The topic of New York Times op-ed columnists came up recently while I was chatting with a friend. He is, among other things, a fan of David Brooks, and I told him I wasn’t. Why? In the past I’ve been pretty tolerant of Brooks, but over the past few years I feel like he just isn’t earning his rep. He’s gotten lazy. He sees a single poll or a single study and he suddenly divines the meaning of life from it—but without doing the work to find out what the study really means, whether it’s supported by other work, and just how broadly its results apply.
Ivo Daalder points out a perfect example of this today. A few days ago Brooks took a look at a single poll from the Center for American Progress and immediately concluded that Americans are exhausted by the rest of the world and want to pull back from it. But even a cursory look at other data suggests exactly the opposite. So for your reading pleasure, here’s the antidote to Brooks, courtesy of Daalder:
In his latest column, @nytdavidbrooks writes that we’ve entered a “dark spiral” of Americans supporting a US withdrawal from the world. Nothing could be further from the truth, as @ChicagoCouncil polling data shows. 1/8 https://t.co/QrOU3rlttP
— Ivo Daalder (@IvoHDaalder) June 14, 2019
70 percent of Americans now favor the United States taking an active part in world affairs. Since @ChicagoCouncil polling on that question began in 1974, the only time that number has been higher was in 2002, just after 9/11. 2/8 pic.twitter.com/mko0bhoKKz
— Ivo Daalder (@IvoHDaalder) June 14, 2019
Large majorities of Americans also now say that international trade is good for consumers like them (85%), good for the US economy (82%), and good for creating jobs in the United States (67%)–the highest level of support in 15 years. 3/8 pic.twitter.com/KZhMXSj2QS
— Ivo Daalder (@IvoHDaalder) June 14, 2019
Support for the US “taking an active part” includes the military, too. Increasing majorities of Americans support keeping long-term military bases in South Korea (74%), Japan (65%), Germany (60%), and Turkey (53%). Nearly half say the same for a base in Poland (47%). 4/8 pic.twitter.com/zKkvTLCYhI
— Ivo Daalder (@IvoHDaalder) June 14, 2019
A full 75 percent of Americans say the US commitment to @NATO should increase or be kept steady. In fact, a larger share of Americans now favor increasing the US commitment than in any year since 1974! 5/8 pic.twitter.com/2cju4a7aga
— Ivo Daalder (@IvoHDaalder) June 14, 2019
Support for using US troops abroad in certain situations is strong and increasing as well. Majorities of Americans say they would support using US troops to defend Baltic NATO nations against Russia and allies in Asia against North Korea. 6/8 pic.twitter.com/ipiuQcd2SK
— Ivo Daalder (@IvoHDaalder) June 14, 2019
In fact, over a broad range of specific scenarios, majorities or pluralities of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, say they would favor the use of US troops abroad. Details here: https://t.co/5nOn6RkdE3 7/8 pic.twitter.com/lY1HX3Cni9
— Ivo Daalder (@IvoHDaalder) June 14, 2019
In short, Americans are more internationalist today than they have been in many years. Far from ignoring voters, a sound foreign policy of international engagement can count on strong public support. 8/8
— Ivo Daalder (@IvoHDaalder) June 14, 2019
My “in short” summary would be a little different: Americans are just as bloodthirsty as they’ve ever been. All we need is a push from a demagogish president and we’re ready to bomb the crap out of anybody. Brooks has nothing to fear on that score.
On the “liberal internationalist” axis, too, nothing much has changed: Americans still favor treaties and trade and alliances as much as ever—which is to say, we vaguely think they’re good things, but our support for them is pretty thin.
As for the things Brooks says he’s most worried about—promoting democracy, taking on Chinese aggression, promoting trade, fighting global poverty, and defending human rights—“the core activities of building a civilized global community”—Americans have never really cared much about that stuff. We’ll tolerate a fair amount of it here and there, and of course we were always happy to use it as an excuse for various Cold War depredations—or for bombing the crap out of our enemy du jour these days—but that’s about it. I love my country, but it’s silly to pretend that we’ve ever been anything we aren’t.
POSTSCRIPT: Just to be completely clear, I’m not saying that Brooks is unquestionably wrong here. Maybe he’s right! I’m just saying that it’s really lazy to base a whole column on a single poll without doing even the minimal research it would take to see how well it fits with other research on public opinion.
