Kathleen - let me say this as both an internationalist and as a guy who's spent the last 15+ years full time in international development.
I feel like I dropped the ball by NOT explaining more what JVL laid out here - that this post-WW2 order that includes the IMF, the World Bank, and NATO was not *JUST* done b/c the US is nice.
Kathleen - let me say this as both an internationalist and as a guy who's spent the last 15+ years full time in international development.
I feel like I dropped the ball by NOT explaining more what JVL laid out here - that this post-WW2 order that includes the IMF, the World Bank, and NATO was not *JUST* done b/c the US is nice.
The people who designed this understood this was also very much in America's self-interest. Rebuilding Europe was the right thing - but it created trading partners, created political stability, and made more of the world in America's image.
That always seemed obvious to me.
Starting with Pat Buchanan, there was this revival of the isolationist and anti-Europe wing of the GOP.
Trump being Trump was able to create a powerful narrative. I don't mean "powerful" as in "compelling to me" or to you or to JVL. It was compelling to those who gave little thought to foreign affairs - who deeply distrusted Europe + the highly educated people who led the country and leading media outlets.
And people got it wrong when they sought to prove Trump as Manchurian Candidate - when he was Trump as Putin's Cat's Paw - a useful idiot manipulated by flattery, power and money.
Now I feel like we need to alert people to the threat of social-media-platform algorithms and the flood of disinformation out there supporting Trump and Putin.
MAD is not just an anachronism it’s Mutually Assured Destruction you can’t find economic waste there but it is a shame the Earth gives up so much in the making of it.
Think about it. America's leading position in the world dumps a whole extra load of concerns on the plate of the average American. I had an international friend who used to say, “You Americans are so insular.” I said, we have so much going on within our own country--50 different states—that it is hard to focus on 180 countries." I also said, “Maryland is the size of New Zealand. how much do you know about Maryland?”
I remember Buchanan's attacks on GHWB during the campaign - and as a Bush voter, I wondered why he did not energetically respond.
(And as we learned in retrospect, GHWB was diminished during the 92 campaign. The President didn't seem to respond to Buchanan or to challenges from Clinton and Perot the way he should have.
But I got off my point - was anyone better placed or equipped to respond to the dangers of isolationism and to explain the importance of the international system than GHWB?
Kathleen - let me say this as both an internationalist and as a guy who's spent the last 15+ years full time in international development.
I feel like I dropped the ball by NOT explaining more what JVL laid out here - that this post-WW2 order that includes the IMF, the World Bank, and NATO was not *JUST* done b/c the US is nice.
The people who designed this understood this was also very much in America's self-interest. Rebuilding Europe was the right thing - but it created trading partners, created political stability, and made more of the world in America's image.
That always seemed obvious to me.
Starting with Pat Buchanan, there was this revival of the isolationist and anti-Europe wing of the GOP.
Trump being Trump was able to create a powerful narrative. I don't mean "powerful" as in "compelling to me" or to you or to JVL. It was compelling to those who gave little thought to foreign affairs - who deeply distrusted Europe + the highly educated people who led the country and leading media outlets.
And people got it wrong when they sought to prove Trump as Manchurian Candidate - when he was Trump as Putin's Cat's Paw - a useful idiot manipulated by flattery, power and money.
Now I feel like we need to alert people to the threat of social-media-platform algorithms and the flood of disinformation out there supporting Trump and Putin.
MAD is not just an anachronism it’s Mutually Assured Destruction you can’t find economic waste there but it is a shame the Earth gives up so much in the making of it.
Well said, Howard!
Think about it. America's leading position in the world dumps a whole extra load of concerns on the plate of the average American. I had an international friend who used to say, “You Americans are so insular.” I said, we have so much going on within our own country--50 different states—that it is hard to focus on 180 countries." I also said, “Maryland is the size of New Zealand. how much do you know about Maryland?”
All really well put, Howard. I remember Pat Buchanan's speech at the 1992 R convention. It was full of vitriol.
I remember Buchanan's attacks on GHWB during the campaign - and as a Bush voter, I wondered why he did not energetically respond.
(And as we learned in retrospect, GHWB was diminished during the 92 campaign. The President didn't seem to respond to Buchanan or to challenges from Clinton and Perot the way he should have.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/04/01/barbara-bush-book-george-h-w-bush-bill-clinton-1992-election-graves-disease-226337/)
But I got off my point - was anyone better placed or equipped to respond to the dangers of isolationism and to explain the importance of the international system than GHWB?