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Notes -
The conversation in JTarrou's infantry threads around the fact the in the modern military even very low-level officers rarely see combat seems relevant too -- I get the impression that the point of the spear sees the officer class in general as more something to be worked around than a group of people to whom they would feel personal loyalty.
The whole point of having a commissioned officer corps selected through a process other promoting from the ranks is to prevent large-scale organisation of the rank-and-file against the State. Even if JTarrou's Point of Empire crowd represent most of the combat power of the US military (as opposed to representing most of the type of combat power that happened to be most useful in Afghanistan and post-Saddam Iraq - note that the Point of Empire don't drive the tanks or fly the drones), they are split across multiple units (and even multiple armed services with different cultures) in different places such that they don't constitute an organised power bloc if the officer corps don't want them to.
FWIW, if the Boogaloo goes down, I don't think Red vs Blue is the right way of thinking about it. I think right now you have a 2x2 division in American politics - Right vs Left and pro vs anti establishment. The anti-establishment right is almost entirely Red, and the anti-establishment left is almost entirely Blue/Black, but there is much more crossover between tribe and politics when you look at the pro-establishment factions. The officer corps are mostly pro-establishment right, with a smattering of pro-establishment left in roles which are unlikely to involve commanding combat troops. It isn't clear how the infantry divide between pro-establishment right and anti-establishment right (not to mention that if things go down a lot of black soldiers will turn out to be aligned with the pro-establishment left) - the whole point of military culture is to make the grunts more obedient than they otherwise would be.
Right now, with the game played mostly through the ballot box, the pro-establishment right are getting creamed, both by the pro-establishment left and the anti-establishment right. But they still have c. 20% of the citizen population, c. 30% of the cash, c. 50% of the riflemen who can shoot straight (a group that, when it comes down to it, includes most but not all POGs), and the vast majority of the big guns. If the game is played through credible threats of political violence, then the pro-establishment right will be kingmakers.
You will notice that the I didn't mention the anti-establishment left. They only matter in that they can burn down buildings with the permission of the pro-establishment left, permission that will not be renewed any time soon because the pro-establishment left have realised that granting it was a mistake. Even though they have c. 25% of the population, they won't matter unless they wash, shave (both sexes), orient themselves to reality, and learn how to do at least one of make money, win elections, or shoot straight.
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