Poll: Dems Reaching Parity On National Security
A new Democracy Corps (D) poll finds that the Democratic Party could be reaching parity or perhaps even overtaking the Republicans on national security -- an issue area that has benefitted the GOP for decades.
President Obama has a 64%-31% approval rating on national security, and a 61%-31% rating on fighting terrorism -- both higher than his overall approval of 58%-33%. In addition, likely voters say by a 55%-37% margin that Obama's policies are increasing America's security -- rejecting the alternative statement that he's undermining security.
Indeed, a 51%-44% majority agreed with this statement: "President Bush's foreign and national security policies undermined America's security."
On national security overall, the Republicans have a statistically insignificant edge of 43%-41% over the Dems, and it's a dead-even tie of 41%-41% for the War on Terror. The GOP maintains a 53%-35% advantage on "ensuring a strong military," but the Dems have a 52%-35% lead on "foreign policy," a 44%-32% lead on Afghanistan, and a 47%-37% lead on Iraq.
The Democratic gap on defense originated in large part because the Dems launched a failed war in Southeast Asia, then collapsed in partisan infighting over it. The GOP could perhaps be suffering from the fact that they launched two mismanaged wars in the Muslim world, and now stand resolutely by to declare that nothing was wrong.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Eric: The Democratic gap on defense originated in large part because the Dems launched a failed war in Southeast Asia...
Wally Shawn: You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line.
May 19, 2009 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republicans still retain the revert back to 50's policy regarding a women's right demographic. Hopefully the Dems don't gain ground there.
May 19, 2009 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The Democratic gap on defense originated in large part because the Dems launched a failed war in Southeast Asia..."
Let's give credit where it's due. The French came running to Ike in the late '50s to bail them out of a war they couldn't win. The US, having never lost a war (Korea was a police action, and, besides, we didn't really lose it) felt it was perfectly capable of winning another one (even though it officially was another police action).
Kennedy inherited the quagmire and, with the best of intentions, escalated the conflict, thinking it would be "wham bam, thank you ma'am". Wrong.
Johnson, McNamara and Westmoreland were the ones who did major damage, but it was Kissinger and Nixon who had the last stab at eradicating a country and its culture. They lost.
In short, US involvement in Viet Nam started under a GOP administration and ended under a GOP administration.
May 19, 2009 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The Democratic gap on defense originated in large part because the Dems launched a failed war in Southeast Asia, then collapsed in partisan infighting over it."
No, that is dead wrong! Doesn't anyone learn anything from American history instead of repeating Republican *revisionist* versions of it?
Eisenhower got the US into Southeast Asia first. Kennedy and those that followed escalated it but it was Ike who launched it.
May 19, 2009 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
You said, "Doesn't anyone learn anything from American history instead of repeating Republican *revisionist* versions of it?"
That would take work and as many in the GOP are claiming when it comes to talking about anything from the Bush years, "that was all in the past baby" and as Obama has consistently stated "I want to look forward"
In all honesty there really does not seem to be that much interest in the press or MSM for thoughtful well examined discourse. It is like the entire MSM is run by the same mentality of a fast-food joint.
Here is a great quote from Pres. Ike that I had never heard before and one I find quite apt for today's issues, this was 3 months in office just after Stalin had passed, "he accused the Societ Union of spending vast sums to develop weapons and thus compelling the US to follow suit. He also asserted that , whatever its purpose, the arms race was diverting America's resources and energy disproportionately towards defense at the cost of other aspects of her national life. Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientist, the hopes of its children." (this is an exerpt from Eugene Jarecki's The American Way of War.
Gosh what I would not give for a powerful figure like Ike to pull the GOP back to sanity. I will settle for the entire collapse of the party as a second solution but one can only be so hopeful.
May 19, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Consider for instance, what the world might look like had Reagan chosen to take the budget allocated for a single MX missile(MIRV), and instead spent that tiny relative amount of money building secular schools, and promoting a stable society.
A couple hundred million 1985 dollars could very well have saved us trillions of dollars and thousands of lives in the US alone.
Imagine a world where only a small fraction of Pakistani and Afghani children were educated in a madrassa.
While we're at it, imagine if we could "beam" from one place to another, as a form of travel.
:-\
May 19, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not really sure how to respond but I would be a big fan of being able to beam from one place to the other, as long as the R&D money was spent through channels other than the DOD.
May 19, 2009 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
You've neglected to mention Truman's rebuffal of Ho Chi Minh's pleas for good relations with the US, and support against French colonialism.
Having fought the Vichy French and the Japanese during WWII, you would think at least some measure of response was merited.
Instead, rabid anti-communism (which the Dems have always been more sincere about than Rs, and really, how retarded is that?) led to multiple debacles in Southeast Asia - Les Khmeres Rouges not least among them.
http://rationalrevolution0.tripod.com/war/collection_of_letters_by_ho_chi_.htm
May 19, 2009 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink