The chart above shows the results of a new survey from the Pew Research Center. Between July 14th and 20th, they asked 1,672 American adults who had heard about the Iran Deal whether they approved or disapproved of that deal. The survey has a margin of error of 2.7 points.
Overall, the American public doesn't like the deal. Only 38% of then approved of it, while 48% disapproved of it. Democrats overwhelmingly approved of it (59%) and Republicans overwhelmingly disapproved of it (75%). Generally, the more educated a person was the more likely they approved of it, and the older a person was the more likely they disapproved of it.
That's OK. I understand that most Americans don't trust Iran. Relations between the two countries haven't been good for quite a while now -- and the roots of that distrust stretch all the way back to the 1950's, when the CIA overthrew the elected government of Iran and installed the Shah. Iranians don't trust the American government any more than Americans trust the Iranian government.
But that is not what bothers me. I am wondering whether the dislike of this deal by the public will translate into support for Congress to kill the deal. Do Americans want the deal to be defeated? Do they think we could go back to the status quo if the deal is defeated in Congress -- with all the sanctions remaining intact?
If so, then they are as foolish as the Republicans (and some Democrats) in Congress who are opposing the deal. Whether they like it or not, we no longer have a choice about whether to implement the deal or not -- and that's just a fact.
We were not the only nation that helped to negotiate this deal, and the only reason the sanctions were working was because a whole host of nations had joined in the imposing of those sanctions. Those other nations want to give the deal a chance to work, and they will not re-impose the sanctions just because the American Congress defeats the deal. Russia, China, and I suspect a lot of Western nations, will then view the United States as the stumbling block to a successful deal to keep nuclear weapons out of Iran.
They will lift their sanctions. They will trade with Iran. And they will begin to buy Iranian oil once again. Even if the United States re-imposed sanctions, they would be alone in doing it (and we saw how well a unilateral sanction works with our silly unilateral embargo of Cuba) -- and that would not work. The result would be that Iran, without sanctions, would be free to do whatever it wanted to do about nuclear weapons.
The only way universal sanctions could be re-imposed is if we give the deal a chance to work and Iran doesn't live up to their part of the deal -- not by a congressional rejection of the deal. In other words, we no longer have a choice about whether to go along with the deal or not. We have to do it. And the American public needs to realize that -- and stop listening to those in Congress wanting to use this issue to play political games.
