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Back in his time, it used to be the norm though. Douglas MacArthur and Eisenhower come to mind. Even today, a not-insignificant number of US reps and congressm

Back in his time, it used to be the norm though. Douglas MacArthur and Eisenhower come to mind. Even today, a not-insignificant number of US reps and congressmen are people who have served in the military. Same goes for Singapore, India and Indonesia (if we're going by stable democracies). I think Europe is an exception to the norm, even if there are some cases (like the current Czech President).

wqaatwt 2y ago
> t used to be the norm though. Yes as a consequence of WW2 not before (outside of other major wars) or currently. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong or particularly strange about a former officer or general standing for office. But it’s not quite the same, de Gaulle, Eisenhower and (to some extent McArthur) were pretty much slingshotted to the top because of who they were and what they did during the war. They skipped all the traditional steps and “filters” that most politicians have to pass and had huge amounts of political capital. That doesn’t really happen during peacetime in stable countries. e.g. US had 5 presidents which didn’t hold any elected office before becoming president: 3 of them (Taylor, Grant, Eisenhower) directly leveraged their success as military commanders during major wars to get elected, Hoover was a cabinet secretary for 8 years so he barely counts and the last one is Trump.