The Partisan Divide on NATO is New
https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/the-partisan-divide-on-nato-is-new
The American public remains largely supportive of NATO. According to the latest Gallup
polling, majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents agree that our current NATO commitments should be maintained or increased. Only 16 percent think we should decrease our commitment and 12 percent think we should withdraw from the treaty organization entirely.
But as Donald Trump continues to subvert the allianceincluding
saying he would encourage Russia to to do whatever the hell they want if NATO countries dont spend enough on defenseideological fault lines have emerged. Throughout the Reagan years, Republicans were consistently more supportive of NATO than Democrats. Four decades later, their respective positions have flipped: today, 80 percent of Democrats, and only 53 percent of Republicans, support maintaining or increasing our NATO commitments.
The decline in Republican support for NATO is not uniform: self-identified MAGA Republicans are driving the dip. In a recent
Economist/YouGov
poll, MAGA Republicans actually hold net negative opinions of NATO (-7 favorability), whereas non-MAGA Republicans remain decidedly positive in their assessment (+30).
As Ukraine
funding looms large in the House, this partisan realignmentand intra-party divisionwill prove all the more important.
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