I know it will be hard, but for a moment try to forget the growing stack of Donald Trump indictments and the messy details of Joe Biden’s telephone conversations, while serving as vice president and point-person for Ukraine policies, with a Ukrainian oligarch. Apparently, these friendly chats were about the weather, as opposed to son Hunter Biden’s career and financial needs.

You see, there’s another big story lingering in the back pages of news publications, a story about hard facts that could affect all kinds of conflicts around the world — especially if China’s leaders gaze at Taiwan and get ambitious.

This is a story GetReligion has discussed several times, including in this podcast-post: “Are many Bible Belt military families losing faith in the U.S. armed services?”

Now, it’s totally understandable that — in today’s preach-to-the-choir journalism ecosphere — that elite progressive outlets like National Public Radio, The Washington Post and The New York Times are not asking pushy cultural and, yes, religious questions about the dangerous trends in U.S. military recruiting.

Ah, but what about niche-media on the other side of “political” aisle?

This leads to a Daily Mail story that ran under one of that newspaper’s long, long headlines (and I didn’t include the three subheadlines): “Public confidence in the US military hits lowest point in two decades — with only 60% of Americans saying they have a 'great deal' of confidence in the armed forces, new survey finds.”

This leads to the overture:

Public confidence in the US military has reached its lowest point in 25 years with 40 percent of Americans now saying they don't have much faith in the forces, a poll found.

The survey said only 60 percent of people have 'a great deal' or 'quite a lot' of confidence in the military. It's the lowest it's been since 1997, according to Gallup, which conducted the poll.

The national decline is being fueled by a massive slump in the confidence amongst Republicans.

That’s logical. However, did any Daily Mail editors wonder if there’s additional content hidden in that safe political word “Republican”?

Let’s keep reading.

Just 68 percent of GOP supporters answered positively, compared with 91 percent three years ago. 

For Democrats, 62 percent said they had confidence, compared with 68 percent last year.

It’s interesting that confidence among Democrats is slightly down, as well.

Before I ask a few journalistic questions, it’s interesting to note the various political and military-activity trends here that do interest The Daily Mail. I would stress that all of this information is valid. The question is whether there are other factors in play, including cultural, moral and religious issues that could have led to questions by Daily Mail editors.

For example, the story ends with valid commentary about Afghanistan:

In June, the State Department quietly released a 87-page report condemning the Biden administration's failure to prepare for the Afghanistan's rapid collapse at the hands of the Taliban in 2021. The investigation found serious pitfalls in leadership and questions about who was in charge before and during the mayhem.

Gallup added: 'Now that the U.S. has completely withdrawn from both Iraq and Afghanistan, the two most significant military legacies of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., confidence in the military has continued to decline among the public. 

'The declines this year were across all party identification groups, with Republicans remaining the most likely to express confidence and independents becoming the least likely.'

What’s my point?

One way to look at this dangerous trend is to ask whether American young people — almost certainly influenced by their parents and even their grandparents — are “voting with their feet” when it comes to putting on Army boots.

Whenever we talk about the decisions of American voters, it really helps to ask “pew gap” or “religiosity” questions. Here are a few I’d ask, right now:

* In what zip codes are military recruiting numbers tanking? Are the trends worse in deep red regions, as opposed to bright-blue urban areas? Are numbers down among Texas Baptists, as opposed to New York Episcopalians?

* Among Independents, Democrats and (especially) Republicans, is there any connection between worship-attendance numbers and their discontent with the postmodern military? Yes, this would require asking the “pew” question.

* Polls show that white Democrats are consistently less religious, in terms of activity in organized religious groups, than Black Democrats (and I’d like to see more numbers on Latino Democrats). Is confidence in the military falling faster among Black Democrats than among secular Democrats?

* How about an update on military chaplains? Have declines (there have been many religious-freedom conflicts) increased among the large numbers of Baptist, Pentecostal-charismatic and generic evangelical ministers willing to serve in the military? Would this affect recruiting numbers among red-state families in those religious groups?

That’s all, for now. This issue isn’t going away. If progressive-niche newsrooms are not going to ask the relevant “pew gap” questions, perhaps that’s a job for journalists who depend on the trust of conservative readers?

Just asking.

FIRST IMAGE: Pride month illustration used by U.S. military in various social media outlets.