There is an interesting editorial in today's Wall St. Journal. Going beyond the short-term nailing of Kerry for flip-flopping on the primacy of democracy or stability in Iraq, a much bigger case is made. Namely that we may be experiencing a historic reversal of the parties. Students of American history know that there have been several times in history in which the parties of exchanged positions. This column argues that the party of "realpolitik" is switching from the Republicans to the Democrats....
This is interesting as "realpolitik" has long been associated with Republicans - and particularly Democrat criticisms for the way Republican administrations cooperated with a great many extremely unsavory regimes during the Cold War. Nevertheless, I wonder if we didn't see the beginning of this shift in the Clinton Administration's very non-idealistic refusal to intervene in the Rwandan genocide. The reversal may now be complete as the intervention in Iraq is one of the most idealistic-minded US foreign policy actions in history, which is overwhelming favored by Republicans and opposed (still!) by Democrats. JDG http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004987 Once upon a time Democrats were the great promoters of morality and idealism in foreign policy. During the Cold War, those Democrats included Harry Truman and John Kennedy, the latter most famously in the aspirations of his inauguration speech to "pay any price" and "bear any burden" in the cause of liberty. "Realism" in foreign policy, meanwhile, has typically been associated with Republicans, most recently with the first President Bush and his National Security Adviser, Brent Scowcroft. This school of thought attempts to run a foreign policy based on "national interest," narrowly defined. Moral causes are not their thing, while dictatorships are fine if they don't threaten us. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
