Michelle Goldberg is a mixed bag. Some weeks she writes something surprisingly thoughtful and doesn't just float along with the lazy mainstream. Unfortunately, this is not one of those weeks. Today she has a new column titled "Trump Is Trying to Bully America Into Supporting His War. It Won’t Work."
The point of the column is to compare this current moment with how things were in the early days if the Iraq War when George W. Bush was president.
If you didn’t live through it, it’s hard to convey the atmosphere of stifling conformity that choked the country in the run-up to that disaster. Much of the Democratic Party fell in line; authorization for military force against Iraq passed the Senate 77 to 23. Phil Donahue was fired by MSNBC for giving voice to the antiwar movement. Artists were canceled for expressing their opposition...
Trump has received no such deference for his adventurism in Iran, so he’s trying to force it...
Republicans, being largely in lock step with Trump, continue to broadly support the war. But conservative influencers, a crucial part of the right’s propaganda ecosystem, are bitterly divided. Joe Rogan, who backed Trump in the 2024 election and even attended the inauguration, said Trump supporters feel “betrayed.”...
Tucker Carlson, one of the most listened-to Republican podcasters, has called the war “absolutely disgusting and evil.”...
There was far more criticism of Trump at the Oscars on Sunday than there was of Bush in 2003. The host, Conan O’Brien, and Jimmy Kimmel both mocked him...“One Battle After Another” — a thriller about resistance to a Christian nationalist, anti-immigrant brand of American fascism — won best picture.
And that's really all there is to it. I don't think Goldberg spent a long time on this one. Her basic argument is that the early 2000s were a time of terrible pro-Bush conformity and that was bad. Now we live in a much better world of anti-war conformity and that's a lot better.
It's a thin argument and one that ignores a lot of things that might undermine it, starting with the fact that people seem to be warming up to the war in Iran. Here's what the Washington Post reported last Thursday.
A new Washington Post poll released Thursday should provide the Trump administration at least a little reason for optimism.
While the Post’s poll last week showed Americans opposed Trump’s strikes against Iran 52%-39%, this one suddenly showed about an even split on the “U.S. military campaign against Iran” — 42% in support, 40% opposed.
It’s now that second poll to suggest this war isn’t so unpopular, along with a Fox News survey showing an even 50%-50% split among registered voters.
There are other polls of course, but there's at least some evidence that the initial reaction may not be the same as the later reaction.
As for the rest of her arguments, they're equally weak. I guess if you haven't been paying attention at all, the fact that Tucker Carlson doesn't support Trump attacking Iran is big news. But if you've been watching Tucker talk over the past two years then you probably know he's undergone a major shift in his perspective. He now spends a lot of his time inviting anti-Semitic talkers like Ian Carroll and Nick Fuentes on to his show. He's joined in this by others like Candace Owens and increasingly Megyn Kelly. Some have even questioned whether Carlson is a conservative at all these days. All that to say, Tucker turning on Trump isn't really news and seems to pre-exist the attack on Iran. Also, the dislike seems to be mutual these days.
Finally, the fact that Trump is being attacked by Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien proves what exactly? Kimmel has been attacking Trump for years at this point on a nightly basis. Also, the fact that a political movie about violent leftists wont the Best Picture Oscar doesn't really surprise me. Hollywood almost always goes with whatever film is the most political in a given year. So they did what they always do. Big surprise.
If Goldberg has any point at all it's only that the left is feeling confident these days to do what they want to do anyway. They aren't hiding it or being quiet about it. The resistance is feeling emboldened to say the stuff it has been saying since 2016. No doubt it will keep saying it until 2029 and will only stop then if a Democrat is elected.
As for Iran, I think the jury is still out. The war will become very unpopular if it a) drags on for months, b) causes energy prices to skyrocket and c) results in a lot of American soldiers being killed. I think there's no doubt Americans aren't up for a long, expensive conflict.
On the other hand, if this is mostly over in a few months and one of the world's biggest supporters of terrorism is gone, I think it's possible many Americans could warm up to the idea. In other words, it all depends on where it goes from here. Progressives and Tucker Carlson may be riding high at the moment, confident this is going to be a disaster, but that's not actually the case yet. Don't count your anti-war chickens before they hatch.
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