You can control wages...and build bases...and pay your troops more than everyone. You can also bribe the faction leader of the military to keep him happier as well as the rest of the faction
Yea, you could, but then you can't properly lower the wages of everyone else. And force em to stay in Tropico... where their only hope is to fight against El Presidente and die... or keep their head down and accept their lot in life.
Also, only the military would be able to vote in my scheme. Maybe a few others who I deem important, I always choose to discriminate by wealth... Plus, I'd also have college level soldiers(generals) if I could.
... I must look into how I can successfully suppress the total number of voters without tanking my economy and getting taken out in a coup. On Difficult/Difficult at the very least.
On that note, political difficulty level between Very Difficult and Difficult is astounding. I am being my dictator self, enforcing repressive policies and what-not... actually slightly more repressive... and people loved me. Till modern times rolled up. My approval/happiness started to tank, cause I guess average caribbean happiness caught up and factions all started to hate me more cause of the 3 new constitutional additions I guess.
EDIT
Fun observation: You only get 1 heir per game apparently. So I guess you gotta power through a buncha short 3 point victory islands to let RNG pick up some acceptable people to put on your roster..
EDIT2: Military, you need more then 1 high school before the fighting really starts... cause my industry buildings are almost empty. I currently prefer running militia.
(Not sure if militia are also high schoolers actually... which may be part of why I have so few?)