Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
John McCain thinks so. Speaking at the Foreign Policy Initiative, a DC-based think tank with ties to William Kristol, McCain had this to say about Rand Paul:
"I think there are going to be some tensions within our party," McCain said during a conference put on by Foreign Policy Initiative, a DC-based think tank. "I worry a lot about the rise of protectionism and isolationism in the Republican Party."
A prime example, McCain continued, was Rand Paul, Kentucky's next U.S. Senator.
"I admire his victory, but ... already he has talked about withdrawals [and] cuts in defense," McCain said....
Alright, I think McCain needs to simmer down. There's a difference between suggesting cuts to a wasteful defense budget and being an isolationist. Robert Gates, after all, has suggested cuts to the defense budget too. Does that make the secretary of defense an isolationist? And what evidence do we have that Paul is a protectionist? The evidence, actually, points in the other direction.
Matt Welch's analysis of all this is worth a read, if for the lead paragraph alone. Writing at Reason.com, he asks,
Was it all just a bad dream? Feels like 1997 all over again–first David Brooks calls for a hacktacular new "National Greatness" movement in American politics, and now Sen John McCain (R-Ariz.) is snarling about "protectionism and isolationism" in the GOP...
Seeing Rand Paul on CNN a day or two after the election, talking cogently to Wolf Blitzer about how no serious agenda of fiscal responsibility can avoid scaling back military spending, was almost an out-of-body experience. You mean...Republican senators...can say that? Out loud and everything? Well, they used to, and they finally are again, and they may have willing partners in a weakened Democratic Party, all of which is why the National Greatness gang is trying to snuff out the GOP strain before it spreads.
- Comment (15)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
I am glad to see Sen McCain back to his true form…alienating conservative Republicans!
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
That's right, he's back for business!
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
For once, I am inclined to side with John McCain. Time and again, in straitened financial circumstances, liberal commercial regimes have cut defensive spending and engaged in wishful thinking with regard to foreign threats. That is what happened in the late 1690s, and it produced the War of the Spanish Succession. That is what happened in the 1930s, and it produced the Second World War. In the meantime, I read that the Chinese now have rockets capable of shutting down four of our five main bases on the periphery of Asia. Soon they will be in a position also to destroy the one in Guam. What this means for us in the long run I shudder to think. If Rand Paul is anything like his father, he is, indeed, an isolationist. I would like, however, to think that he has better sense.
Edited on Nov 16, 2010 at 8:48amNov '10
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
As with everything, the devil is in the details. Are we talking about blanket defense cuts, to the exclusion of other spending? Of course I'll be against that. Are we carefully selecting non-essential programs along with significant cuts the social part of the budget? Well, now we can talk.
Sep '10
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
I will respectfully disagree with Dr. Rahe, not with the fact that we need to fund defense, but that the current level of defense spending is in some way a bare minimum (or an optimum). We spend 5 times what the Chinese spend (who are our next competitor) and more than twice what they spend as a percentage of GDP. I am not calling for parity, but I am calling for restraint now. In the future, if we get spending on sustainable levels, we can again worry about how to give defence a bigger slice of the pie. For now, in order to develop the credibility weneed for entitlement reform (which is the hard part) we need to leave no sacred cow out of the budget process.
May '10
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
Exactly right. I haven't heard much from Rand Paul on any subject, but I've heard his father make statements that were undeniably isolationist.
I don't know Rand Paul's views. But the issue is less what he believes are reasonable cuts to our defense capabilites and more the circumstances under which he believes military actions are justified. His father's philosophy seems basically to be, "If they hit us, we'll hit back"... which is extremely short-sighted.
May '10
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
Anytime two or more of the words "Paul," "military," "international," or "Congress" appear in the same sentence I get very nervous. I can take defense spending cuts. I can't take a diminished capability to project force. Forgive me if I think Ron Paul doesn't know the difference or doesn't care; as for Rand Paul, I guess we'll have to see.
Apples and oranges. Our interests, responsibilities and commitments also dwarf the Chinese.
May '10
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
I think this is another case of Senator McCain talking out of his rear end again. Rand Paul is, like Ron Paul, an advocate for free trade. Furthermore, what prevents McCain from being a true believer in the free market is his support for prolific military spending. "Big government" includes the welfare state as well as the warfare state.
Oct '10
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
Ron Paul is not an isolationist. He is a non-interventionist and a free-trader. As for Rand Paul, he does not appear to have the same foreign policy views as his father.
$700 billion in defense spending? Come on. Some of that is just disguised foreign aid, and we are propping up Europe's bloated welfare state.
It's time for some reasonable cuts to the military budget.
May '10
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
Dolt McCain tacks on "protectionist" when Rand couldn't be further from it, in hopes his silly "isolationist" slur gets more traction. So sad. Of course they should scale back defense spending. Along with all other spending. That's what you do when times are tight. If the discussion can't even be had without ridiculous instant ad hominem attacks then we are really in a sorry state.
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
There are some things that one does not do without great risk -- especially "when times are tight." The chief justification for the existence of the federal government is national defense. It could abandon education, agriculture, health, human services, and the like in their entirety, and there still would be a country -- perhaps one even more worth living in than the one in which we reside. Were it to abandon national defense, we would be lost. It is in times like these that liberal democracies tend to be penny-wise and pound-foolish. If we spend too much on defense, we lose very little. If we spend too little, we can lose everything.
Jul '10
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
The Pauls can wave their free trade magic wands all they like. The fact of the matter is that trade is dependent on shipping. Open sea lanes are predicated on both foreign entanglements and the credible projection of American power.
Chaos off the Somali coast notwithstanding, goods move easily in the world now. Are you so certain that will continue in a Pauline Fortress America?
Edited on Nov 16, 2010 at 8:17pmMay '10
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
I agree with tms. Much of our military spending is thinly-veiled foreign aid. The American military is tasked with defending the U.S., Western Europe, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and a litany of other nations.
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
It is no accident that these have been our principal trading partners. We depend, as Palaeologus observes, on open sea lanes.
Sep '10
Re: Is Rand Paul an Isolationist?
Lots of good points I had not considered, but a few personal anecdotes. I used to contract with the DOD for infrastructure projects. Military bases in the US struggle to find sensible projects for all the money they are allotted. Administrators and civil servants at these bases high five each other when they get all their allotted money spent. They deride other bases who are unable to spend their allotment. At the end of the fiscal year, unspent money is pooled and allotted to bases that have shovel ready projects (I remember being up against a $200,000 flag pole one year, the flag pole won). Hundreds of civil servants on each base have been moved from jobs that no longer were required to do nothing evironmental jobs akin to junior park ranger (let's track the squirrel population). It is not a total waste, but it is a little sickening at times.
With respect to the US' responsibilites being larger than others, I would concede that point, but I still believe their is huge room for economy that would not substantailly jeopardize our security.