Our Emperors and Their Empire
When conservatives used to bash Bill Clinton their arguments usually centered on one thing — Monica Lewinsky. He lied to the American people! Clinton disgraced the office of the presidency! “Slick Willie!” Much like the popular culture they often claim to abhor, conservatives tend to focus on the personalities in politics rather than policy.
I never cared much about Clinton’s relationship with Lewinsky. My greatest problem with our 42nd president was that he wasn’t much different from the 41st or 43rd. Under Clinton, the size of government grew, our worsening illegal immigration problem was ignored, the U.S. needlessly punished the citizens of Iraq with sanctions and bombings and we foolishly intervened militarily in places like Kosovo, Somalia, and Haiti. Like his predecessor and his successor, Clinton simply maintained and expanded the already established American empire he inherited.
And yet in 2000, conservative reaction to the Clinton administration had the Right singing a much different tune on foreign policy.
Consider the language then-candidate George W. Bush thought necessary to appeal to his GOP base and voters-at-large during the 2000 presidential campaign. Attacking Clinton’s military adventures, Bush said during a debate with Al Gore: “I’m not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say ‘this is the way it’s got to be… I think one way for us to end up being viewed as the ‘ugly American’ is for us to go around the world saying ‘we do it this way, so should you.” Criticizing Clinton’s military debacle in Somalia, Bush said “I don’t think our troops ought to be used for what’s called ‘nation building.” When asked how people around the world should view the US, Bush responded “It really depends upon how our nation conducts its foreign policy. If we’re an arrogant nation, they’ll resent us. If we’re a humble nation, they’ll respect us.”
And Bush wasn’t alone. Consider the words of conservative talk host Sean Hannity toward Clinton’s foreign policy. Said Hannity in 1999 concerning Kosovo: “It seems that we’re talking about a very ill-conceived military action here. And now the question is, do you go in further and deeper, or do you pull back and rethink what the strategy’s going to be here, because there has really been no stated goal, mission, or objective… I say, back out of it, because innocent people are going to die for nothing. That’s why I’m against it.” When Clinton compared Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to Adolph Hitler, Hannity asked “Is the president purposefully using propaganda and hyperbole to garner the American public for support?”
After 9/11, warnings from the Right about “nation building,” or support for a more humble foreign policy evaporated, along with any concern for limited government. Being the world’s policeman, or what Bush once called being an “arrogant nation,” “around the world” would come to define the Bush presidency. Even worse, for most of the last decade, being a conservative simply meant being pro-war and Bush ended his second term as the biggest big government president since Lyndon Johnson, much less Bill Clinton.
As Obama continues to spend even more than Bush and steps up US efforts in Afghanistan, the political environment on the Right is far closer to 2000 than 2003. In 2003, conservatives quickly became comfortable with Bush’s statist agenda because they were so enthusiastic about his invasion of Iraq. As this decade ends, conservatives are outraged by Obama’s spending and many are beginning to voice serious reservations about his end game in Afghanistan. Conservative columnist George Will, who was once one of Bush’s greatest supporters on Iraq is now one of Obama’s greatest critics on Afghanistan. Lest anyone think this hypocrisy is unique to Republicans, Democrats who once despised the belligerent neoconservatism of Bush-Cheney have now largely embraced that exact same foreign policy, only repackaged as Obama-style, liberal internationalism. When it comes to being antiwar under Obama-the Left is now completely useless.
And the Right may be as well. But conservative skepticism about Obama’s war coupled with widespread grassroots outrage over spending, makes the possibility of a genuine and comprehensive anti-government, anti-empire, “America first” movement, once again, at least tenable. The ingredients are there. What good did it do conservatives to elect George W. Bush, who was worse on both domestic and foreign policy than Bill Clinton? Obama is already proving to be worse than Bush. With each successive administration, government keeps getting bigger, our debt gets larger and our military stretched greater, for reasons that are vague at best. Americans may indeed be ready for a serious “change,” especially as they begin to realize Obama ain’t it.
It does not take a genius to figure out that railing against big government at home while championing it abroad doesn’t make much sense — one cancels out the other. But it might take a Democratic president, as it did a decade ago, to convince conservatives to question — and finally reject — both the welfare state and the warfare state for good.
