Poll: Isolationism Soars Among Americans

[last_texas_dem]

>>>> (AP) Americans are turning away from the world, showing a tendency toward isolationism in foreign affairs that has risen to the highest level in four decades, a poll released Thursday found.
Almost half, 49 percent, told the polling organization that the United States should "mind its own business" internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own, the Pew Research Center survey found. That's up from 30 percent who said that in December 2002.

Results of the survey appear to conflict with President Barack Obama's activist foreign policy, including a newly announced buildup of 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to fight Taliban and al Qaeda extremists.

"Isolationist Sentiment Surges to Four-Decade High," the nonpartisan research center headlined its report on the poll about America's role in the world.
Only 32 percent of the poll respondents favored increasing U.S. troops in Afghanistan, while 40 percent favored decreasing them. And fewer than half, or 46 percent, of those polled said it was somewhat or very likely that Afghanistan would be able to withstand the radicals' threat.

Forty-one percent of those surveyed said the United States plays a less important and powerful role as a world leader than it did a decade ago, up from 25 percent who said that just before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the report said.>>>>

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/03/national/main5879269.shtml

[leftstreet]

1. Reaction to Global Trade, Job off-shoring, Military intervention, etc

Makes sense, and it's not just happening in the US

[Duer 157099]

2. Since when is "mind-your-own-businessism" the same as "isolationism"?

Absurd.

[Xithras]

16. Uh...pretty much always has been.

Isolationism encompasses two concepts:

1. A non-interventionist foreign policy.

2. Domestic policy designed to control trade in order to protect domestic production.

That's been the definition of Isolationism pretty much ever since the word was invented.

And yes, most of us here on DU are isolationists of some type or another. I didn't realize there was any controversy attached to that.

[NJmaverick]

3. Now if only the oceans provided the same protection they used to

[Ken Burch]

9. Y'know, that actually sounds like something House would say.

n/t.

[NJmaverick]

10. Thanks! You sure know how to give a compliment

:hi:

[Romulox]

11. Ummm, have we been subjected to any large-scale military invasions lately?

Oceans still seem to be pretty effective. :hi:

[NJmaverick]

18. No invasions but they did kill a few thousand people and destroy a major landmark

[Romulox]

19. Which doesn't really speak to the effectiveness of the two oceans at protecting

us from any significant military threat...

Nor is the possibility of terrorism much of a defense of spending more on "defense" than any country in the history of mankind; all that crap was useless to protect us! :hi:

[ixion]

4. yep, that's what happens when you realize you're going over a cliff

you start to focus on what's around you and try to stop it.

[Chulanowa]

5. Eight years too late

Funny how sudden this shift is, I think.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. "Isolationism" is a slur that militarists use to describe people who don't think

that the U.S. should boss other countries around.

The REAL isolationists are the military-industrial types themselves, because they are complete chauvinists (in the original sense of the term), "my country right or wrong" types, and they are unable to see that "American interests" (actually, mostly the desire of American corporations for cheap labor and even cheaper raw materials) may conflict with the legitimate interests of other countries.

Yes, Virginia, other countries have legitimate interests, too.

The military-industrialists will ride roughshod over these interests due to their inability to take the other person's point of view.

They are the mental isolationists. Their world view is like that of 12-year-old boys playing Risk. Those aren't real people in those countries, just game pieces.

[JackRiddler]

15. Sort of like the isolationists who didn't consult with Afghans before ordaining Surge II.

[Ken Burch]

7. "isolationism" is an incredibly loaded term

A lot of us who would be so labeled don't want the U.S. to withdraw from involvement from the rest of the world. We just want to withdraw from MILITARY involvement.

It is an incredible failure of imagination to assume that all we have to offer other countries is the capacity for mass killing.

It's not "Isolationism". It's "Positive Engagement".

Why shouldn't we try that, for a change?

The most effective international actions this president has so far taken were speeches, not wars. We should lead with our REAL strength: the capacity to take an honest look at ourselves, realize our errors, stop making them and grow in the process. That is what this president's true promise is. Not the deployment of brigades.

[Romulox]

8. The PTB will not alow us to disengage militarily--there's too much money changing hands.

So they put George Will or his equivalent on the Sunday programs to tell us that it would be "insane" to do other than prosecute continuous war around the world (or to favor our own citizens in trade relations...)

And most of us nod our heads in agreement...

[anonymous171]

12. Isolationism is common sense really. nt

[endless october]

13. isolationism or non-interventionism?

there's a difference.

globalists love to pull out the "isolationist" label to pin on everyone who doesn't embrace globalism and global interventionism completely.

don't want EVERY piece of clothing made in China or Bangladesh? YOU'RE AN ISOLATIONIST!

booga, booga, booga.

[JackRiddler]

14. Even a poll using the slur term comes up with that result.

Screw the Pew and its pro-imperialist language.

(I'd like to see that poll: "Do you support US imperialism?")

This institute always uses the non-partisan cover ID to reinforce the ambient, "centrist" (i.e., in this country: right wing) political bias. Their questions are always loaded.

But look at that excellent result. People have had enough of the empire.

[cowcommander]

17. That's nice...now who do we vote for?

The republicans sure as hell ain't isolationist anymore, and the democrats aren't either.