Vice President Mike Pence observes a training exercise and capability demonstration Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019 in Fort Hood, Tx. (Official White House photo by D. Myles Cullen)
Hunter DeRensis explains at The American Conservative that only a small group of Representatives in Congress have stood on principle against American intervention in foreign lands. This group is made up of a handful of anti-war Republicans who, whether they voting against the party line or not, take a stand against overseas adventurism that costs the American taxpayer money and wastes the lives of American troops. He writes (abridged):
A comparative case study has demonstrated that only one political party has a principled (albeit small) contingent of legislators who care more about ending U.S. intervention overseas than partisan positioning.
In February, the House of Representatives voted in favor of House Joint Resolution 37, which directed “the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress.”
This, along with its complementary senate vote, was the first congressional invocation of the War Powers Act in the law’s history.
Out of the House’s 435 members, only 11 voted to end both the war in Yemen and to draw down in Syria. They are Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Trey Hollingsworth of Indiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Alex Mooney of West Virginia, and Bill Posey of Florida.
Notice anything? They’re all Republicans.
Another example in this lineage is Ohio Senator Robert Taft who opposed U.S. entry into the NATO alliance and called the Korean War unconstitutional.
Taft, son of the former president and a three-time national candidate in his own right, was so associated with the GOP and its Midwestern base that he was known as “Mr. Republican.”
In the modern era, this same spirit imbued the presidential campaigns of both Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul—the former in his fight against the Gulf War and George H.W. Bush’s aspirations towards a New World Order, and the latter in his opposition to the War on Terror and its resultant overseas regime changes.
No Democrat voted to continue intervention in Yemen, and simultaneously no Democrat voted to defend withdrawing from northern Syria. Every member automatically took the inverse view of the Trump administration. Democratic opposition to war is partisan, not principled.
Hunter DeRensis is a reporter with The National Interest, and a regular contributor to The American Conservative.
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