Party elites so blind they can't see their base turning against the war

Party elites so blind they can't see their base turning against the war Last week, only four (time.com) House Republicans voted (x.com) with 210 Democrats to pass a war powers (cnbc.com) resolution to end the U.S. war with Iran.That means 208 House Republicans voted (reuters.com) to continue the war. Hours later, the Republican-led Senate killed (thehill.com › 5986145 senate iran war resolution) the measure, with only one GOP senator voting with the Democrats to end the war, de facto joining four other Republicans who were either absent or missed the vote.The overwhelming majority of congressional Republicans are still clearly committed to President Donald Trump’s war. Republican voters? Not so much.A new Politico poll (politico.com), published just one day before these votes, revealed a growing gap between congressional Republicans’ continued unqualified support for the war and GOP voters' seeming increasing lack of it.As recently as May, “half of President Donald Trump’s MAGA base thought the Iran war was worth its economic costs” but now barely over a third do, the news outlet reported. On the specific statement, “The U.S. should continue, even if it increases costs in America,” the number in agreement plunged from 50% in May, to 37% in mid-July.“That precipitous, 13-point drop in just two months…reveals how the president’s most die-hard supporters are starting to agree with the majority of Americans who have long opposed the U.S.’ involvement in the war,” Politico noted.The war with Iran has been unpopular (npr.org › iran us military poll trump approval) with Americans since it began in late February, a sentiment that has only grown (cbsnews.com) with time. Increasing gas prices and other rising costs at home have been top factors (pewresearch.org) in attitudes about the conflict.Republicans have been the factor in keeping those already bad numbers from diving further into the dumps. Until now. This Politico survey does not appear to be an outlier in measuring Republicans’ waning enthusiasm for the war.An Economist/YouGov poll released July 14 (yougov.com) showed a majority of the GOP base still supported the Iran war, yet that support was slipping with both MAGA and non-MAGA Republicans. “While overall most Republicans say the war was the right decision (63% vs. 16%), the roughly 26% of Republicans who say they're non-MAGA Republicans are less likely to say the war was the right decision than the wrong decision (31% vs. 51%),” according to the summary released by YouGov.New York Magazine combined this Economist/YouGov poll (d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net › econTabReport ie0SzVb) with the Politico survey to surmise that (nymag.com) 51% of self-identified MAGA supporters want the U.S. to “make a deal to end the war in Iran as quickly as possible.”A CBS News poll (assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com › cbsnews 20260621 sun) released in mid-June showed that a majority of both Republicans and Democrats want the war to end, including 60% o