ORLANDO, Fla. — Conservatives, once the most pro-interventionist segment of the Republican Party, aren’t at all interested in another military entanglement overseas, even if Vladimir Putin is the aggressor.
A day after Russia invaded Ukraine, conservatives who were gathered at their annual confab in Florida sounded more like the anti-war wing of the Democratic Party and a lot less like party neocons of the past who embraced a far more hawkish position on foreign policy and promoted the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Two decades of war after the 9/11 attacks, coupled with President Trump’s four years of “America First” policies have solidified the GOP’s shift away from supporting military entanglements overseas, even among the most conservative Republicans.
“I used to be a staunch defender of our overseas allies and any attack on them was an attack on us,” said Walt Davis, who traveled to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference from Cincinnati, Ohio. “But we can’t do that anymore. We’re exhausted.”
The party’s pivot from military interventionism accelerated under Mr. Trump, who campaigned on removing troops from Afghanistan and promised instead to focus U.S. money and energy on America’s problems, not conflicts overseas.
Mr. Trump hasn’t budged on his position. On Fox News’ “The Laura Ingraham Angle” show Wednesday night, Mr. Trump repeated his call to put U.S. troops on the southern border to stop the influx of illegal immigrants, even as Mr. Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine.
Conservatives are sticking with Mr. Trump’s policy of non-interventionism.
“I don’t want to see our military involved,” said Candice Vega, of Lexington, South Carolina. “I don’t think this would have happened if Trump was in office. I think we have some really shady dealings going on in Ukraine and I don’t want to see any of our troops in the midst of all that.”
Republican lawmakers, aware of their war-weary base, have avoided advocating a significant increase in U.S. military involvement.
Sen. Ted Cruz, who has been among the more hawkish GOP lawmakers, issued a statement calling for “devastating sanctions,” but not troops on the ground.
“No one is calling for the United States to intervene militarily on Ukraine’s behalf, and it would be a catastrophic mistake to do so,” Cruz said.
Although President Biden issued sanctions against Russia, conservatives see these economic punishments as useless.
“Our energy prices are through the roof, the American people are trying to figure out how they’re going to get through these economic times. With that being said, since we are in a weakened position, Putin sees an opening. What’s the worst thing that’s going to happen? They’re going to put sanctions on?” CPAC host and American Conservative Union fellow Mercedes Schlapp told The Times. “The American people don’t want a war. They don’t want to start a war. And so that’s going to be where we’re going to be watching that carefully to see what President Biden ends up deciding.”
Other CPAC attendees wondered what was the American interest in Ukraine and why the U.S. needed to be involved with the conflict at all.
“Where the base is now is very Jacksonian,” retired Army colonel and attorney Kurt Schlicter said. “We are willing to use military force to defend vital American interests. It’s a definition of those interests that’s the challenge. Is Ukraine a vital American interest?”
He added the public may not trust the Biden administration when it comes to sending troops overseas. “They’re unwilling to say, ’Yeah I’m gonna let you risk the lives of our sons and daughters, on some amorphous notion of deterring Putin or stopping Putin,’” he said.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated where a CPAC attendee is from and the spelling of her first name.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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