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I Am Now an Isolationist Republican
I was struck while reading Paul Gigot’s Opinion piece, “The Return of the Isolationist Republicans“, with the realization that I recognize myself and do not think I am wrong.
He lays out his premise with typical skill:
What is most striking is how much this isolationism of the right resembles the traditional isolationism of the left. Isolationists in the Vietnam era argued that America wasn’t good enough for the world. We were baby killers and imperialists. This is the view of today’s pro-Hamas left.
As Charles Krauthammer pointed out 20 years ago, the conservative isolationism that flourished in the 1930s argued the opposite—that America was too good for the world. Our republican values shouldn’t be tarnished by the bloody intrigues of Europe or Asia. But the new isolationists on the right now agree with the left that the U.S. doesn’t deserve to lead the world. They say we are too degraded culturally and too weak fiscally to play the role we did during the Cold War. They say we are too woke and too broke.
Yes, we are. My youthful enthusiasm for spreading the “American Way” to improve the world was based on my belief that our ideals as a nation and capitalist markets were better than the alternative. I am not a “my nation, right or wrong” kind of guy. When we are in the right, we should try to spread the wealth and principles to people less well off. When we are lost and looking for ways to right the ship, we should not be proselytizing our fads through the force of markets.
I have a few years to go before I will have lived half my life in this century, and it doesn’t seem much of an improvement. Cell phones are tiny and powerful, and I can use them to summon a bag of birdseed or a muffler to my doorstep. At the same time, we haven’t passed a federal budget this century and declarations of war have given way to a limit on how many days a President can attack a random country before he has to give a speech before Congress.
This “perfect war” in Ukraine is a sad harbinger of things to come. We now fight wars with other people’s lives, using accumulations of weapons long paid for (requiring new contracts to replenish!), financed by dilution of the global money supply. Everyone wins! Except for the Ukrainians, suckers relying on Social Security or 401(k)s, and any manufacturing companies remaining in Europe.
I am now an Isolationist Republican.
Published in General
I am in the Not Abandon Taiwan camp, but American has not been good friends to it’s allies in a long long time. We are more friendly to our enemies.
True, but we benefit from it. Their purpose may be to fight for THEIR freedom and survival, but the result is that they fight for OUR freedom and survival. For all Free or Semi-Free people actually. May not be their intent, but I’ll certainly take it and respect them.
I’m not saying we should abandon Taiwan either. I’m just saying that there’s no reason to be dependent on Taiwan for manufacturing we could do here.
Stupidity is a reason, so there!
That’s one product we seem to have a lot of.
I have that as a bumper sticker on my vintage Citroen!
Preach brother!
Please tell me how you know what the “average” Ukrainian wants.
And the dead youth are not included in whatever “survey” you go by.
No individual who is commenting on a site like this is able to “ decide” the fate of people across the ocean. We can’t even decide the fate of criminals at our gates.
Do you think their fate is resting on your support?
However, it would not be amiss for them to remark to the world that what they are doing is for everyone else’s benefit, too. And that we should perhaps give them a hand.
Are you trying to tell us that national poverty is a bad thing?
“The future belongs to those who show up for it.” My favorite Steyn quote.
Depends on what you think the war is about. It’s a holy war for Hamas. That doesn’t really have much effect on our de-Christianized society.
Israel has legitimacy to fight. But them counting on us is not wise. We are not reliable (Democrat leadership) and our military might is hollowed out. We look ok, we aren’t ok.
Investment is more than industry. It’s culture, education of your own people, and communities. You can advance technologically without crapping on your neighborhood.
Yeah, we throw money around, but the investing goes to administrators and unions. We Jack up the minimum wage and whine that Americans are too expensive to hire. We import illegal labor with no access to the justice system and over regulate everything, driving up basic living wages and complain Americans aren’t willing to work grueling hours in the heat for wages that require sharing a flat with 10 other men to make rent and save a little.
We make universities outrageously expensive and wonder why our graduates demand higher pay, but refuse to hire them for simple work with a high school degree. So we import people from other countries, give them full scholarships, and hire them at a discount. Since they came from a crap hole, the single bedroom apartment in the crime ridden part of town is an improvement for them. Not so for the pansies whose parents live in McMansions and have never seen a gun in real life or a knife outside the kitchen.
Silicon Valley was a government invested operation as has been widely known for the largest businesses to come out of there. It was funded heavily by debt, which drove up asset value, making bank for early investors and leaving bag holders in debt when the asset bubble burst. So this is hardly the retort you think it is.
I think they pretty much lose this “everyone else’s benefit” argument on the international stage. I’m not saying I personally agree ( I’m unsure) , but way too many people think they are fueling the hatred.
Others believe they are justified, but using the wrong approach. Those arguments have been around since I first began following middle eastern politics in 1979 when I was stuck in Cairo for a year with little else to do but drink strong coffee and read international newspapers.
I still can’t feel even close to understanding what the hell is really going on. But I do know this: The culture of hate certain Arab/Muslim organizations and sects advocate, needs to be eliminated and this will affect civilians.
I’m not an isolationist. I guess my thoughts are reflected in the first two lines of the fourth verse of our National Anthem:
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation,
To me, it’s best to stand between our home and the enemy on foreign soil . . .
The badness of national poverty wasn’t the issue in that exchange.
Kite and Key pretty much sums up our situation. We speak loudly and carry a toothpick
https://www.kiteandkeymedia.com/videos/is-americas-military-ready-for-war/
These days, Silicon Valley is far more about designing than manufacturing.
Although that does make it a lot easier for us to just give up when we lose interest, or an election.
Since the time of Reagan I’ve gradually come to think there isn’t such a close relationship between freedom and prosperity, after all. Maybe best to save it for a different thread.
the claim was about investment not manufacturing-in fact US manufacturing output hasn’t declined- we just do it with fewer employees than ever before. It is less of our GDP b/c we do more in other sectors. One can add a great deal of value w/o manufacturing a durable good.
But relying on other countries to produce our durable goods for us, is risky at minimum. Disastrous if they don’t like us, or change to not liking us.
The disastrousness depends somewhat on which durable goods.
By the way, do bombs and tanks count as durable goods?
Yes-ish? They are us. They could emigrate seamlessly. Unlike some.
It is the only democracy rooted in the Middle-East. And it thrives despite the adversity as life and hope in a pitiless desert.
They are real trading partners. They respect laws. And if their light goes out we will be weaker for it.
This would seem to be applicable.
A huge impediment to producing things here — important to those foreign wars you want to send my friends and neighbors off to fight, MiMac — is the Greenist Church.
talk about putting words into someone’s mouth….
You’re on record supporting our proxy war.
So many lies, so little time…
But at least it’s China that’s fouling the planet to allow the manufacture of steel and not the West.
Depending on China to produce what we’d need to defeat them in war . . . my goodness, we’ve already lost, haven’t we?