hey you know foreign policy
lookit
actual notes from class, part 4: history (foreign policy)
America is a superpower
- specifically we are Captain America
on Nixon
tried to save Vietnam and let them handle the war
- but he also bombed the shit out of them
on ending Vietnam quagmires
a lot of conservatives were like heyyy we can’t get along with people that’s not how we do things around here
on helping the middle east fight commies
so we armed radical Islamists, Taliban, etc.
- OH OOPS
on being jerks
we started bullying Latin America (Granada) to get our groove back
It is our cause to dispel the foggy thinking which avoids hard decisions in the delusion that a world of conflict will somehow mysteriously resolve itself into a world of harmony, if we just don’t rock the boat or irritate the forces of aggression- and this is hogwash.
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Barry Goldwater, Republican party leader in 1964. The thing that Mr. Goldwater is denouncing is exactly what the Republican party does today. Since Reagan (and for some conservatives, even before) they’ve been hocking the idea that non-intervention and simplistic bloc decisions in the economy, in the social order, in foreign policy will make everything better. That if we throw money at the terrorists there will be no more terrorism. That if we deregulate and cut taxes for rich people everybody will benefit. That repealing civil rights ordinances is okay because people can get along just fine without them. Like Goldwater says, this is hogwash. Conservatives, libertarians and a growing number of liberals are spouting nonsense about the simplest solution being the best, about destroying what’s left of the country to make it better, about scoring political points because Party A would be so much better off if they didn’t have to listen to Party B. I’m sick of it. You all should be. Conservatives, get the Reagan out of your ears and pay attention. The rest of this speech is full of blind patriotism and us-v.-them party rhetoric but, honestly, I’d rather have that and a working system than what y’all want to give us. |
