Jeane Kirkpatrick's recent death has people talking about her. In this Slate article by Timothy Noah I found that I agree with her in one respect, she wrote against running around democratizing other countries.
She noted, correctly, that democracy is complicated and not easy to establish or maintain, and certainly can't be imposed. Of course she was an architect of neoconservatism, and as such our similarities probably stop there.
The mark she left on neoconservatives that is most conspicuous to me comes through in her "Blame America First" speech (the "blame America" tear is 3/4 of the way down the page) from the 1984 Republican Convention. This speech helped to remove introspection from the behaviors tolerated by patriots. Of course she was a Democrat still, but not for long. She became a Republican in '85.
Upon reading the whole speech she seems a bit paranoid in retrospect, although it was the cold war and things were different then. However, by suggesting we should refrain from introspection (she does this by mocking those who might hold ourselves accountable), she helped enable the justification for war in Iraq, the enacting of the draconian Patriot Act and the generally bad choices made by the Bush administration via marginalizing all who questioned the the President.
It is not surprising that even she, a smart if misguided lady, supported war in Iraq despite holding onto the idea that democratization wasn't possible. So, she was for the war but against the impossible, the democratisation of Iraq via our intervention.
That leaves me with one lingering question. What's the point of justifying a war to remove a despot, only to replace him with another? You have to be very confident that you can pick a better despot than the guy you just ousted.
Washington Crossing the Delaware
A true hero, Washington could have been North America's Napolean, but instead, surrendered power. Some of today's leaders might learn a thing or two from this guy.
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Thanks for the post, did Jeane Kirkpatrick coin the phrase "Blame America First"? I currently associate it with Fox News Talking Head Sean Hannity and CNBC Supply-Side Economics Evangelist Larry Kudlow, but attacking critics and questioning their patriotism instead of engaging in rational debate is a tactic used throughout the right-wing noise machine. With breathtaking hypocrisy, the right-wing noise machine is now blaming the Iraq War disaster on the American public for stabbing Bush in the back. See Ken Ashford's post for more about that.
Being 1984 I think she did, since that would also be about the time that the Republican and Democratic foreign policies strayed so sharply from each other.
Before then, I think foreign policy choices were more personal and less ideological. From Truman on the cold war had most Presidents following the same basic foreign policy strategy.
I think it was during Reagan that the Republicans began to to identify with a much tougher foreign policy stance that was distinctly different from the Democrat's stance.
I'll do some googling to see if I find something about it.
I wonder if "Blame America First" is some kind of reference to America First, an isolationist committee opposed to American entry into World War II. What's interesting to me is that the right-wing noise machine now uses "Blame America First" to label anyone who disagrees with Bush Administration policies, especially those opposed to the Iraq War. It also calls them isolationists through the use of the straw man "Some say Iraqis don't deserve freedom." In my opinion, the Iraqis deserve that and more, but that still does not justify the invasion and the botched occupation.
Here's Tom DeLay pointing blame at the "liberal media" and Democrats for the Iraq War fiasco because they undermined the American public's will to fight. Even if Tom DeLay's claim that the "liberal media" is not showing the whole picture and is biased towards negative stories is true, does he actually believe that things are going well in Iraq? I thought Tom was a member of the party of personal responsibility.
Wow, did Colmes grow some balls? He's actually doing something other than being a sidekick. His pathetic counterarguments don't do much to helo the cause, but at least he's not completely ineffectual.
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