Mr. Hunter hits a lot of nails on the head, but I am far less optimistic than he is concerning the prospects for an anti-government, anti-empire, America First movement. The American people are hooked on war and an attack on Yemen or Iran or any country would send Obama’s ratings skyward and rally to him 95% of the so-called conservatives, including tea partiers. As I’ve said often, only economic meltdown and/or military catastrophe will put an end to this evil empire. The former is the least harmful scenario and may already be well underway.
Don’t count on it. As soon as the GOP is back in “power,” they’ll just do the same again and all of the mindless plebes who call themselves “conservatives” will once again be all about big government in the name of “liberty.”
Great job recognizing the difference between conservatism and neoconservatism. Bush was always a neocon warmonger who has thieved from our children to muddle through two horrible terms.
Maybe one day we will realize Bush and the neocons played right into the hands of the terrorists who pulled off 9/11 on his bumbling, blinking watch.
clinton,blair and their buddies should all be in jail for war crimes committed against the then Yugosalia..Most all the hateful propaganda perpetuated against serbia has been proven to be lies to justify intervention.It was all about privatization,camp bondsteel and the enlargement and empowerment of nato and to create new world law that would set presidence for attacking sovereign nations in the name of so-called “HUMANITARISM”.God bless !
America’s empire will end when our bankers (China, Japan, etc) stop lending us money. Borrowing nearly US$ 4 billon per day is unsustainable.
What is left to bomb in Afghanistan? We are just making the rubble bounce.
“War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.” – unknown
“Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it.” –Richard Lamm
America’s empire will end when animals start talking but I take that back cuz there are some that do talk the likes of Sean Hannity, Glen Beck and the Dragoslav guy here that commented here. That being said, America’s will never ever fall. AMerica is the greatest nation on this planet!!!!! Regarding the bombing of fromer Yugoslavia, it was too late and too little. Should of happened when Croatia was attacked by ruthless Chetniks of Serbia. Serbia started 4 wars and lost all of them. America just warned them for 74 days what could happen if tehy sont stop. Belegrade should of been flattned like Berlin during WWII for all the miseries they caused to the Balkan peninsula. Long Live American nation.
inreply to the hateful propaganda by people like amer-albanian.I would sayBS.If anyone wants to know who the Serbians and cetniks were in WW2 read the new book “forgotten 500″which is the first hand account of over 500 american airmen saved by Draza Mihailovic and his royalists.Anyone can pick up a history book or older encyclopedia and read that Serbs were with the allies while croatons and albos were allied with hitler.I guess genocidal tendacies die hard as you would flatten a modern european city to quench your thirst for blood.I guess albos repay american kindness by wanting” to kill as many soldiers as they can” such as at fort Dix .Great people.
just thought I’d mention ,last night an albanian from Kosovo living in Finland killed five people in a shopping mall killing spree.Great people.
didn’t ww1 end when the german submariners walked off the mutinese dock,then the die was cast for SarahPalin of the right wing fascist princess party lot,yep welfare,warfare,democan & republacrat,anti works well in paired sets,don’t want any wild odd numbers phloating thair loose cannon around somewhair ungroomed and not capitalistic or of the ACME east
The “Avenger” has his targets mixed up.
Being anti-EMPIRE is absolutely the right target, but ‘big government’ is merely the hostage shield being held up in front of the real power of this guileful Global EMPIRE.
Yes, government has been totally taken over by the EMPIRE. In fact, the avenger’s understanding that government has become a consistent tool of Empire — through the unchanging nature of its two-party ‘Vichy’ charage of democracy — is right on target.
But what the “Avenger” totally misses is that big government is just the captive ‘front-man’ ploy of Empire — while the real heart of the Empire is the concentrated POWER of the ruling-elite Global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE that controls our government by hiding behind its two-party facade of democracy.
“Avenger”, EMPIRE is the real target — you’re just aiming at the hostage shield that real EMPIRE employs, when you aim your weak-minded missles at government.
