Republicans, Democrats split on foreign policy priorities: poll

Democrats and Republicans diverge sharply on foreign policy priorities, a survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found.

The survey found that, when asked to rank the top five threats to U.S. interests, Democrats’ and Republicans’ lists had nothing in common.

Democrats named their top five threats as the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, racial inequality, foreign meddling in American elections and domestic economic inequality. Republicans, meanwhile, named China’s ascendance as a world power, international terrorism, immigration, domestic extremism and Iranian nuclear ambitions.

Under 25 percent of Republican respondents said they believed economic or racial inequality were major threats to U.S. interests. Only 48 percent said the coronavirus pandemic is such a threat, compared to 87 percent of Democrats. Republican respondents placed the pandemic ninth out of 15 potential threats, according to the survey.

Democrats and Republicans were in agreement, however, that a worldwide economic recession represented the sixth-greatest threat.

About two-thirds of Republicans said the U.S. should “actively work to limit the growth of China’s power” and favored restricting scientific exchanges and the number of Chinese students allowed into the nation. Substantial majorities of both Republicans and Democrats supported sanctioning Chinese officials in connection with human-rights abuses and barring American companies from selling China sensitive technology.

Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans support maintaining alliances with European allies and NATO, pollsters found. However, Democrats were more supportive by about 20 points, at 85 percent to 65 percent.

“Republicans favor a nationalist foreign policy that hinges on self-reliance and autonomy and that promotes the use of more direct, forceful means to achieve US goals,” the report states. “These means include maintaining superior military power, economic pressure, independence in decision making, and a more confrontational approach toward China.”

The think tank conducted the survey online July 2-19 among 2,111 adults. It has a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points.