The Truman administration's push for what became NATO was supported by Sen. Arthur Vandenberg, an isolationist-turned-internationalist.
Foreign crises, wars, and national unity are rare. In New York City, riots broke out over the prospect of a draft. George McClellan was Lincoln's opponent in the 1864 election. Americans have fought wars in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. In World War II, discontent over everything from military strategy to home front policies divided us politically. According to the New York Times, in the 1942 midterms, Democrats lost eight Senate seats and 45 House seats because of voter discontent.
The result did not suggest a lack of enthusiasm for the war effort. When Americans are attacked, they are more willing to pay the cost of conflict.
Between the outbreak of World War II in Europe and the entry of the U.S. into that war, the nation was divided. The push to aid Great Britain with arms faced fierce opposition. Even though he was from the isolationist base of his party, it was his 1940 GOP opponent, Wendell Willkie, who provided critical backing for the Lend-Lease proposal. The vote to extend the peacetime draft passed the House by a single vote.
There was only one vote against the declaration of war when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. With more than 16 million Americans serving in the armed forces, and the United States mobilized, complaints were often met with the rejoinder, "Don't You Know There's a War On?"
Not always. On January 18, 1943, a ban on sliced bread was imposed by the Secretary of Agriculture. According to the New York Times, officials explained that the ready-sliced loaf must have a heavier wrapping than an unsliced one if it is not to dry out.
The ousting of the Taliban in Afghanistan was made easy by the deaths of nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The establishment of a massive intelligence infrastructure was not objected to at all. When the war in Iraq turned into a military quagmire and a political disaster, widespread dissent was not heard until the Bush administration headed into it. In Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan, the prospect of victory in a conflict is lost and discontent grows.
Americans lose their patience in the absence of a direct attack. The political cost of the shocks at the gas pumps in 1973 and 1979 was incurred by Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. Republicans may stand and cheer during the State of the Union address when Biden assails Russia, but they are already blaming the president's environmental and energy policies as the cost of gasoline rises, and that blame is likely to have political resonance.
Biden and the Democrats may be wise not to put too much stock in the polls. They will have a half-life that will last until November.
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