Yes, in my youth every adult male I knew was a military veteran and two thirds of them had seen combat. My point, however, is that they were all keenly aware of the role politics played in their military adventures and therefore politics was 'discussed' and not just from the standpoint of benefits, but benefits versus the short and long term potential costs. They were knowledgeable of the fact that there were no free rides in lie that did not also have a sharp hook of some sort embedded in them.
I noticed that people being aware of hooks ended when the military draft ended and nobody any longer had a reason to care about politics beyond the personalities and the promises/lies. The average citizen no longer had personal skin in the game -- from their perspective anyway, and that changed how people looked at politics and . . . promised freebies.