From my latest at Based Politics, “Carlson brought up two important points. For one, why should Americans die because of a conflict between Russia and Ukraine? Secondly, he reminded viewers that elites in both parties will clamor for war every time an international conflict arises.

Carlson is on to something. For the Right, an ‘America First’ foreign policy should mean putting actual Americans before elites’ interests and ideologies…

Most sensible people likely recoil at the idea of risking putting American lives on the line over Ukraine.

Yet to the degree that the American public can be convinced to support a war, how they consume their news—including mostly Republican and independent voters watching big time players like Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham—can play an important role.

Yes, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney had 9/11 as justification for their wars, but those who lived through it remember how much the conservative-leaning Fox News pushed for our military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. That two of the top personalities at Fox News now put out a non-interventionist message—something anti-war conservatives and libertarians couldn’t have fathomed 15 years ago—is a sight to behold.

Former President Donald Trump blew up the old definition of what constitutes a conservative or Republican foreign policy. Today, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham can’t say ‘America First’ enough…”

Read the entire column.

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Never Trump Republicans biggest problem with Trump has always been his ‘America First’ foreign policy

What does every current Never Trump Republican member of Congress have in common besides being against Donald Trump? They are staunchly opposed to the former president’s ‘America First’ foreign policy.

For these Never Trumpers, this is not a bug, it’s a feature.

I am not saying that Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney and Adam Kinzinger were not legitimately horrified by the Capitol riot on January 6, 2020. I was too. It was a terrible and embarrassing day for the United States.

I am saying that if President Trump pursued the same foreign policy as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, you would not have heard as much criticism of Trump from Mrs. Cheney, Romney and Kinzinger. Even about January 6.

If Trump was a neoconservative “warmongering fool,” Liz Cheney would be his greatest supporter. Even after Trump claimed the election was stolen. Even after January 6.

— Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) May 12, 2021

Because before January 6, there was March 20, 2003 – the day the U.S. invaded Iraq. I don’t have to revisit every granular detail of that debacle to recall what most Americans and the world have long known: The U.S. intervention in Iraq was arguably the worst foreign policy mistake in our nation’s history. Trump rightly called the Iraq war “the worst mistake, the most costly mistake in the history of our country.”

Liz Cheney does not think the Iraq war was a mistake, and has long appeared to want to repeat that mistake in Iran. Mitt Romney has always adhered to Bush-era neoconservative foreign policy, has long defended the Iraq war, and like Cheney, wouldn’t mind doing it again in Iran. Similar to Cheney and Romney, Adam Kinzinger is not a fan of the U.S. pulling troops out of any combat zone at any time.

Not surprisingly, Kinzinger is opposed to the removal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Here is the congressman’s recent comments on that front, including bashing Trump for pursuing troop withdrawal, along with a follow up by advisor to Sen. Rand Paul, Doug Stafford:

No, warmongers like you who want to nation build and police the world forever own this. 15 years ago or 15 years from now, it would be the same result.

But much like your political judgement, your foreign policy judgement is god awful.

Enjoy your last few months in office. https://t.co/sC0lTKgu81

— Doug Stafford (@dougstafford) August 13, 2021

Romney predictably hates that U.S. troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan.

The Biden administration’s unwillingness to alter the Afghan withdrawal plan based on changing circumstances on the ground & the grave implications for US security interests is a tragedy & a cause for serious concern about how the administration will deal with global challenges. https://t.co/rM43t2uakH

— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) August 11, 2021

And of course for Liz Cheney, permanent war is a religion.

What’s happening in Afghanistan is catastrophic. US forces on the ground were working w/Afghan forces to prevent terrorists from establishing safe havens from which they can attack us again.

Withdrawing US forces is allowing terrorists & their allies to take over the country.

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) August 9, 2021

Stafford is right that in 15 years or even 100 years, the chaos happening in Afghanistan right now after troop withdrawal was always inevitable. The only alternative is the U.S. staying there forever.

Which Cheney, Romney and Kinzinger would have no problem with.

There is no time that Cheney, Romney or Kinzinger would advocate for avoiding war or ending a war that the hawkish Washington foreign policy establishment wanted to start or continue.

They will never say it forthright in public, but what the current Never Trump Republicans in Congress hate most is that Donald Trump significantly changed the conversation about what Republican foreign policy should be. Liz Cheney is part of a family that was able to almost exclusively define Republican foreign policy for a generation.

No more. ‘America First’ has now replaced the tired and disproven ‘If we don’t fight them over there, we’re going to have to fight them here.’ After all these war-weary years, fewer Americans than ever believe that anymore.

Fewer Republicans than ever believe it – and Never Trump perpetual war propagandists can’t stand it.

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