by Mohamed Younis
Story Highlights
- Public confidence in the U.S. military continues to decline
- Drops seen across party groups, but Republicans remain most confident
- Independents least likely to express confidence this year
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Americans are now less likely to express “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the U.S. military, with a noticeable decline that has persisted for the past five years. The latest numbers are from a June 1-22 Gallup poll that also captured record lows in public confidence in several public institutions.
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I agree, but maybe the ambiguity and subjectivity of the word “confidence” is the point.
It’s like when researchers measure the “happiest country in the world.” Happiness is subjective, but that’s the whole point. Whatever makes you happy is happiness and an objective, rigid definition would compromise the research. Maybe it’s the same with “confidence”?
I think a few of us are on the same page that it is purposefully vague, but that vagueness also makes the results nearly meaningless. Maybe not totally, but far more than if they had specific questions.
It’s not necessarily meaningless as there’s value in tracking the change in the measure. Even if the objective measure is not as useful.