An Empire or a Just Society?
By Joe Campbell
October 14th, 2009
Charles Krauthammer wrote a piece for The Weekly Standard that is getting some attention - a piece apparently following up a speech he gave last week. His theme: Decline Is a Choice: The New Liberalism and the end of American ascendancy.
The criticism from liberals has been fast and furious, swatting away at Krauthammer's many lies and distortions: Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, Joe Klein, FireDogLake, Robert Farley.
But from the right, Krauthammer seems to be finding some traction (along with the Cheneys) in creating this narrative about Obama - and his attack has the advantage of being a comprehensive critique of Barack Obama's administration and its promise. I don't think the responses from the liberals so far have defused the attack, which I think will gain traction as time goes on.
Krauthammer's critique is a profound one: that Obama's New Liberalism - domestically and internationally - makes the conscious choice to let America decline as a global empire. As Krauthammer explains it (updating Niall Ferguson's more honest description of the choice in his Colossus), America faces a choice between creating a just society at home or maintaining an empire abroad. As a neoconservative, Krauthammer believes we must choose empire because we are the one, special, unique nation, exalted above all others. The declining dollar; the deficits; the withdrawal from Iraq; the rise of China, India, Brazil, and other emerging powers; the scaling back of the panicked urgency in responding to terrorism; the effort to engage in diplomacy; the acclaim for Obama: all of these become points in the Obama narrative being created.
Thus far, the liberal response has been tepid - swatting back the lies and distortions. (For example, most of these dire situations undermining American power are the direct result of Bush administration policies that Krauthammer supported or failed to object to.)
[Image by B MOR Creeeative licensed under Creative Commons.]
Tags: American empire, Charles Krauthammer, Colossus, Ezra Klein, FireDogLake, Joe Klein, Matt Yglesias, New Liberalism, Niall Ferguson, Obama's New Liberalism, Robert Farley, The Cheneys
Comments
Joe Campbell · 2009-10-15
@glory:I'm well aware of Bacevich's and Zakaria's arguments - and Klein for example specifically invokes Zakaria. I tend to find <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080501faessay87304/richard-n-haass/the-age-of-nonpolarity.html?mode=print"/ rel="nofollow">Richard Haas's theory of a nonpolar world to be most compelling however.
But separate from the specific arguments about the relative decline of American power is the narrative Krauthammer creates. It is a political narratives - and narratives have the advantage of being "sticky," by which I mean they impress "facts" upon readers without respect to their underlying truthfulness. Thus, in politics, a compelling narrative beats honest facts every time. (See Kerry, John; see Cleeland, Max; see Kennedy, John; etcetera.) Whether creating a narrative about your political opponent's positions being sympathetic to terrorists or talking about an old sluggish leadership falling behind in an arms race based on an imaginary missile gap, narrative beats facts.
The problem is Krauthammer has cogently created a neoconservative narrative that - for all its factual deficiencies - subsumes both the reality and promise of the Obama administration both at home and abroad. The response then need also be a narrative.
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