No Time for Protestants

An interesting observation, on the assumption that Romney might win: the power structure of the United States would not include any Protestants in the top elected leadership. The point that the author thinks is very interesting is that nobody seems to have noticed, and in spite of this being a majority-Protestant nation, nobody seems to care.

But notice, too, that unless Romney should choose a veteran for his Vice President, neither presidential candidate nor their vice presidents should have ever served in the military. Mr. Wolf of BLACKFIVE and I were talking about this on the phone the other day. Biden avoided service through five deferments during Vietnam; Obama, of course, was too young for Vietnam and did not elect to serve. Romney had five deferments as well, and then drew a high draft number. If his VP pick is also a non-veteran, it will be the first time I can remember when we didn't at least have the option of a military veteran on the ticket. Bush and Kerry both served; Bob Dole served; George H. W. Bush served; Reagan served; Carter served; Ford served; Nixon served; Kennedy served; I'm not sure how far you'd have to go back to find an election with no servicemen at the top of the ticket, let alone present at all.

Nobody's made a big deal about this either, even though whoever should win this election will have troops deployed in Afghanistan and rising tensions with Iran. I wonder why.

8 comments:

douglas said...

I suppose in part because our current President has made the economy such a critical issue, we're not paying as much attention to foreign policy.

bthun said...

"I suppose in part because our current President has made the economy such a critical issue, we're not paying as much attention to foreign policy."

I'd guess that is a factor, along with the ever smaller percentage of mil vets in the overall population.

That ever shrinking percentage of vets to non-vets, compared to the WWII/Korea/Vietnam generations, naturally results in a diminishing percentage of vets who are willing and able to run for public office. And then to achieve the experience and credentials needed to run for high public office, present POTUS excluded as exception to the rule, will slim the odds even further.

Anonymous said...

I'd guess you would need to go back to Hoover or FDR? I did a quick skim and from Andrew Johnson to TR, every president served in either the Civil War or Spanish-American War. Lincoln had served in the militia. Taft, Wilson, Cooledge, and Hoover did not serve in the military, but I didn't check their VPs.

LittleRed1

Tom said...

I wonder if Protestants are losing out in education, or are in some other way failing to prepare / be prepared for these positions.

Grim said...

Certainly there are fewer! Mainline Protestants have been dropping sharply in membership for a generation. That probably has an effect on what we're observing here.

Gringo said...

I'm not sure how far you'd have to go back to find an election with no servicemen at the top of the ticket, let alone present at all.

FDR-Dewey in 1944- ironically the only presidential election held during US participation in World War II. FDR had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy during WWI, which might be considered military service of sorts.

Lower on the Demo ticket we find Harry Truman, who had served in WWI. Bricker, the Pub VP candidate, also served in WWI.

Grim said...

That is pretty ironic. Truman was a good soldier, though: he was the one who pulled his unit together and got them to hold the line in the face of German pressure.

Gringo said...

Truman was a good soldier, though: he was the one who pulled his unit together and got them to hold the line in the face of German pressure.

Truman was indeed a good soldier, a good leader and decision maker. I am reading David McCullough's biography of Truman. Truman took the initiative to fire at a German artillery unit which was located outside his unit's assigned line of fire. A martinet of a Colonel threatened court martial for this initiative, a threat which disappeared when the wisdom of Truman's decision became evident. Truman also stood up to the martinet Colonel [not Klink but Klemm!] when, contrary to the Colonel's orders, Truman had ordered a rest break for his unit during an all night march.