The real target is at the hidden point of this ‘inverted totalitarianism’ (as Sheldon Wolin understood) — this real inverted fascism is the Empire that controls government — as is always the case in Empire, because Empire is a pathology of private economic power secretly absorbing the weaker public political power (and never the other way around)
[See my articles: "The Economics of Empire" and "Empire, Elitism, Externalities, and Extinction"]
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
The “Avenger” has his targets mixed up.
Being anti-EMPIRE is absolutely the right target, but ‘big government’ is merely the hostage shield being held up in front of the real power of this guileful Global EMPIRE.
Yes, government has been totally taken over by the EMPIRE. In fact, the avenger’s understanding that government has become a consistent tool of Empire — through the unchanging nature of its two-party ‘Vichy’ charade of democracy — is right on target.
But what the “Avenger” totally misses is that big government is just the captive ‘front-man’ ploy of Empire — while the real heart of the Empire is the concentrated POWER of the ruling-elite Global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE that controls our government by hiding behind its two-party facade of democracy.
“Avenger”, EMPIRE is the real target — you’re just aiming at the hostage shield that real EMPIRE employs, when you aim your weak-minded missiles at government.
The real target is at the hidden point of this ‘inverted totalitarianism’ (as Sheldon Wolin understood) — this real inverted fascism is the Empire that controls government — as is always the case in Empire, because Empire is a pathology of private economic power secretly absorbing the weaker public political power (and never the other way around)
[See my articles: "The Economics of Empire" and "Empire, Elitism, Externalities, and Extinction"]
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
The US military-industrial complex will never run out of targets to create hate against. The growing “Axis of Evil” list includes Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Syria, Russia, North Korea, Burma, and especially China. The Washington Consensus Elites want to control and dictate the lives of every human being on the planet. Due to China’s opposition to the bogus “cap and trade” program of CO2 emissions at the Copenhagen, the Chinese were designated as “Eco-Terrorists” by the Obama Administration. That certainly provides another justification to bomb the Chinese. LOL.
I disagree with one claim that the author has made – that Clinton expanded the government. Reagan, Bush I and Bush II increased the size of government, while incessantly talking about the evils of government and how it was being expanded by the other party. Clinton had a lot of faults and made many mistakes – I don’t count his sexual exploits as his public faults but personal and private failures (unless of course it is proved that it compromised his ability as a President or impinged on national security, which it did not as far as we are being told) – but expansion of the government was not one of them. My understanding is that his administration made a concerted – and successful – attempt at reducing the size of the federal government and that it was reduced to its size under John F. Kennedy.
Let us give credit where it is due.
Republican rule or Democratic rule? I say to hell with all of them.
I have been thumping all over the web that there is an unlikely majority in this country that both parties ignore.
Tea Baggers, Progressives and Blue Collar Democrats agree on many many things – yet they have no voice in either party. As a voting block, the interests of this unlikely group should be absolute, yet they are ignored.
Tea Baggers, Progressives and Blue Collar Dems
WANT
__Torte reform in Health Care reform
__Incresed competition between Insurance companies between states. .
__An end to illegal immigration and the automatic citizenship of children born of illegal.
__Taxes on day trading and short selling
__Increased Regulation of banks
__Increased Regulation of Wall St.
__An audit of the FED
__An end to expansionist foreign policy
that’s just a preliminary list….
that means Glenn Beck and Rachel Maddow want the same things – yet nobody is listening to them as a constituency for change.
Each side is pandered to. …. and then ignored.
Voting together on any of the above… this constituency is huge and can make or end careers.
Yet… there are no takers.
Clinton gave us Greenspan, Summers & Rubin… who conspired to prevent the regulation of the derivatives market. How much has that cost US?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/
There are legions of Americans who are now enamored with empire and perpetual war. They are from the right and they are from the left. They call themselves Republicans and they call themselves Democrats. They call themselves liberals and they call themselves conservatives. They are agnostics, atheists, jews, so-called Christians and others. But they all have all have one thing in common: they all love immoral, unjust, aggressive, brutal and endless war. And they all are destroying America; fiscally, morally and spiritually. And they all are accessories to mass murder. They are bloodthirsty and disgusting people. They totally lack common and ordinary human qualities such as; mercy, compassion, remorse or shame. It is time to put an end to endless war and empire; or else endless war and empire will put an end to us all.