According to conventional wisdom, America’s modern history regarding foreign policy and national security has gone through periods of significant upheaval. We have been a nation that desired retreat from the world stage in the wake of Vietnam, that engaged the power of market forces to try to reform Communist China in the post–Cold War era, and was bent on wars with utopian visions of re-creating the Middle East in our democratic image after 9/11. But from another, more rational perspective, America’s foreign policy has been through all this time remarkably consistent: a Jacksonian bent toward our security interests, with the will and capability to reach out to destroy our enemies at any time, and against wars of conquest or goals that seem out of touch with reality.
It was this attitude of permanent Jacksonianism that Donald Trump tapped into as a candidate for the presidency. He ran not against all wars, but against dumb wars — not as a dove, but as someone who wanted the ability to strike back against America’s enemies with the greatest possible might. He stressed the need for other nations to live up to their obligations, via NATO and other security commitments. In his frame, America was done fighting the battles of others for them on the backs of American taxpayers. But if you proved you were willing to fight for yourselves, you would receive the tools to do so — and to be backed by the Americans meant you would be backed to the fullest.
Comments