Our military was not built for such a partisan nation

Politicians use the troops and, in many of 2018’s congressional races, soldiers became politicians, because almost alone among U.S. institutions, the armed forces enjoy the public’s trust. Seventy-four percent of those surveyed by Gallup in 2018 expressed “confidence” in the military vs. 11 percent for Congress.

Admiration for the military is, in part, a vestige of the armed forces’ avoidance of partisan politics in recent decades. Military nonpartisanship, in turn, reflected the prevailing postwar centrist consensus, under which the Pentagon accumulated vast resources and influence.

This behemoth was not constructed for a nation where partisanship has grown so strong that it can overpower even the strongest personal ethos or institutional norm. Yet that is the kind of nation we are becoming.