By Joel Mathis, The Week

For most of the post-World War II era, the Republican Party has seemed most fully itself when America had an external enemy to confront. For all the neo-isolationism of figures like former President Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson, there are still a few conservatives who miss the old days.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might be their chance for a revival.

“A steely-eyed approach to fighting Soviet communism led to landslide election victories in 1952, 1956, 1972, 1980, 1984, and 1988,” GOP pollster Patrick Ruffini lamented Tuesday on Twitter, likening Carlson’s recent rhetoric to antiwar protesters of an earlier age. “A similar approach to fighting Islamic terror led to the last Republican popular vote victory in 2004. We have lost our way since then.”

There are other signs the old hawkishness that brought about those victories still lurks in a few American hearts. A new poll from the Pew Research Center, released Tuesday, revealed that fully a third of the population — 35 percent — says the U.S. should take military action against Ukraine’s Russian invaders “even if it risks a nuclear conflict with Russia.”

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