Scaros: Foreign Policy Is Not a Cartoon - It's Time to Assert American Superiority
A lot of Trump voters may not realize this, but their thinking about U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war is on a collision course with Ronald Reagan, and that’s not a good thing.
Reagan has gone down as one of the greatest presidents of all time — top five on many lists, including mine — for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that he is given the lion’s share of credit for winning the Cold War. That’s because when it came to keeping Russia in check, he never took his eye off the ball.
Unfortunately, subsequent presidents in both parties squandered the tremendous leverage on the world stage that America enjoyed after the Soviet Union’s collapse. Their inertia “Made Russia Relevant Again.”
Republicans supported Reagan in droves at the time, and Democrats certainly couldn’t complain about the Cold War being over. At least on that issue, our nation was united.
But that was over 30 years ago, before media outlets realized they could actually turn a profit from delivering the news. That’s when the news transformed into a vehicle to gain as many clicks, likes and subscriptions as possible, all in the name of moneymaking.
Just like fast food restaurants know they’ll sell more burgers if they post them on giant billboards in brilliant colors, enhancing them to look unrealistically juicy and succulent, tempting motorists to pull off at the next exit and sink their teeth into one, the media knows that sensationalism sells.
It is not enticing enough to say that for the most part, the two major parties do not hate America and are not trying to destroy it; it’s just that they have different ideas — very different, at times — about how to solve problems. It’s far more compelling to label one side an “existential threat to democracy,” as Democrats and Republicans now call each other.
Accordingly, it’s not surprising that most Americans think democracy is in danger of collapsing; they only differ on which side is causing that to happen.
This brings us to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Because right-wing media outlets continue to brainwash their readers into believing that 100 percent of what President Joe Biden does is bad (just as left-wing outlets do to their readers about Trump and most other Republicans), a lot of conservative Americans who revered Reagan and praised him for winning the Cold War are now criticizing Biden for sending foreign aid to Ukraine, citing that country’s severe corruption and even suggesting that Biden is getting some sort of kickback.
Here’s the bottom line: This is not about how good and decent Ukraine is. It’s about trying to stop a dangerous dictator in his ambition to restore Russia as a global superpower. That’s not good for the United States, period.
Count me among the many who believe that if Trump were still president, Putin never would have invaded Ukraine. Just as I believed long ago that if Reagan had still been president, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein never would have invaded Kuwait.
But the reality is that the war is in fact underway, and we can’t step aside and let Putin win it.
Hussein apparently wasn’t too fearful of Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush, just as Putin doesn’t seem too worried about Trump’s successor, Joe Biden. History demonstrates that Hussein underestimated Bush; whether Putin underestimated Biden remains to be seen.
To this point, Biden has united NATO behind the effort to provide weapons to Ukraine and remains committed to thwarting Putin’s expansionist plans. Again, my fellow Americans, this is a good thing. It doesn’t matter if you think Biden is the worst president in your lifetime or that he wasn’t elected fairly; get behind him on this. It’s not him you’re helping — it’s your country.
Much of today’s news, thinly veiled as journalism, sounds like a Crazy Eddie commercial. It appeals to our more primal attributes and intensifies our tribalism. Just as the left can’t give credit to Trump for anything — from reviving the manufacturing industry to tightening border control and crippling terrorist organizations, among many other great accomplishments — the right won’t acknowledge that when it comes to foreign policy, as Sen. Arthur Vandenberg famously said, “we must stop politics at the water’s edge.”
Foreign policy is not an oversimplified cartoon. It’s not a binary choice of either sending American troops overseas for decades in a futile attempt to nation-build or bringing all troops home and sticking one’s head in the sand. It is a complex combination of both that requires nuance. Reagan knew when to loom and when to pounce, when to use the carrot and when to use the stick.
Let’s hope Biden can do the same. And remember, no foreign entity can threaten the United States when Americans are united. When the right and left bicker about domestic affairs, such as legalizing abortion or forgiving college loans, these are family issues discussed within the American family.
But Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is an event outside the family. And, as “The Godfather” character Don Vito Corleone said to his oldest son, Santino, “never tell anyone outside the family what you’re thinking.”
It would behoove us to follow the wisdom of Sen. Vandenberg and Don Corleone.
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