The Elephant Divided

Why is the GOP in such a quandary when it comes to foriegn policy? Because so many of them don't think like their predecessors.

Republicans have traditionally believed in competition as the best way to the best ideas to emerge. For the marketplace of ideas to thrive in foreign policy, GOP activists must avoid labeling some ideas as verboten. Realism served as a savvy foreign-policy guide for the administrations of Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. The ideals of human rights and democracy promotion cannot and should not be jettisoned from U.S. foreign policy—but realist cautions about 'ideological overstretch' are ignored at their peril.

Whatever the outcome of this election, hoepfully it will mean a lessening of the grip that neocon theorists have had over foreign policy, and the Republican Party can get back to espousing a policy that says the U.S. does not have to act alone, go to war with everyone we don't like and hope for the best afterwards, or sacrifice freedom in the name of safety. It would be nice if Republicans learned a little humility again.