Are Republicans really the new doves?

Republicans’ preferences on international engagement are partly tied to their deteriorating perception of how these wars have gone. Republicans’ endorsement for the wars has fallen more steeply and more recently than endorsement among Democrats or Independents (which was always lower). The figures below show that, in comparable questions asked in recent Chicago Council and ABC News/Washington Post polls, both Republicans and Independents went from majority approval to a majority critical of the war in Afghanistan. Republican support plunged 51 percentage points from 2007 (85 percent) to 2014 (34 percent), while Independents dropped 32 points (55 to 23 percent). Democrats have been more consistently critical, though more so now, with support dropping from 36 to 25 percent. On the Iraq war, Republican support has dipped 31 points from a majority in 2006 to just 40 percent. Both Independents and Democrats have been critical of the war in Iraq since 2006. Democrats are now somewhat more likely to think the war was worth fighting (from 14 percent in 2006 to 22 percent).

Another factor playing into Republican preferences for engagement are their views on the importance of combating international terrorism. Republicans have traditionally considered fighting international terrorism a higher priority than Democrats. But the figure below shows that over the last decade, Republicans’ focus on terrorism has steadily declined. Now similar majorities of both Republicans and Democrats say that combating international terrorism is a “very important” goal.