Democrats have become the party of war. Americans are tired of it (WTF? Guardian?)

[Coventina]

The most devastating appraisal of the 2024 Democratic national convention was delivered by the neoconservative doyen Bill Kristol: “Leon Panetta quoting Ronald Reagan! My kind of Democratic convention.” He meant it as praise.

Earlier in the day, rumors had been flying around Chicago about that evening’s possible surprise speakers. Who would it be? Beyoncé? Taylor Swift? Close! It turned out to be the 86-year-old former CIA director and secretary of defense who last served in government over a decade ago. In his speech, he cited Ronald Reagan to rail against “isolationism”, telling the assembled crowd: “Our warriors need a tough, cool-headed commander-in-chief to defend our democracy from tyrants and terrorists,” and declaring that Kamala Harris would be that leader.

Trotting out an ageing national security mandarin to reminisce about the “war on terror” was both tone deaf, and, like the Harris campaign in general, seemed like a huge misread of what voters wanted from prospective commanders-in-chief in 2024.

As I watched Panetta walk out on to the stage, I was reminded of the 2016 Democratic convention, where Gen John Allen, who had headed US efforts in Afghanistan and later against Isis, was the featured national security validator. Apparently under orders to terrify everyone, Allen delivered a blistering speech about the US as the “indispensable and transformational power in the world” and assured the crowd that Hillary Clinton would use that power to defeat “the forces of chaos and darkness”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jan/09/democrats-war-foreign-policy

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Articles like this is why I never give the Guardian money.