On Foreign Policy, the Left Tries to Out-Trump Trump
A wing of the Democratic Party calls for retreating like the president has. If Democrats can overcome that, they have a chance to make America great again.
The Democratic candidate to represent New York’s 14th District, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, campaigned for a “peace economy” with fewer entanglements abroad.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
When it comes to foreign policy, the Trump era offers opportunity and peril for the Democratic Party. The opportunity lies in the fact that Trump’s shambolic diplomacy has given the Democrats an opening to position themselves as the most responsible stewards of American national security. The peril lies in the possibility that the party will instead try to out-Trump Trump on global affairs, and do lasting damage in the process.
The latter scenario, unfortunately, is looming large these days. Two recent progressive foreign policy manifestoes have offered biting critiques not so much of the president, but of the broader tradition of American global engagement in support of a healthy world order.