The split between Democrats and Republicans on foreign policy and America’s role in the world has grown steadily over the past decade, reflecting a fundamental shift in the Republican Party, POLITICO reports.
As Democrats gather in Chicago this week for their quadrennial convention, the mood is markedly different from just a month ago. Back then, the party’s presidential candidate was falling in the polls after a disastrous debate performance and facing the prospect of defeat. Now their candidate is riding a wave of enthusiasm, improving in the polls and almost smelling victory in November.
But while President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris has dramatically changed the course of the election battle, much remains the same. This is still a close election, where a few thousand votes in a few battleground states will likely determine the outcome, while the country itself remains deeply divided and polarised.
This split applies not only to voters’ preferences for parties and their candidates, but also to important issues such as foreign and security policy, which have long been the subject of much greater agreement across the political spectrum, according to POLITICO.
The change is particularly noticeable among Republican voters. The views of Reagan-era Republicans who favour strong unions, free markets and support democracy and freedom abroad are now increasingly rare among the party’s supporters. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ latest annual poll, conducted in late June, confirms this marked divide in Republican and Democratic views of the world and America’s role in it.
America’s role in the world
The poll question that most tellingly reflects this divide, “Would it be better for the country’s future if we took an active role in world affairs or if we stayed out of them?” shows that barely a majority of Republicans (54 percent) now favour an active role, in contrast to two-thirds (68 percent) of Democrats who think so. Despite the improvement from last year, Republicans’ support for an active US role was the second lowest in 50 years – 20 percent lower than in 2004 and 18 percent lower than in 1974.
Consistent with this change, only 13 percent of Republicans believe that the US, as the strongest and wealthiest country, “has a responsibility to play a leading role in world affairs,” while 57 percent believe “it needs to reduce its involvement in world affairs” because of the country’s limited resources and its own problems at home. In contrast, 65 percent of Democrats support the idea that the US should play a leading role on the world stage while dealing with problems at home.
On every issue, Republicans favour less involvement in world affairs than Democrats, a sharp shift from the Reagan era. For example, only one in five Republicans in our survey believe it is very important to defend weaker countries from aggression or to promote and protect human rights in another country. And only one in seven believe it is very important to limit climate change.
By comparison, 44% of Democrats surveyed believe it is very important to defend weaker countries, 47% support protecting human rights, 57% believe it is very important to strengthen the UN, and 74% believe it is a very important goal of US foreign policy to limit climate change, POLITICO reports.
When it comes to alliances – long the centrepiece of US foreign policy – Republicans are increasingly frustrated with security commitments. Four in 10 believe that alliances “mostly benefit our allies,” largely because allies don’t pay their fair share, while three-quarters of Democrats believe that alliances either benefit the U.S. most (16%) or benefit both the US and its allies (56%).
Finally, while support for free trade has long been a hallmark of Republicans, today a majority (55%) actually favour cutting trade and seeking “greater self-sufficiency in all areas.” Only 20% of Republican respondents favour free trade around the world, and only 21% favour creating a trading bloc with friends and partners. Interestingly, free trade currently enjoys much more support among Democrats, with two-thirds of respondents favouring global trade (43%) or a trade bloc with friends (24%).
These differing views on America’s global role and the extent of its involvement in the rest of the world naturally lead to sharp differences in how the US should view the two major ongoing wars in Ukraine and Israel.
Today, a slight majority (51%) of Republicans oppose further economic and military aid to Ukraine, with about a third preferring to maintain the current level of overall support (37%) and an equal number (33%) favouring a complete withdrawal. Democrats, meanwhile, are much more supportive of Ukraine, with nearly three-quarters in favour of economic aid (72 per cent) and sending more military supplies (71 per cent). Overall, this means that more than eight in 10 Democrats favour either maintaining current levels of aid (56 per cent) or directly intervening with allies to ensure a favourable outcome to the war (26 per cent).
Then there’s the Middle East, where Republicans are far more supportive of Israel and US involvement than Democrats. In our survey, we found that 53% of Republicans believe Israel’s military action is justified, while half of Democrats (51%) believe the country has gone too far. Thus, while nearly six in ten Democrats favour applying diplomatic pressure (19%) or reducing military aid to Israel (38%), half of Republicans (49%) believe the US should allow Israel to pursue whatever policies it deems best, according to POLITICO.
This gap between Democrats and Republicans on foreign policy and America’s role in the world has grown steadily over the past decade. The shift reflects a fundamental change in the Republican Party, which has largely abandoned Reagan-era influence to return to its more isolationist pre-World War II roots. And that change is now evident at the top of the Republican ticket, with both former US president Donald Trump and his candidate J.D. Vance echoing the narrow nationalism of their predecessors of nearly a century ago.
But now that the party’s voters have also bought into this perspective, the debate over the direction of American foreign policy will continue beyond November.
