Originally Posted by
kme9418
I assure you that whatever you think is sacred can be taken away with the stroke of a pen. Now that only about 1% of the population actually serves in the military, you don't think someone isn't already doing the algebra to find out how much they really need that voting block vs. trading it for the loyalty of some other segment of society that carries more votes?
Sure, but the majority of Americans are not pure-blooded "takers"...most of middle America will not respond well to a wholesale breaking of faith with military members, who are generally considered in higher regard than congress, politicians, corporations, and cops.
If things got bad enough then yeah anything could happen but it looks like peak oil has been averted for a few more decades at least and I can't think of anything else that's likely to put us into a Mad Max scenario. Although the boomer retirement wave is a concern... they're definitely going to want somebody to pay for their social security ponzi scheme. But since the military retirements cross generational lines AARP et al may be reluctant to touch a politically charged issue that will affect or resonate with a lot of their own people. While only 1% serve now, if you look at the retired demographic it's probably a lot closer to 50%.