Eric Levitz with New York Magazine penned an intriguing piece titled: Voters Want an ‘America First’ Foreign Policy (Just Not Trump’s).
Levitz summarized a recent Survey about America’s Views On Foreign Policy (‘America Adrift‘ ) conducted by the Center For American Progress.
For starters, voters appear (understandably) to think that America’s foreign-policy Establishment is “nothing more than [a] failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power.” They had a difficult time discerning an overriding logic to the country’s foreign policy in recent decades, and when they did, they largely distrusted it:
The qualitative research revealed important gaps in voters’ basic understanding of U.S. foreign policy objectives and widespread confusion about what the nation is trying to achieve in the world. Voters in focus groups did not see an overarching principle, rationale, or clear set of goals in U.S. foreign policy. Questions emerged along the lines of: Why are we in the Middle East and not dealing with Russia and China? What exactly did we gain from years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan? Why can’t we balance our economic dealings with other countries to better benefit U.S. workers and businesses? Several participants wondered why the United States does not have a plan for economic and political success in the world like they perceive China and other competitors do.
Likewise, traditional language from foreign policy experts about “fighting authoritarianism and dictatorship,” “promoting democracy,” or “working with allies and the international community” uniformly fell flat with voters in our groups. Some participants questioned the idea that an international community actually exists. Democracy promotion reminded others of the 2003 Iraq War and the failures of the George W. Bush administration. When asked what the phrase “maintaining the liberal international order” indicated to them, all but one of the participants in our focus groups drew a blank. Voters across educational lines simply did not understand what any of these phrases and ideas meant or implied.
These attitudes appear largely representative of the broader electorate’s. In the report’s nationally representative survey, just 9 percent of voters named “promoting democracy and democratic values around the world” as a top-three priority for U.S. foreign policy in the next five years, while only 43 percent “strongly agreed” with the statement “As the world’s longest-standing democracy, the United States has a special role to play in defending and promoting democratic values and institutions around the world.” There was only slightly more enthusiasm for prioritizing “fighting global poverty and promoting human rights.”
...the single most popular proposition in CAP’s survey was this: “In order to remain competitive in the world, the United States must invest more to improve our own infrastructure, education, and health care, not just increase military and defense spending.” Some 68 percent of respondents “strongly agreed” with this sentiment, while just 33 percent strongly agreed with the inverse proposition, “The United States must prioritize spending for the military and defense, even if it means making cuts in other areas.” In other words, the typical voter wants, above all, a foreign policy that does not require cuts to domestic spending or social services.
Foreign Policy often takes a backseat to Domestic Policies in our Political Discourse but the two are closely linked. For the past few years it seems our Foreign Policy agendas are out of touch with what most American Voters want.
So far, the 2020 candidates most directly addressing these concerns from voters are Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, Mike Gravel, and Liz Warren. I’d like to hear more from other candidates on what direction US foreign policy should take post-Trump...