Democrats would rather have America’s troops continue to fight a war they oppose… just to stick it to President Trump.
A new Morning Consult/Politico poll shows that a plurality of Americans support Trump’s announcement that he would withdraw troops from Syria… but support among Democrats has cratered.
“What is remarkable about the new polling data on Syria is that the vast bulk of support for keeping troops there comes from Democratic Party voters, while Republicans and independents overwhelming favor their removal,” explains Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept. “The numbers are stark: Of people who voted for Clinton in 2016, only 26 percent support withdrawing troops from Syria, while 59 percent oppose it. Trump voters overwhelmingly support withdraw by 76 percent to 14 percent.”
“Identical trends can be seen on the question of Trump’s announced intention to withdraw half of the U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan, where Democrats are far more supportive of keeping troops there than Republicans and independents,” Greenwald added. “This case is even more stark since Obama ran in 2008 on a pledge to end the war in Afghanistan and bring all troops home. Throughout the Obama years, polling data consistently showed that huge majorities of Democrats favored a withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan.”
“With Trump rather than Obama now advocating troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, all of this has changed,” Greenwald concluded.
“The new polling data shows far more support for troop withdrawal among Republicans and independents, while Democrats are now split or even opposed,” he added. “Among 2016 Trump voters, there is massive support for withdrawal: 81 percent to 11 percent; Clinton voters, however, oppose the removal of troops from Afghanistan by a margin of 37 percent in favor and 47 percent opposed.”
Democrats have often been more anti-war than Republicans—especially in the Bush and Obama eras.
But now that there’s a Republican who wants to remove troops from the Middle East, they’re singing a different tune.
