Not a big surprise. The military - particularly the enlisted ranks - is comprised overwhelmingly of white people from small towns in what Sarah Palin refers to as the "pro-American" parts of the country. That's been the case since the 1970s, when the end of the draft meant military demographics would forever be even more skewed by selection bias and the disaster of Vietnam permanently poisoned the upper-middle and upper classes against seeing the military as a respectable place for their sons (with the exception of the sort of uber-traditional, upscale Southerners whose kids go to The Citadel or West Point or VMI and become commissioned officers because that's what their families have done for generations).
Someone like Barack Obama has little appeal to the swaggering 25 year old with the shaved head and the enormous biceps who drives a lifted pickup with a Semper Fi sticker on the back and leaves the bar at the end of the night with a girl with highlighted hair and a butterfly tattooed on the small of her back. His name is probably something like Cody or Dustin or Kyle. He probably owns more guns than he does books. And those books probably have Glenn Beck's big, squishy face on the cover.
You really couldn't hide your contempt for these folks for less than two paragraphs, could you? (not that the rest of your description isn't contemptuous, but it becomes quite clear with the climax of the last sentence)
It's my contempt for Glenn Beck (and his big, squishy face) that I couldn't hide. I think the rest of my illustration was largely observation-based. I have no contempt for Cody/Dustin/Kyle. Someone willing to put himself in harms way and endure extremely dangerous and trying circumstances for extended periods of time can read whatever books he damn well wants.
