Various interest groups prefer to think of their own agendas as “beyond politics,” a term that has been thrown around from time to time in regard to foreign policy. In truth, there is no such thing as “beyond politics” in a democracy such as ours — we can no more take the politics out of foreign policy than we can take the tuna out of tuna salad. But there is a difference between having a political debate over competing visions and approaches to foreign policy and an engagement with the world that embraces no real national interest at all beyond those immediately connected to our quadrennial convulsion and the advantage-seeking associated with it.
Our national interests do not change with the drapes in the White House.
The dysfunction in our government is deep — the last time Congress could be bothered to carry out its regular appropriations process, Frank Sinatra was alive to see it, the Spice Girls were on the radio, and the face of sober Republican government was Rudy Giuliani. That same year, a previously obscure group called the Taliban declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, not that we Americans were paying much attention — what did any of that have to do with us?
It is remarkable that we still haven’t quite managed to answer that question. It is also dangerous.
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