Harvard Poll: Plurality of Young 2020 Voters Oppose U.S. Nation-Building

A plurality of young, likely 2020 presidential election voters oppose the United States nation-building and toppling foreign governments around the world, a new Harvard poll reveals.

The latest Harvard Insitute of Politics (IOP) Youth polls finds that the noninterventionist, “America First” platform embraced by President Trump during the 2016 presidential election remains popular with young likely voters.

For likely 2020 voters between 18 and 29-years-old, nearly four-in-ten said they opposed the idea that the U.S. should use its military to topple foreign dictators and promote democracy globally. Meanwhile, less than 25 percent of young likely 2020 voters said they supported nation-building policies like those previously carried out in Iraq and Libya by the Bush and Obama administrations.

Across party lines, young voters are more likely than not to oppose foreign interventionism. Among young Republicans, about 34 percent said they opposed such policies, while 30 percent said they agreed with nation-building.

Similarly, 35 percent of young Democrats and 32 percent of young swing voters said they opposed nation-building, interventionist policies, while small minorities in each demographic group disagreed.

A plurality of young likely 2020 voters also agree with Trump that foreign countries should be paying more for receiving military protection from the U.S. Overall, about 40 percent of likely 2020 voters between 18 and 29-years-old said they agreed that foreign countries should pay more for U.S. military protection. Only 20 percent disagreed.

Trump’s call for other countries to pay more for U.S. military protection has majority support from young Republican voters — 56 percent of whom agree and only 25 percent of whom disagree.

Overseas, U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan have left up to 507,000 people dead and more than 60,000 American soldiers killed or wounded. In Iraq, alone, there have been nearly 300,000 deaths since the War on Terror started between 2001 and 2003. About $6 trillion in American taxpayer money has been spent waging wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria since 2001.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.