The Foreign Policy About-Face
Joe Lieberman, on his party and how it dealt with enemies:
Beginning in the 1940s, the Democratic Party was forced to confront two of the most dangerous enemies our nation has ever faced: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In response, Democrats under Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy forged and conducted a foreign policy that was principled, internationalist, strong and successful.
This was the Democratic Party that I grew up in – a party that was unhesitatingly and proudly pro-American, a party that was unafraid to make moral judgments about the world beyond our borders. It was a party that understood that either the American people stood united with free nations and freedom fighters against the forces of totalitarianism, or that we would fall divided.
This was the Democratic Party of Harry Truman, who pledged that "it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."
And this was the Democratic Party of John F. Kennedy, who promised in his inaugural address that the United States would "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of freedom."
And then came the late 1960s, and it turned upside-down. Or, perhaps more correctly, inside-out. Read the whole thing.
[tags]Joe Lieberman,Democrats,foreign policy[/tags]
Filed under: Democrats • Doug • Government • Politics • War
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As I’ve noted here before, I think, to the extent that Lieberman is right, they chose this internationalist policeman role contrary to the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson and others of the founding fathers. They understood the power of peaceful pursuits and diplomatic/trade-oriented direct action, as well as the undermining poison of unnecessary war.
“Believing that the happiness of mankind is best promoted by the useful pursuits of peace, that on these alone a stable prosperity can be founded, that the evils of war are great in their endurance, and have a long reckoning for ages to come, I have used my best endeavors to keep our country uncommitted in the troubles which afflict Europe, and which assail us on every side…”
“Nothing but the failure of every peaceable mode of redress, nothing but dire necessity, should force us from the path of peace which would be our wisest pursuit, to embark in the broils and contentions of Europe and become a satellite to any power there…”
“[Many] years of peace and the prosperity so visibly flowing from it have but strengthened our attachment to it and the blessings it brings, and we do not despair of being always a peaceable nation. We think that peaceable means may be devised of keeping nations in the path of justice towards us by making justice their interest and injuries to react on themselves…”
“I do not believe war the most certain means of enforcing principles. Those peaceable coercions which are in the power of every nation, if undertaken in concert and in time of peace, are more likely to produce the desired effect…”
“War is not the best engine for us to resort to; nature has given us one in our commerce, which, if properly managed will be a better instrument for obliging the interested nations of Europe to treat us with justice…”
“A world in arms and trampling on all those moral principles which have heretofore been deemed sacred in the intercourse between nations, could not suffer us to remain insensible of all agitation. During such a
course of lawless violence, it was certainly wise to withdraw ourselves from all intercourse with the belligerent nations, to avoid its pernicious effects on manners and morals and the dangers it threatens to free governments, and to cultivate our own resources until our natural and progressive growth should leave us nothing to fear from foreign enterprise…”
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All of which is not to say that the founders were pacifists, by any means, but rather that they thoroughly undestood the evil nature of war and how it poisons a democracy and how it should be TRULY a last resort of defense, and not the “pre-emptive defensive attack” that it’s being used as these days. By both Dems and Republicans, but in the last 30 years, especially Republicans.
Quotes all from Jefferson, by the way.
The democrats are not as strong as they used to be, but they used to be a powerhouse. I guess for the most part our country has been republican, but I for one, appreciate the delicate balance of the two for the perfect country, when they can both get along. Too bad it doesn’t happen too much!