Veterans' Party Identification, Candidate Affect, and Vote Choice in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election

Abstract

The 2004 U.S. presidential election was a wartime contest that entailed a great deal of discussion about the role that previous military service plays in elections for both candidates and the electorate. Using polling data throughout 2004, this article examines party identification, candidate affect, and vote choice preferences among veterans and nonveterans in the electorate. Despite widespread assumptions depicting the veteran population as deeply Republican, those with military experience in 2004 largely mirrored their nonveteran peers in terms of partisan identification, warmth toward candidates, ballot intentions, and vote choice. One important exception manifested after the “Swift Boat” advertisement in September, which impelled significant numbers of veterans who identify with the Democratic Party to express the intention to vote for George W. Bush.

Modelling the Legacies of War Violence: Voters, Parties, Communities

“…This has been a staple of research on the veterans of the various 20 th and 21 st century wars in the American context (e.g. Jennings and Markus 1977;Klingler and Chatagnier 2014;Teigen 2006Teigen , 2007. Since no additional information was used in these studies to determine whether the respondent actually saw combat, however, their ability to draw conclusions on the relation between combat exposure and political behaviour among military personnel has been limited.…”

“…When it comes to the study of the political implications of prior military experience, we can say that it has a long -though patchy -tradition, particularly in the US context. After WWII, there was a concern that the men returning from Europe and the Pacific would be more authoritarian because of their service and combat exposure (Teigen 2007). Schreiber (1979) investigated this question by looking at the difference in the survey responses between men who served in the military and men who did not.…”

Politička participacija i stranačke preferencije ratnih veterana u Hrvatskoj

“…Ipak, čini se da najnovija generacija američkih ratnih veterana donosi neke promjene. Dok su politički stavovi i preferencije ratnih veterana na američkim predsjedničkim izborima 2004. godine još uvijek bili u skladu sa stavovima opće populacije (Teigen, 2007), a i istraživanja rađena na starijim generacijama veterana pokazivala su istovjetne političke vrijednosti i stavove, istraživanja provođena na novijim političkim izborima i s uključenjem novijih generacija veterana pokazuju da više nije tako. Američka je veteranska populacija postala više konzervativno orijentirana, u većoj se mjeri identificira s Republikanskom strankom i više podržava upotrebu vojne sile od ostatka populacije (Klingler i Chatagnier, 2014;Leal i Teigen, 2015).…”

Martial Law? Military Experience, International Law, and Support for Torture

“…As noted earlier, most existing surveys of the military involve elite officers, which comprise only around 6% of the armed forces (Feaver and Kohn ; Holsti ). While a great deal is gleaned from these sorts of surveys, the views of enlisted personnel often differ dramatically from those of their superiors across a wide range of issues (Teigen ). Other projects like the 2004 Citizenship and Service (C&S) survey employ a more representative sample including both officers and enlisted personnel (Dempsey ).…”

“…To lessen these concerns, the treatment group was told the prisoners are "not regular combatants," while the control group was told they are "regular combatants." 19 On reciprocity and wartime conduct, see Axelrod (1984:83-5 their superiors across a wide range of issues (Teigen 2007). Other projects like the 2004 Citizenship and Service (C&S) survey employ a more representative sample including both officers and enlisted personnel (Dempsey 2009).…”