>Why not demand that America be a republic, not an empire (no
>foreign bases, no military interventions overseas, no military assistance
>to foreign countries, etc.)? That should resonate with American workers,
>whether or not they are leftist.
Compare & contrast with what Pat Buchanan said the other day:
>As we end this American Century and this decade of national
>preeminence, we remain a people divided over our role in the world.
>It is a time for what Catholics call a "retreat," not a withdrawal
>into isolationism, but a day of introspection. Why is America, its
>economic and military power unrivaled, its popular culture dominant
>in the world, so resented by so many. Is it envy? Is it because we
>are an enlightened nation and they are benighted? Or have we, too,
>succumbed to the hubris of hegemony?
>
>Recall: In 1763, the England of Pitt had crushed her great rival,
>France, seized her vast American estate, and emerged as the world's
>only superpower. London reveled in its preeminence. As Walpole
>wrote, his contemporaries were "born with Roman insolence" and
>"acted with more haughtiness than an Asiatic monarch." Yet, in less
>than a generation, Britain had lost the loyalty of its American
>subjects, who, aided by a defeated vengeful France, expelled her
>from the 13 colonies that had been the crown jewels of the empire.
>And all the world rejoiced in Britain's humiliation, as, one
>suspects, much of today's world might rejoice in ours.
>
>I count myself a patriot. But if all this Beltway braying about our
>being the "world's indispensable nation" and "only superpower"
>grates on my ears, how must it grate upon Europeans, Russians, and
>those peoples subject to U.S. sanctions, because they have failed by
>our lights to live up to our standards?
>
>The great foreign policy question before this generation is the one
>that has bedeviled us since our birth as a nation. Are we to be a
>city on a Hill, a light unto the nations, Henry Clay's "lamp burning
>on the Western shore"? Or have we been handed a divine commission to
>"go abroad in search of monsters to destroy" and impose our values
>and system on a benighted world? Are we a republic or an empire?
>Once again, it is time to choose.
>
>We are in a unique season. The last Hanukkah of the century is over;
>the last Ramadan and Christmas season of the millennium are
>underway. On this eve of a new century, let us cease to hector and
>discipline the world and try to lead it; let us conform our foreign
>policy to principles more becoming a godly nation and great republic.
Doug