[barumi]

> A dog whistle for what? There's an awful lot of cagey presumption going on in every reiteration of this claim.

I'm not a US citizen nor I ever set foot in the US, and even from afar the quasi-fanarical displays of support for the US armed forces is a hallmark of supporters of the Republican party.

[brink]

As an American, American politics genuinely feels like a game of dodge ball where each team captain takes turns picking virtues that the other side has to be against.

The left picked immigration so the right has to hate immigration, the right picked the military so the left has to hate the military. It's like our politics have to be polar opposites on everything, and it's exhausting.

[vonseel]

I get you. And plenty of Republicans support the military but did not support Bush's invasion of Iraq / false hunt for WMDs and agree on limiting the size of our military.

This book had some great comments on military size and concomitant decline of power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Great...