Charles Krauthammer’s pieces never fail to annoy me. When he’s not demonizing Obama and the Left, he’s penning fairy tales about the morality of the Right.
This week’s fable is about the differences between neoconservatives and so-called “idealist” foreign policy makers. As Krauthammer tells it, conservatives (the good guys) believe in democracy and nation-building, while liberals (the evil ones) believe in developing global institutions and downplay American Exceptionalism. Krauthammer constantly savages his bête noire, Obama, for this sin. He whines that every act of Obama’s international diplomacy, from Iran to China to Cuba, has been an exercise in appeasement or in withdrawing American power – including the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which he classifies as appeasement and containment of China.
Yet after all that, for Krauthammer democracy-building is not really as important as building up and harshly wielding American power. Real power is provoking a military confrontation with China in which the U.S. is dominant.
In fact, the conservative wonks Krauthammer admires so much have never been in love with democracy or been shy about propping up dictators and butchers. The Pahlavis, the Pinochets, the Somozas, the Saudi royals and many others have always been the Chosen Ones with American administrations of both parties.
To be fair, the Wikileaks/Manning State Department cable dumps reveal just how criminally similar Hillary Clinton is to Henry Kissinger. Even in Obama’s last term, our foreign policy is still barely distinguishable from anything that preceded it. We’re still at war in seven nations. We’re still propping up autocratic regimes. The U.S. constantly builds up weaponry, employs drones to kill both “evildoer” and hapless innocent alike, operates with impunity or in violation of the Constitution, enlists help from the corrupt and rewards them amply, and lies to the American public about what it is doing.
Krauthammer’s real objection is with Obama’s tone. He is outraged that Obama can go to Hiroshima and apologize for being the only nation to unleash nuclear terror on humans. Yet – and this should make him happy – Obama has simultaneously approved an upgrade of our nuclear weapons.
Yet if there is anything redeeming about Obama’s tone, it is the implicit recognition that American Exceptionalism is crumbling – not by Obama’s hand but because the demise of our empire cannot sustain the myth. The one thing in which the United States leads (besides gun deaths and incarceration) is military spending and invading other countries. By all other measures (longevity, health, education, savings, standard of living, contentment) we are well down the list in comparison with many of our neighbors.
And so it is refreshing when – even hypocritically or obliquely – a standing president acknowledges a few of our crimes on the international stage. No doubt it infuriates people like Charles Krauthammer, who would prefer that we continue to bluster, bomb, and bully our way into Rogue Nation status. Yet Krauthammer speaks for many Americans, especially those drawn to political candidates known for blustering and bullying.
While the distinctions between “idealists” and neoconservatives are virtually non-existent, what is really crucial is what kind of people we want to be. Can we coexist with others who don’t share our love of American-style “free markets” or “Western democracy?” Do we want to be a high-tech Hermit Kingdom, building walls between nations, in a permanent state of war with most of the world? Must we deny reality and insist on American Exceptionalism – despite our failure to provide adequate healthcare, education, and economic opportunity to most of our own population? That’s hardly exceptional.
Or is it really just the human thing to let slip that we are just like everyone else? That we, as humans, are sorry for what we’ve done?
There is a lot of wisdom in Martin Luther King’s observation, which Krauthammer derides and Obama cites, that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” But men like Krauthammer, disposed toward violence, and lacking the patience for those long arcs, will never fully understand history – especially when only one nation is worthy of their consideration.
This was published in the Standard Times on June 2, 2016
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20160602/opinion/160609907
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