Real Conservatives Are
Anti-War. Ukraine Is Exposing the Real Divide in the
GOP
By Ben Weingarten
January 30, 2022:
Information Clearing House
-- "
Newsweek"---The
United States is still reeling from two decades of
war that ended in absolute tragedy and resulted in
nothing particularly good. Yet somehow, we're at the
brink again, debating U.S. intervention in Ukraine
which is facing another incursion into its territory
by Russia. And the episode is exposing a story that
we've been getting wrong for a while now: We've
somehow convinced ourselves that it's conservatives
who are the warmongers and liberals who love peace.
It's because of how our parties have shifted on
the issue. During my time in the military, it was
obvious that most people considered themselves
conservative. What that meant, however, wasn't quite
so clear. We didn't exactly poll the forces on their
interpretation of new conservative goalposts like
abortion or gun rights (though it was clear how most
felt about the latter), but the consensus was that
liberal equals bad. It wasn't just a hangover from
Newt Gingrich's successful effort in the 1990s
to turn the word liberal into a profanity; being
Republican became synonymous with being pro-war,
with the empty platitude "I support the troops."
Reader financed- No
Advertising - No Government Grants -
No Algorithm - This
Is Independent
Our history tells a different story. If we
consider the major wars of the 20th
century—World War I, World War II, the Korean War,
and the Vietnam War—America entered each under the
presidencies of
Democrats. Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Harry Truman,
and JFK all led America into major wars resulting in
the combat deaths of 426,079 Americans. That's 63.9
percent of all U.S. combat deaths ever.
The
Democratic Party via FDR was also responsible
for the GI Bill, a landmark piece of legislation
that resulted in college educations for veterans,
VA-backed home loans, and more, that played a large
role in creating the middle class in this country.
FDR supported the troops.
Of course,
Republicans haven't avoided war. George H. W.
Bush intervened during the Iraqi occupation of
Kuwait, but he was lambasted for being weak and even
referred to as a "wimp president" by The Harvard
Crimson. And while Reagan undertook minor
incursions such as the invasion of Grenada as well
as all sorts of illegal activities for which Colonel
North paid the price, when we think of the greatest
generation, or our parents' generation, we think
about the big ones—World War II, Vietnam. These are
the wars we remember. We seem to have memory-holed
the fact that they were started by Democrats.
There was a time when we were less forgetful—as
recently as the late 1990s, when
George W. Bush ran for President. One of Bush's
major campaign promises was that he would not engage
in nation building like his predecessor
Bill Clinton (a Democrat) had done. And Bush
received relatively no flak from conservatives for
what one might call this anti-war stance. But the
hawkish crowd in D.C. was clearly not thrilled, and
unfortunately for us all, his position did not hold.
But the shift really got underway after 9/11, and
not just in the way things change when a major world
event happens. There was a big shift in how we think
about nation building, security, and domestic
surveillance. Phrases like "we have to fight them
there so we don't fight them here" started getting
bandied about, and people started voluntarily
joining the military at rates we've never witnessed.
Somehow, deploying to Afghanistan and (incredibly)
even Iraq became synonymous with conservatism and
even patriotism. To criticize the wars was
tantamount to criticizing the troops
That's how we got to the point where we think
about Republicans as being the warmongers—because
it's what they became. But this was a betrayal of
what the conservative attitude towards war should
be. War should be guided by the principle of "only
if we must, and only for our home." After all, it's
a conservative impulse to avoid meddling with other
people's business, especially other countries'
business.
Few Republicans over the last 40 years have been
governed by these conservative principles. Frankly,
I can't recall the last time the neoconservative
Republicans did anything approaching conservative.
People say there's a fight for the soul of the
GOP between Trump and the establishment. But that's
a canard. The fight is really between conservative
populists, who dominated the party for years and
embody true conservatism, vs. neocon hawks who,
despite all the polarizing rhetoric, are comfortably
in line with their hawkish brethren in the
Democratic Party.
Don't believe me? I know I wasn't the only person
watching in disbelief when earlier this month,
liberal politicians
lined up to shake the hand of former Vice
President Dick Cheney, a man many of them called a
war criminal. Many of these Democrats' careers were
launched with promises to find out what happened in
Iraq and hold Cheney et al accountable.
So why are Democrats, who started most of our
wars and are today on the hawk's warpath again, seen
as weak on or anti-war? Why are Republicans, who may
have started our more recent wars but have done less
to take care of veterans than we should expect,
considered the pro-war, pro-patriotism, pro-troop
party?
It doesn't make sense, until you realize that the
Democrats aren't the liberal party and the
Republicans aren't the conservative party. Because
political parties are rarely an accurate reflection
of their underlying rhetoric or public perception.
Quite often, they're just the opposite.
I consider it to be one of the greatest tragedies
of the 21st century that people decided to organize
themselves around political parties and D.C.
celebrities rather than the principles most of us
share—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
And let's add one more: Believe in principles, not
parties.
Dan Hollaway is a veteran of the 82nd
Airborne and holds a Master's in Homeland Security
from Penn State University. He is the host of
Drinkin' Bros Podcast and American Party Podcast.
The views in this article are the writer's
own.
Have
you seen "Help Tom with medical expenses to
fight leukemia"?
I
thought you might be interested in
supporting this GoFundMe,
https://gofund.me/8b902e5a
Even a small donation could help Michael
Feeley reach their fundraising goal. And if
you can't make a donation, it would be
great if you could share the fundraiser on
your social media to help spread the word.
|
Registration is necessary to post comments.
We ask only that you do not use obscene or offensive
language. Please be respectful of others.
|