Will America ever elect another veteran as president?

Whether due to the inherent politicization of the wars we fought in or something else, my generation of vets is already intrinsically partisan, with right-leaning and left-leaning nonprofits and advocacy groups dotting the landscape like molehills. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have pierced the halls of Congress, though their politics and worldviews can differ widely. Democrats Senator Tammy Duckworth and Congressman Seth Moulton, for example, are both Iraq veterans, something they share with Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Joni Ernst. The place of their proving grounds might well be where the similarities end, though. Listening to the discussion about the Iran nuclear deal, for one, revealed that the hawkish Cotton took away lessons from combat much different than those of his colleagues across the aisle.

Will an Iraq or Afghanistan war veteran someday be commander in chief? Perhaps, though I’m personally dubious. We’ve entered a new phase in our nation’s relations to military service. Further, we understand better than ever in 2017 that the narratives of popular culture deeply affect and intersect with political narratives. Hence a president best known from reality television. The narratives of who a veteran is in contemporary America haven’t changed all that much since Vietnam, even if the pomp surrounding what a veteran is has. If a Global War on Terror veteran does someday lead the White House, it’ll be in spite of their time in uniform, not assisted by it.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam generation has become silver-haired elder statesmen, watching over a country trying desperately not to repeat the mistakes of the past. It now seems unlikely—though not impossible—that any vet of their era is elected President. Does that matter? How could it not? Yet McCain’s almost single-handedly holding back Congress from authorizing torture in military interrogations. Kerry’s combat tour certainly shaped his time and decisions as Secretary of State. Vietnam continues to affect and influence America’s leaders, vets or otherwise. Maybe it always will.