Earlier this week, a group of 124 retired admirals and generals — calling themselves “Flag Officers 4 America” — published an open letter that questioned the legitimacy of the presidential election and criticized President Biden and the Democratic Party.
It’s tempting to dismiss the signatories as a tiny percentage of the retired senior officer corps, and an even smaller voice within U.S. veterans or the active force. But our research suggests the letter could have a lasting impact — but not the effect its authors intended.
Civil-military relations theory, in studying how the armed forces interact with political leaders and broader society, sometimes draws neat distinctions between active-duty and retired generals and admirals. Our surveys, however, show the public doesn’t make these same distinctions. CONTINUED
Jim Golby (U. of Texas at Austin) & Peter Feaver (Duke), Monkey Cage