Wages Of Hegemony
By Mitch Berg
Kevin Williamson, by way of hammering both Clinton’s self-destructive take on national security and Donald Trump’s simplistic and wrong-headed one, points out a consequence of American military, cultural and social hegemony that eludes Big Left and some of the libertarians who, these days, are increasingly indistinguishable from the left:
The American example has changed — forever — what the people of this world believe to be possible for themselves, bringing into present reality peace and prosperity that even the most utopian thinkers of three centuries ago would not have permitted themselves to dream of. Having liberated ourselves from the superstition of zero-sum economic thinking, the United States grew rich while helping other nations grow rich, too. That, too, is neither entirely altruistic nor entirely self-interested: When the United States intervened to save India from famine 50 years ago, and when Norman Borlaug et al. helped India to make a century’s worth of agricultural advances in a relatively short period of time, nobody was thinking about American exports or business practices in 2016. But it is the case that a rich India is much better suited to buy the things that America exports — aircraft, industrial machinery, optical and medical instruments – than is a poor India. For all our present anxiety, a rich China will be much better for the United States – and the world – than a poor China.
As always with Williamson, read the whole thing.
And then ask yourself; what good does an America that doubts and checks itself do anyone else?
October 7th, 2016 at 8:27 am
The goal of progressives is to make everyone equal – ie poor – and be overlorded by the elite. They view Venezuela as a successful experiment. We are witnessing the end of American exceptionalism as we knew it.
October 7th, 2016 at 10:40 am
Interesting article, but it just seems very weird that the main example used to justify U.S. military spending abroad is a non-military U.S. Dept. of Ag program to export grain seeds.
October 7th, 2016 at 11:25 am
Actually, I’d argue that our biggest humanitarian project in recent years has been shipping jobs to China. It’s gotten to the point that they’re now predicting that Trump’s avowed policies would cut China GDP by 5% and cause a massive recession there, assuming, of course, that it doesn’t cause a full-fledged trade war where the effects would be worse.
October 7th, 2016 at 3:19 pm
Williamson seems to have gone full Neocon.
I’ll start reading him again after the election.
October 7th, 2016 at 3:58 pm
The problem with the #nevertrumpers is that no one is buying what they are selling.
Imagine the race was about policies, not personalities.
Suppose it was Pence vs Kaine.
Kaine would walk away with the presidency.