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摘要

Past research contends that with the exception ofvoting in presidential elections, military officers’political participation is fairly muted. Moreover,most allegations of political outspokenness tend to belevied at retired officers, not those on active duty. Departmentof Defense directives provide guidelines on permissiblebut traditional forms of political expression foractive duty members of the military, but largely neglectsocial media as a forum for political activity. Througha survey of more than 500 military elites attending theUnited States Military Academy and National DefenseUniversity, this project seeks to establish the nature andextent of political expression by members of the militarythroughout social media and whether or not such expressionis in keeping with the norm of nonpartisanship. Findings suggest that while most military elites continueto identify as conservative and Republican, fewerappear to do so today than at any other time overthe past 30 years. Second, military elites actively usesocial media networking sites, although younger elitesare more prolific in their use. Third, while respondents’nonmilitary friends were more politically active thantheir military friends, both active duty and retired militaryactively participate in multiple forms of politicaland partisan expression, from posting comments onpolitical issues to “friending” political figures. Fourth,party identification and political ideology elicit differentresponses and behavior about politics on social media.Military elites who identify as liberals and Democratsare more likely to have more politically diverse militaryfriends on social media, but are also more likely to reportfeeling uncomfortable by their friends’ politics. Finally,a striking percentage of those surveyed—50 percentin some cases—indicated their active duty militaryfriends have engaged in insulting, rude, or disdainfulcomments directed at politicians, elected officials, andthe President, with liberals and Democrats more likelyto report they observed such normative violations. Together,these findings suggest Republican and conservativemilitary elites may be more likely to see social mediaas their echo chamber and raise further questions aboutthe politicization of the force. This study concludes byconsidering the implications these findings carry for thenorms of an apolitical, nonpartisan military.