Last night my Dad and I watched CBS Evening News because his usual, ABC, was pre-empted by a sports match. I’m sure Bari Weiss is putting her thumb on the scale somehow, but the main story was the Iran War and how unpopular it is, according to the most recent CBS News/YouGov poll.
Across months of the Iran conflict, the public continues to express three main ideas:
A perceived lack of clarity about what's happening day to day in the Strait of Hormuz.
There are plenty of important goals the U.S. could seek, now that we're in the conflict.
The conflict is not going well.
So today, as fighting escalates again, most Americans pick "uncertain" and "frustrated" as the top ways to describe their personal feelings about it.
Either way, now most are expecting the conflict to take months or even years longer, with a big majority saying it's been harder than the Trump administration anticipated.
76% of respondents think the war was harder than expected. Only 9% think the war will go on for just days or weeks (the rest think months or years). 67% think we should end the conflict now (down from 78% last month). 83% of respondents age 18-29 think it should be ended now. The percentage who think that Trump is making the war sound better than it is stands at 60%. Disapproval of going to war is 61%.
Large majorities of respondents also blame higher gas prices on the war, and say those prices are a financial struggle. They also oppose new tariffs. Trump is at 35% approval for his handling of the Iran War.
So, it’s unpopular, clearly. But then there’s this:
The report I saw last night played tape of two Democrats speaking. The first was Bernie Sanders, saying we should get out now (and therefore saying what 67% of Americans believe). Then there was a clip of Hakeem Jeffries similar to the one Joe posted yesterday, with his affordability message.
As John and I discussed in the comments to Joe’s post yesterday, “affordability” is tough single message because Democrats don’t have a lot of control over prices. Gas prices are the one example where Democrats could call for a simple change that would make a big difference: ending the war in Iran. But the top of the party won’t do it, because some of them secretly like the idea of pounding Iran (despite clear evidence that it hasn’t been effective), and some are shitpants scared of Republicans calling them weak. People know that, and that’s why think that Trump and Republicans have a better approach to Iran, even though they all agree that the war is terrible and we should get out.
Mushy “affordability” messaging will do nothing to change that attitude.
