgusting in its immorality while being effective only as a tool for politicians to exercise control and provide profits to themselves and those they front for.
Yet Americans still trust the soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, guardians, and Coasters more than the politicians and bureaucrats who use those military personnel and their weapons and control them under our system of government.
There is something deadly wrong here. Ultimately, these States will pay the penalty for what has been and is being done.
The Price of Liberty 
When has the military ever NOT been a “social experimentation” laboratory?
IIRC, it was in 1954 — more than 150 years after its formation — that the military decided that maximizing war-fighting ability was less important than excluding a particular sexual orientation to appease the political correctness of the day. That social experiment, in various forms, went on for 50 years or so.
In the early 1990s, I had to sit through hours of boring classes which seemed a tad more about making me into a feministy by way of explaining that I really shouldn’t grab my female Marine comrades’ behinds without permission. Not because everyone didn’t already know that, but because the Tailhook scandal provided an opening for (the military itself uses the term) indoctrination.
If I was still in, I wouldn’t give a damn if the person next to me in the foxhole was male, female, trans, gay, straight, bi, whatever … as long as that person was willing and able to fix bayonet and repel the enemy’s assault. The “social experiment” stuff is time-wasting and war-losing BS.
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You are correct, though it was less blatant in the 1970s and even 1980s. It was there but not so prominently pushed. And Congress has done that clear back to at least the Mexican War in the 1840s, for different reasons.
And your last point is exactly the problem: the more Congress experiments, the more likely the military is unable to carry out its legitimate missions. And more likely to be unable even to carry out the illegitimate roles that the politicians use them for.
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