AMERICANS AREN'T RALLYING AROUND THE FLAG

We know that Americans didn't want military action against Venezuela before it happened:

A September YouGov poll found just 16% support for a “U.S. invasion of Venezuela,” with 62% opposed. And this is a pretty stable result: By mid-December, Quinnipiac found 63% of registered voters opposed “U.S. military action inside Venezuela,” with only 25% in support....

Data for Progress found in December that 60% of likely voters opposed “sending American troops into Venezuela to remove President Maduro from power,” versus 33% in favor. September YouGov polling on using military force “to overthrow Maduro” found 53% opposed and just 18% in support, with the rest unsure....

CBS News ... found Americans opposed to military action in Venezuela by a 40-point [70%-30%] margin....

But Americans usually rally around the flag after the military acts. That happened when George W. Bush invaded Iraq, for instance. It's not happening now.

YouGov says that Americans oppose this invasion by a 41%-34% margin.

And The Washington Post, in a poll conducted by text, finds similar results:

It's not surprising that Americans have tended to rally around the flag, at least at first, for our major military incursions -- Afghanistan, the first and second Iraq wars. But in the past, Americans have rallied around the flag (and the president) for "quickie" invasions as well. They did in 1983:

President Reagan's handling of the invasion of Grenada appears to have produced wide-ranging political benefits for him, a new Washington Post-ABC News opinion poll indicates.

The poll, released Tuesday night, shows that Reagan has edged ahead of the two leading Democratic candidates in trial heats for the 1984 election for the first time since April....

Seventy-one percent in the survey said they approve of the invasion of Grenada, with only 22 percent saying they disapprove.

And the "quickie" war that's the most obvious precedent for this one was also popular in real time, as the Los Angeles Times reported in 1989:

Americans strongly support the massive U.S. invasion of Panama and agree with President Bush that “it’s been worth it” despite the loss of American lives, The Times Poll found Thursday.

... on the second day of the invasion by more than 20,000 U.S. Marines, paratroopers, infantrymen, sailors and airmen, American citizens interviewed by The Times Poll were supporting the attack by a ratio of more than 5 to 1, with 77% approving and only 15% disapproving. In fact, 56% approved “strongly.”

I'd like to believe that this military action is far more unpopular because Americans despise Donald Trump, and because it's in blatant defiance of the rule of law. But I don't think that's the explanation. I think Americans have become so cynical about war after Iraq and Afghanistan -- and after other shocks to the system, like COVID and the 2008 financial crisis -- that rallying around the flag seems unimaginable now, at least when Americans can't see a pressing need to act.

Most Republicans are thrilled, despite all their past rhetoric about not getting America entangled in foreign conflicts: 60% of Republicans support this military action, according to YouGov, with 16% opposed; in the Washington Post poll, 74% of Republicans approve and only 10% disapprove. Chuck Schumer is an idiot:

Schumer: "Republicans must -- if there was ever a time, they must step up to the plate. This is the time. And if they don't, they're gonna feel the heat from their constituents."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 5, 2026 at 9:35 AM

Republican voters don't care about the War Powers Act. They just want their guy to win, and they think he's winning now. (Though I'm surprised that GOP support isn't in the 80s or 90s.)

The rest of us are disillusioned. If Trump and his henchmen think they'll distract us from the economy and Epstein by invading a series of countries, that not going to work at all.