Veteran Advocate
The population of recent combat veterans in the U.S. is higher than at any time since the Vietnam
era. So it should not be surprising that there seem to be an unprecedented
number of veterans running for local and state offices this election cycle, including
Illinois congressional candidate and Iraqi vet Tammy Duckworth, California's
Republican nominee for the 53rd Congressional District and Iraqi vet Nick
Popaditch, and Iraqi vet and Arizona State House candidate Mark Cardenas.
Meanwhile, the number of service people who hold public
office continues to decline. Close to 90 percent of the members of the U.S.
House and Senate were military members
in 1969; currently, according the Congressional Research Service, only some 20
percent of members serve or have served in the military. The peak of post-military politicians peaked
in the postwar era; by the end of the Second World War, there were roughly 16
million service people who "came home" to serve, including in
political offices.
"Working in public office is just another way these men
and women are serving their country," stated veterans' lawyer James
Fausone.
The push to get more veterans into public office is helmed
by Veterans Campaign, a
non-partisan organization working to train veterans to run for public office. Their
stated goal includes supporting and encouraging veterans by running workshops,
lectures and research to demystify the campaign process. Veterans Campaign
supports veterans as valuable and electable leaders, possessing exemplary
leadership backgrounds, the ability to work with many different types of people
and a depth of understanding the bureaucratic steps and tangles so familiar to
anyone working with foreign policy affairs and government systems.
According to a Harvard study cited by Veterans Campaign,
Americans are only becoming more confident in military personnel; currently,
they state, 82 percent of U.S. citizens report confidence in the members of the
armed forces. Younger Americans, ages 18 to 25, also report that they believe
U.S. politics is excessively partisan. According to Veterans Campaign, this
dissatisfaction with the current atmosphere is an opportune time to help
veterans continue to serve their country, this time in office.
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