This Boston Globe story made reference to a poll conducted by the Security and Peace Institute, a joint initiative of the Center for American Progress and The Century Foundation back in January 2005. It’s a bit dated, but it’s interesting – when asked to rank foreign policy priorities from one to ten, “dismantling the al Qaeda network” was given a ranking of 10 by 70 percent of Republicans, 55 percent of Independents, and 50 percent of Democrats. However, 62 percent of Democrats ranked “stopping the spread of AIDS worldwide” as one of their top objectives, the second highest total behind pulling the troops out of Iraq.

 

Do we think that if a similar, large-sample poll were conducted today, the level of priority for “dismantling the al-Qaeda network” would be higher? Would pulling the troops out of Iraq be lower, or stopping AIDS worldwide?

 

I suspect that the results would be the same, or perhaps al-Qaeda would be a top priority of even fewer Democrats. The only context in which Democrats mention al-Qaeda these days is when discussing various NSA programs designed to track down terrorists. Even then, their argument is that because some of the individuals that the NSA is collecting data on are not likely to be al-Qaeda, the program ought to be shut down.

 

That poll asked respondents if they would support the use of U.S. troops under certain circumstances, including “if terrorists are planning to an attack on American Embassies abroad. Shockingly (at least to me), only 57 percent independents, 73 percent of Republicans, and 63 percent of Democrats answered affirmatively. (On behalf of everyone who works in a U.S. Embassy, to hell with you 43 percent of independents, 27 percent of Republicans, and 37 percent of Democrats.)

 

 The Globe story also referred to a MIT Public Opinion Research Training Lab Survey conducted in the first week of November 2005 on a nationally representative sample of 1,170 people, of which 45 percent were Democrats and 42 percent Republicans. 

They asked, “In 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan; we still have approximately 10,000 American soldiers there. Do you think the United States made a mistake in sending military forces to Afghanistan?

Of all respondents, 76 percent said it was “not a mistake.” The partisan breakdown is 59 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of Independents, and 94 percent of Republicans. 

In other words, about 41 percent of Democrats now either oppose the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, or didn’t know/refused to answer.

 

When asked, “Would you approve of the use of U.S. military troops to destroy a terrorist camp?” only 57.3 percent of Democrats answered, “yes.” About 69 percent of independents and 95 percent of Republicans answered “yes.”

 

If their base voters have views like this, how hawkish can elected Democrats be?

 

This surprising, crystal-clear difference between the two parties are the sort of thing I look at in great detail in the forthcoming book – whose title, by the way, has been tweaked to “Voting to Kill: How 9/11 Launched an Era of Republican Leadership.” I’m trying not to be obsessive-compulsive about looking at the Amazon sales ranking for a book that doesn’t come out for another two and a half months or so.