Why it mattersFor almost 15 years, since the Iraq war became an unpopular drag on President George W. Bush, Democrats have generally opposed extended military interventions in other nations. So it’s not surprising that most of the 2020 candidates would want to bring troops home from Afghanistan and Syria sooner rather than later. The twist is that this is a rare issue on which, ideologically, Mr. Trump is more aligned with Democrats than Republicans — which creates an awkward political situation for the Democrats, who would not normally decline an opportunity to rebuke Mr. Trump. But even under previous presidents, foreign policy has split Democrats, often painfully. John Kerry famously had to walk that tightrope as the party’s presidential nominee in 2004, when an increasingly antiwar electorate denounced his previous support for the Iraq war.

Source: New York Times February 05, 2019 23:37 UTC