Latest poll shows popular support slipping for 'endless war' in Ukraine
Another big win for Warnock last night in Georgia
With the war in Ukraine in its 10th month, and no end in sight, Americans are split over whether Washington should urge Ukraine to reach a peace settlement with Russia ASAP.
The latest survey finds popular support for the war still strong but slipping month by month. The survey, conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, finds that much of that support is based on “media spin” and media-driven (depending on which news shows we watch) and perceptions of who’s winning — Russia or Ukraine. A plurality (46%) believes that neither country has the advantage.
In an October University of Maryland poll, Americans who thought Ukraine was succeeding and Russia was losing were more willing to pay higher energy prices and tolerate increased inflation. There are similar relationships found in the Council survey.
Separately, Americans are now closely divided on whether Washington should support Ukraine “as long as it takes” (48%, down from 58% in July 2022) or whether Washington should urge Ukraine to settle for peace as soon as possible (47%, up from 38% in July).
Support for the war, as you might expect, falls out along party lines. Democrats continue to support the war in greater numbers than Republicans but there are some emerging voices of dissent within both parties as well as between the White House cold-war hawks and some Pentagon brass like General Mark Milley who is openly calling for peace negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian leaders, including President Putin.
Milley has compared the current situation to World War I, when the two sides ground to a stalemate within months but kept fighting for three more years at the cost of millions of lives.
When 30 members of Congress called on Biden to negotiate directly with Putin, their call was immediately retracted under pressure from Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership.
An Edu/Pol salute goes out to Senator Raphael Warnock and the hundreds of campaign workers who brought home the victory last night in the Georgia senate race. Warnock defeated Trump’s hand-picked, buffoonish candidate Herschel Walker, with a little more than 51% of the vote. The win will deliver Democrats a 51st vote in the Senate, giving them a little breathing room and blunting the power of Republicrats like Joe Manchin as they face the next two years of inter-party warfare with Republicans who gained control of the House.
The race drew astronomical levels of spending, with more than $380 million pouring in before the end of November, largely in favor of Warnock.
“We stand here tonight on broad shoulders, our ballot is a blood-stained ballot,” Warnock reminded his supporters, dipping into the history of civil rights. “Now it is on us, the latest generation of Americans and of Georgians, to keep building that bridge, to keep walking that long walk, pushing the nation towards our ideals.”