Sunday, May 02, 2004
The arrogance of imperialism
Corey Robin has some blunt quotes from William F. Buckley and Irving Kristol circa 2000.
These men are enormously influential on the right, and in the Bush admin. But imagine if Republican elected leaders spoke this way. They'd be out on their ears. Most Americans want a nice, safe, comfortable life---they don't want an empire, and despite the fact that America has been a de facto imperial power for most of the last hundred years, the idea of empire is fundamentally corrosive to the idea of America as a democratic republic.
At bottom, politics in the industrialized world today should be about health care, not bombs. Kristol may think imperial policymaking is sexier, but that age is long past. Today, democratic publics demand attention to their needs, the everyday concerns of real working people, not the ego trips of immature powermongers. And that instinct makes democracies safer, since it is out imperial entanglements that brew up all the resentment against the US in the first place.
"The trouble with the emphasis in conservatism on the market," Buckley told me, "is that it becomes rather boring. You hear it once, you master the idea. The notion of devoting your life to it is horrifying if only because it's so repetitious. It's like sex." Kristol confessed to a yearning for an American empire: "What's the point of being the greatest, most powerful nation in the world and not having an imperial role?"
But because of its devotion to prosperity, he added, the United States lacked the fortitude and vision to wield imperial power. "It's too bad," Kristol lamented. "I think it would be natural for the United States . . . to play a far more dominant role in world affairs. . . to command and to give orders as to what is to be done. People need that. There are many parts of the world -- Africa in particular -- where an authority willing to use troops can make . . . a healthy difference." But not with public discussion dominated by accountants. "There's the Republican Party tying itself into knots. Over what?" he said. "I think it's disgusting that . . . presidential politics of the most important country in the world should revolve around prescriptions for elderly people."
These men are enormously influential on the right, and in the Bush admin. But imagine if Republican elected leaders spoke this way. They'd be out on their ears. Most Americans want a nice, safe, comfortable life---they don't want an empire, and despite the fact that America has been a de facto imperial power for most of the last hundred years, the idea of empire is fundamentally corrosive to the idea of America as a democratic republic.
At bottom, politics in the industrialized world today should be about health care, not bombs. Kristol may think imperial policymaking is sexier, but that age is long past. Today, democratic publics demand attention to their needs, the everyday concerns of real working people, not the ego trips of immature powermongers. And that instinct makes democracies safer, since it is out imperial entanglements that brew up all the resentment against the US in the first place.
