Re: Democracy or Empire?

[Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 19 Nov 2000 17:10:29 -0500 Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx
<xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
>
> > >Hence the usefulness of the Democratic Party & liberal
> > >internationalism in America....
>
> There is nothing useful about the Democratic Party and  "liberal
> internationalism" in America.

I think that Yoshie means that they are useful to the ruling class.

>There is even no watertight
> distinction
> between nationalism and internationalism here. They are both wrapped
> up in
> the same imperialist blanket--the US.  Disagreements between
> liberals and
> conservatives for the most part convey tactics not basic policies.

No quarrel here.  To a large extent the differences between Republicans
and Democrats are ones of which kind of rhetoric is to be used for
justifying imperialist interventions, with Republicans favoring a
rhetoric
of nationalism, of "national interests" and of "realism" while Democrats
tend to prefer a rhetoric of "liberal internationalism" and of "human
rights."
To the extent that there are real differences between the two parties
on issues of foreign policy, they are largely ones of tactics, with
neither
party in anyway questioning the whole edifice of imperialism.  Thus
historically,
much of the Republican Party has been "isolationist" but this has meant
that they have tended to favor a deemphasis on direct US intervention in
European affairs.  They have never been "isolationist" in respect to
Latin
America and they have often been partial to direct US interventions in
the Pacific Rim.  The Democrats and Eastern Establishment Republicans
have traditionally placed special emphasis on the US directly maintaining
a dominant role in Europe.  Neither side of this debate has been in the
least sense anti-imperialist.


Jim Farmelant

>
>
>
> Xxxx
>
>
> --
>
> Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx
> PhD Student
> Department of Political Science
> SUNY at Albany
> Nelson A. Rockefeller College
> 135 Western Ave.; Milne 102
> Albany, NY 12222
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