On the eve of the US attack on Iran’s nuclear military sites, much of the discussion in Washington focused on the opposition to the move by members of the neo-isolationist wing of the Republican Party.
These isolationists argued that a new US military intervention in the Middle East would prove to be costly in terms of US military and economic interests, leading to increasing petrol prices, rising inflation and perhaps even World War III. They also accused Israel of trying to draw the US into its war with Iran.
Leading right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson and former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon warned US President Donald Trump that his political base is dominated by a majority of anti-interventionists who would oppose his attempt to embroil in the US in the Iran-Israel war, and that they would see it as a betrayal of the America-First agenda.
Some pundits speculated that this supposed opposition from Trump’s own supporters would pressure him to not attack Iran. It did not.
In retrospect, it seems the warnings by Carlson and Bannon were based on an inaccurate reading of the political map, both in terms of views of the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement and the general US public.
To put it in simple terms, most Americans – including staunch Trumpists – are not isolationists.
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The polls are clear on the subject. One such survey by the Ronald Reagan Institute, taken before Israel and the US launched military strikes against Iran, found that 90 per cent of self-identified Maga Republicans believed that “preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is important to US security”.
The same poll also indicated that 86 per cent of Maga Republicans view the security of Israel as important to the US; 81 per cent wanted to maintain or increase US support for Israel’s military campaigns against Hamas and Hezbollah; and 64 per cent backed Israel in carrying out airstrikes to destroy Iran’s nuclear reactors.
The poll suggests that not only do Maga Republicans reject isolationism, they are more hawkish and supportive of the US’ role in the world, with 73 per cent believing that the US should be “more engaged and take the lead” in the world.
More specifically, a clear majority of Maga Republicans support responding with military force if a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization were attacked. They would also back the US taking military action to defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China.
The same kind of interventionist sentiments were also embraced by a majority of Americans. A Jun 2 survey by Beacon Research/Shaw & Company found that “when it comes to international events”, 64 per cent of Americans believe it is better for the US to “be more engaged and take the lead”, compared with 23 per cent who disagree.
Among Democrats, support for being more engaged was 65 per cent, compared with half among Independents. The biggest supporters were Republicans at 69 per cent, and among them, Maga Republicans at 73 per cent.
The bottom line is that while neo-isolationists like Tucker and Bannon know how to make a lot of noise on social media, their views represent that of a minority of Americans, including Maga voters. Isolationism may sound cool, but most Americans, including proponents of America First, still do not buy into it.
