ConservativeINC

Before Reagan was president our political ideology was dominated by people who were isolationists or at least realists. They believed that we cannot go around the world trying to change the way other countries act. Rather then favoring policies that were designed to affect change in the government’s of hostile nations we advocated coexistence with countries like the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. Everything changed with Reagan though.

It became the stated goal of the American government that the Soviet Union should be defeated. Reagan actively aided groups that were opposed to communism around the world and frequently gave speeches aimed at weakening the Soviet regime. In the end our intimated bellicosity staved off a nuclear world war and helped bring about the end of the Evil Empire. Hot of that success one might think we should have applied this newfound tenet of conservatism elsewhere to other totalitarian regimes. Regimes that could one day bring a war to the shores of America.

But that didn’t happen. In between then and 9-11 we protected an ally in the Middle East and bombed a European nation that holds little strategic value to America’s interests. Our military devolved into a shell of its former self and took part in half-ass “peace keeping” missions throughout the world. We largely checked out of international issues and let thugocracies thrive. This noninterventionist strategy brought the worst terrorist attack in history to our shores and sucked us into a worldwide war on Islamofascism.

Thugocracies - whether they be communist, theocratic, or some other type of tyranny - have always plagued this world and always will. And the key to understanding this situation is that while thugocracies are fundamentally flawed constructions by evil men and women they don’t just collapse. They need a push, sometimes a shove, to finally topple over and bring freedom to the people who live within its borders.

Reagan knew this. The Soviet Union was never going to just topple over. It was like a neglected barn. Every year it kept on breaking down but every year it remained standing. Sure, its condition was increasing decrepit but it was stubborn as hell. To take the sucker down you would have to take out the remaining wood and then put enough pressure on the structure so that it would topple over. And that’s just what we did with the Soviets.

We supported worker’s unions, we forced them to increase defense spending, we supported religion, we did a thousand different things that systematically undermined that thugocracy and forced it beyond its breaking point. If anything should have been learned from Reagan’s international policies it should be that you have to bring down these rogue regimes before they can get a chance to bring down everyone else.

But we forgot those lessons. And many within our movement still haven’t remembered them. They continue to hem and haw over the uncertainties that come along with major policy changes. The Iraq War has often not looked good so they advocated restraint in other hot spots. Even some major conservative icons, like William F. Buckley, have talked out against the Iraq War. But this isn’t the time to be timid with foreign policy, this is the time when chances need to be taken and vision needs to lead us because if we are timid and fail to act then we are going to pay for it dearly in the future.

And I think that this is what conservatism needs to stand for now. There has been a virulent strain of isolationism that has gone right through the heart of conservatism for a very long time now. At first glance it does make sense; we are for independence, self determination, and everything that goes with that. But when you dig deeper isolationism ceases to make sense.

Our Founders wrote into the Declaration of Independence that it is man’s nature to live in a bad situation without doing anything. And seeing all those billions of people who continue to live in thugocracies all over the world just validates that point. That fact is why nations like the Soviet Union weren’t collapsing when they should have. People are beasts of habit and will continue living under the worse conditions because that is all they know. Can we afford not to be proactive and give these people the push they need to change their situation? I don’t think so.

Isolationism needs to once and for all die. Everything that happens in the world is connected to everything else. China’s booming economy is not just an interesting occurrence to be marveled at nor is Venezuela’s deteriorating God-given right to liberty just something to frown upon. Both these examples and everything else that happens in the world has an affect on America and the way we live our lives. Standing on the sidelines cheering and booing isn’t going to solve any of our problems.

And it’s not going to suffice if we just join more international groups and have more high level diplomatic meetings. Diplomacy isn’t something that works all that well when there’s a chance the opposing sides think they might find themselves at war someday. Diplomacy works between friends but not enemies or even adversaries. But what can we do?

The most important thing we need to do is improve our own economy. A strong American economy will dissuade any untoward advances by the thugocracies because they will know that we have more than enough money to buy their destruction. Furthermore, if the American economy is leading the world we will continue to have a major influence on everyone else. The way to a vibrant economy is simple: pare taxes and regulations. I would love a flat tax but I will take continued reductions in taxes until that happy day. I also don’t think companies should be taxed, at least not as highly as they are now. It is ridiculous what limits our tax code puts on people and companies in America. We just need to follow the lead of the former Soviet Bloc countries with regards to tax issues.

Shoring up our economy is vitally important because it allows us to do many different things. But a strong economy alone isn’t the silver bullet. Our leadership must also denounce every thugocracy on the planet. If the president forcefully exposed China for the communist thugs that they are we would be at least planting the seed in people’s minds that the world would be better if China were free. More importantly, we need to get that word to the people of China because it is going to be ultimately up to them to change the wretched conditions that they live in.

Beyond these steps it would also be prudent if we used our clandestine assets in a manner that undermined the power of the thugocracies. Let’s bring terror to these terror masters. Use our assets to work with opposition groups, sabotage the ruling class, and whatever else they think will undermine the thugs. Thugocracies have closed societies and we need to punch a hole in their armor to let in the light.

And whenever one of the thugs gets so brazen as to strike on American soil we need to retaliate in a much more severe fashion. When the terrorists struck us on 9-11 we shouldn’t have stopped with Afghanistan and Iraq. The tribal lands of Pakistan should have been fair game, Syria and Iran should have been ventured into once they started attacking us in Iraq, and we should have been more forceful with our victories. If they attack us we will hit them back 100 times harder.

Conservatives must realize that isolationism is dead. This isn’t the 19th century when it took weeks to travel across the country. We live in a world where a goat herder in Afghanistan can topple a building with some training. In accordance with the situation we find ourselves in we need to embrace an ideology that requires us to be proactive when dealing with external threats posed by thugocracies. The Bush Doctrine of bringing democracy to the Middle East was a decent opening gambit but it requires a sustained effort forevermore because the threats we face will never die off. Conservatives, for now on, must support our country’s undermining of thugocracies if we want to keep America safe and continue to keep it the strongest country in the world. BigT

Tell Your Friends! Bookmark Me!



Take Me To Your Homepage!