It's better to spread democracy with our money and culture than with our missiles and bombs.
Everyone deserves democracy, but we're not the democracy fairy.
What do we owe Ukraine? It’s a question I can’t get out of my mind lately. At one time we assured them they’d be NATO members, that they could join “The West”. A position regularly undervalued by it’s constituent countries. We left the Georgians to fend for themselves, as we did the Ukrainians in 2014. We’re certain to, once again, leave them to their fate in 2022. I’m not sure we have any other choice. Nobody in the US or the EU wants all out war with Russia. Nor does Russia want war with the West. What is our word worth as a Country anymore? How many guarantees to people all over the world have we tossed aside once they were no longer in our interests? Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam. We over-promise and under-deliver and still expect these small nations to stick their necks out for us time and time again.
I’m not in favor of the US military jetting around the globe like The Avengers inflicting our moralities on the world. I want our country to be honest with the peoples of other nations. We should support democracy around the globe. I believe self determinacy is a right that all people should enjoy. Democracy comes in many forms though, and the tyranny of the majority is a very real thing. It would behoove us to broaden our definitions sometimes, and not expect other country’s democracy to mirror ours. Ultimately, it is the most just way to govern a nation-state. I sincerely wish we could deliver that wonderful gift to all people. We can’t though, and we have to be honest about that fact. We can’t promise a freedom we can’t deliver, and very very rarely can we deliver it.
I wish I could simply blame everything on Republicans, but this is a problem for both parties. The Bush administration made promises to across the globe, for Iraq and Afghanistan, to Ukraine and Georgia, and to leaders like Gaddafi. Obama continued many of the lies, an added a redline in Syria that amounted to not much. Trump was a disaster in too many ways to count. So far Biden has been a failure as well. In order to regain our credibility with the world, as well as with people as home, it’s time the US government was honest. Honest in what we can do for the world. Honest in what we prepared to do, and honest with what is most important to us.
The US is still the dominant superpower in the world, but it’s no longer the 50’s, or the 90’s. We are no longer the sole power. China is ascendant, and Europe, through it’s disastrous energy policies, has become utterly dependent on Russia. We must not make any more wild promises, or threats for that matter, to the rest of the world. We must be honest about what China is, and figure out a way to disentangle ourselves and our economy from them. China has the manpower, the economy, and increasingly, the military to compete with the West. We created this situation. We created the economic power of China with actions like admitting them to the WTO and grant them most favored nation status. Money played it’s role, but we also believed that opening ourselves up to China would lead them to becoming a liberal democracy. Same with Russia after the fall of Communism. Free markets were expected to breed democracy. It seemed somewhat reasonable at the time. We were wrong, and its time to admit it, and work towards fixing it; and we can’t fix it by trying to bully China and Russia. We fix it by fixing us.
To regular people, the importance of keeping your word can’t be overstated. I’ve had the opportunity over the course of my life to work with folks from a handful of different countries, and that is a value that seems to translate across cultures. This administration promised to bring honesty and integrity back to the Whitehouse. Sadly, so far at least, they have failed miserably in that endeavor. My sincere hope is that Joe Biden proves to be the rusty weather vane he has always been and sees the folly of his ways in a whole bunch of areas, including foreign policy. I see little hope for that. I’m not sure how much of the decision making process Biden can handle at this point. I am not sure he knows where he is all the time. Whomever is in charge though, should bring that value to our diplomacy, and that means not making promises we can’t deliver. The other thing working class people know is; if your going act tough, you better be prepared to back it up. If we are going to run our mouths about Ukraine and let it get taken with little to no resistance, say goodbye to Taiwan, to the South China Sea, so on and so on.
If you’re going to play the tough guy role, you better back it up. It’s time for the US to really understand that. We don’t have to withdraw, but we must accept our limits. Be the example for the world. Spread democracy by making us that shining city on that hill. If people see what democracy can be, at it’s best, and what it can do for them, they will move towards it. We must let them make those moves on their own. We can’t threaten them towards the right outcome, because it will never be uniquely theirs. Our democracy has lasted specifically because it came about organically, so it fit our culture and country. We are better off supporting our values with our dollars than our missiles. With our culture not our bombs. We won’t appear weak if we don’t make threats were not willing to act on. Strength is a value in almost every part of the world accept the elites in the west, that is to our detriment. We need to inject a little working-class tough honesty back into our ideas internationally. To put it simply, our mouths shouldn’t write checks our asses can’t cash.