US Democrats, Please Take Note: Peace Is Good Politics
While savoring their victory and the historic opportunity to restore America's constitutional order, the Democrats should take the anti-war message of the election to heart, because they suffered the same verdict two years ago, when voters rejected the Biden administration's wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Last week Israeli voters rejected Netanyahu's reckless wars, and European voters are also rejecting parties that prolong the Ukraine War. The message of voters is the same everywhere: diplomacy is safer, more effective, and trillions of dollars cheaper than war.
On election night Trump conceded to Fox News, “I think a part of it was Iran.” The next day Vice President JD Vance was far blunter, posting on X:“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.... everyone knows why we lost.” In the AP Voter Poll, about 60% of voters said the decision to use military force against Iran was wrong, and about 90% called the cost of living a crucial or major factor in their vote.
The war and the cost of living were, of course, utterly intertwined. Gasoline prices, around US$2.80 per gallon before the war began on February 28, had risen by about 55% by mid-May and reached a monthly average of $4.43 in September.
The 10-year Treasury yield climbed from below 4% before the war to above 5% in the autumn, and the Pentagon sought more than $200 billion in supplemental war funding. Every family with a mortgage, a car loan or a credit card balance suffered from the war.
The first duty of the new Congress is to restore its constitutional authority over war and its power of the purse to ensure that US forces are not sent back into combat in Iran or anywhere else on the whim of a president and the behest of domestic or foreign lobbies.
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