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New Study Shows Democrats Will Have to Look Someplace Besides Military Vets for ‘Domestic Extremists’

24 May 2023
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(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

 Becky Noble | RedState

To Democrats and the left, the United States military is kind of a necessary evil. They will concede that the military is needed in the most minimal of capacities, for things like social experiments, such as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and Drag Queen Story Hour on military bases. But for actual protection and defense of the homeland, they would rather not have anything to do with the military. Although, in recent years, the left has discovered that America’s veterans are great for placing the blame for incidents like the Jan. 6 riot, and anything else they want to label “domestic terrorism.” And as we approach Memorial Day, a day where we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, a new study is out that shows that, when it comes to knowing anything about America’s fighting men and women, Democrats are wrong again.

The RAND Corporation is a non-profit firm that conducts Department of Defense research. They recently surveyed 1,000 veterans from all demographics. The results of the survey found that there was no evidence that veterans were more likely to support or be a member of groups labeled as extreme, than any other Americans. The impetus for the study appears to be the supposed number of veterans who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and soon following, a number of Democrat lawmakers pressured Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to call for a “stand down” of the military for 60 days in order to root out the suspected white supremacists and extremists throughout all branches of the military. In 2022, House Democrats still insisted that “Empirical evidence suggests that individuals with military backgrounds have become increasingly involved with violent extremist plots and attacks in recent years.”

Todd Helmus is a senior behavioral scientist at RAND, and he is also the study’s lead author. He said about the study:

Given the anecdotal information about extremist group recruitment preferences and their active targeting of veterans, we would have assumed that these reported prevalence rates would be higher. Those initial reports spurred a lot of fear and concern. But no one’s actually looked at the numbers.

Here are the numbers those Democrat lawmakers get for their assumptions: RAND looked at the support and participation by vets for several groups. Of those groups, there was one percent support for white supremacists, 4.2 percent for the Proud Boys, five percent for black nationalist groups, and 5.5 percent for Antifa. The study also looked at support for things like QAnon and Great Replacement Theory. Veteran support for QAnon was at 13.5 percent and Great Replacement Theory at 28.8 percent. What’s more interesting, is when the numbers of veterans that support these groups are compared to the general public. Antifa support runs as high as 10 percent, and white supremacist groups as high as seven percent. QAnon support was below the general population, and Great Replacement Theory was about equal. Could Democrats be hunting extremists in all the wrong places?

While the results of the study revealed that Democrats might be targeting military veterans as supporters of extremist groups, Helmus and his coauthors of the study acknowledged that many of those groups actively recruit veterans because of the specialized skill sets they possess, and to lend legitimacy to their organizations. Helmus also stated, “However, our findings do suggest work still may be needed to make sure veterans are not susceptible to being recruited by those with extremist ideologies.”

Here is the real problem Democrats have with the military and veterans: The majority of both active duty members and veterans consider themselves to be Republicans or conservatives. A 2018 Military Times article stated that in a survey of 892 active duty personnel, 45 percent said they would support Republican candidates, compared to 28 percent who said they supported Democrat candidates. There was a decline in 2020 of support for Republicans by the military that some attributed to lack of support for former President Donald Trump. But Joe Biden just might have brought those numbers back up. And actually, military veterans may be agreeing with more average Americans these days, about just exactly, who the real “extremists” are.

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