The Democrats: Copperheads then, Copperheads still
Makuin Thomas Owens has an interesting NRO article here on the long, sad and sorry history the Democratic Party has of undermining American war efforts, from the Civil War to the present day.
ADDENDUM: A Democratic friend whom I rely on as a fairness monitor- an editor by trade- thinks the above is unclear, and seems to imply that Democrats have generally opposed all wars since the Civil War, and that no Republican has opposed any. In order to clarify any misunderstandings, let me add that:
1) Democrats have indeed supported certain modern American wars with great unanimity; what is to be remarked upon here is only the relative frequency with which they have opposed them- a frequency which does suggest at least something of a pattern.
2) Republicans have also opposed wars. Some Republicans actually referred to World War II as "Roosevelt's war," as zany as that seems. Some- though comparatively few- regarded Korea as "Truman's war." And lest it be forgotten, Abe Lincoln was a vocal opponent of the Mexican War- and he was right; if ever there was a war of aggression waged by a powerful country against a weaker neighbor, the Mexican War was it. Nor was opposition to the war in Vietnam by any means confined to Democrats.
3) Again, there is nothing either wrong or unpatriotic with opposing a war one believes to be either morally unjust or contrary to the national interest. Quite the contary, in fact. I opposed the Vietnam War myself on these grounds. The point is merely that, at times, opposition to American war efforts almost seems to be the default position of a lot of Democrats- and the party itself has a way of getting swept along.
ADDENDUM: A Democratic friend whom I rely on as a fairness monitor- an editor by trade- thinks the above is unclear, and seems to imply that Democrats have generally opposed all wars since the Civil War, and that no Republican has opposed any. In order to clarify any misunderstandings, let me add that:
1) Democrats have indeed supported certain modern American wars with great unanimity; what is to be remarked upon here is only the relative frequency with which they have opposed them- a frequency which does suggest at least something of a pattern.
2) Republicans have also opposed wars. Some Republicans actually referred to World War II as "Roosevelt's war," as zany as that seems. Some- though comparatively few- regarded Korea as "Truman's war." And lest it be forgotten, Abe Lincoln was a vocal opponent of the Mexican War- and he was right; if ever there was a war of aggression waged by a powerful country against a weaker neighbor, the Mexican War was it. Nor was opposition to the war in Vietnam by any means confined to Democrats.
3) Again, there is nothing either wrong or unpatriotic with opposing a war one believes to be either morally unjust or contrary to the national interest. Quite the contary, in fact. I opposed the Vietnam War myself on these grounds. The point is merely that, at times, opposition to American war efforts almost seems to be the default position of a lot of Democrats- and the party itself has a way of getting swept along.
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