Day: December 12, 2009

Is The US Moving Toward Isolationism?

Inkwell Institute

First of all….do you understand what isolationism is?

Isolationism is a foreign policy which combines a non-interventionist military policy and a political policy of economic nationalism (protectionism). In other words, it asserts both of the following:Non-interventionism – Political rulers should avoid entangling alliances with other nations and avoid all wars not related to direct territorial self-defense.

Protectionism – There should be legal barriers to control trade and cultural exchange with people in other states.

Now we have an understanding of the topic…….but does the US seem to be moving in that direction?

In a recent Pew Poll the following results were recorded:

a plurality of Americans — 49 percent — think the US should “mind its own business internationally.”. Not surprising that the country is turning inward during tough economic times, but this is still a dramatic number.Matched only by this: for the first time a plurality of Americans — 44 percent — see China as the world’s leading economic power. Only 27 percent name the U.S.

Read the rest of the Pew findings HERE.

The early history of the US was full of the sentiments isolationism:

Proponents of non-interventionism distinguish their polices from isolationism through their advoacy of more open national relations and free trade. Examples of supporters of non-interventionism are Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who both favored nonintervention in European Wars while maintaining free trade.  (Thanx to wiki for the info)

The US was NEVER fully isolated….we have always involved ourselves in other countries affair…..but in a public face we were isolationists….all that public BS came to an end first with our involvement in WW1 and finally was eliminated as a public face with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the US has been nosed in to the world ever since.

But today it appears that the American people are embracing the idea of isolationism a little at a time…the recession is making Americans worry about their personal economy…..they are starting to think that all revenue needs to be used here in this country….that wars and our foreign policy are using up funds that could save Main Street from a total collapse….

As the job situation gets worse and prolonged the more Americans are saying that we should mind our own business and let the rest of the world take care of themselves…..

Another part of the whole isolationism thing is protectionism…..I recently wrote on this phenom before….basically it is a return to “buy American”.  As jobs are lost the call for protectionism gets louder and louder….some see it as a way to protect what few jobs are left in this country…….as the situation on Main Street gets worse the calls for more of an isolation posture will grow louder.

As a side note…..I have always supported the idea of using American revenue here at home first and then if there is any left over then let the world ask for our help….charity begins at home….and the United States is home.

Sista Sarah Tackles The Climate

No matter how one tries to ignore the obvious….you just cannot….not when it attacks you mentally every waking moment of every day…..our Sista Sarah is just such a venue…..just when you thought there was a lull in the amazing story of Sista Sarah….she drags you back in….yelling and screaming……No matter how hard one tries to let that story or chapter die….it is not physically possible for it to die……

The saga begins in the early hours of 8 Dec 09 when our heroine said:

that President Obama “boycott” an international conference on climate change underway in Copenhagen, because some hacked e-mails questioning the ethics of some scientists at a university in Great Britain have given the obstinate opposition to the concept of global warming.

We all know that she thinks that climate change is a made up story and went so far as to call Gore on it in an op-ed in the WaPo when she said the climate change was like “gravity.  It exists”.

Gore to Palin:

“The north polar ice cap has been there for 3 million years, the size of the continental United States, and it is disappearing before our very eyes. What do the skeptics think is causing that? Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that we are putting 90 million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere here every 24 hours and that these consequences have been predicted for decades by the scientists?”

To which Palin tweeted:

“amazing 2 see Al Gore’s denial of the controversy–it’s like denying gravity”

Okay the media game of tag….the gotcha of politics……and then Laura Ingraham of FOX News brought up the prospect of a debate between Palin and Gore…..to which the reply was:

Oh my goodness. You know, it depends on what the venue would be, what the forum. Because Laura, as you know, if it would be some kind of conventional, traditional debate with his friends setting it up or being the commentators I’ll get clobbered because, you know, they don’t want to listen to the facts. They don’t want to listen to some reasonable voices in this. And that was proven with the publication of this op-ed, where they kind of got all we-weed up about it and wanted to call me and others deniers of changing weather patterns and climate conditions. Trying to make the issue into something that it is not.

So far that is the story…..it is she said…he said…..and the prospect of a debate on the issue of climate change is not an option…..well, we could have the debate but it would have to be by Sista Sarah’s rules….meaning that she can go off topic whenever she wanted but her opponent could not.

Personally, I would enjoy the debate and I think it would either make or break Sista Sarah in the process…..but of course….no matter what she does the people that love her will continue to do so and vice versa…..you betcha!

Is The GOP Massaging The Tea Party?

It would seem that the GOP has seen the latest poll on the popularity with the people.

In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Democrats attracting 36% of the vote. The Tea Party candidate picks up 23%, and Republicans finish third at 18%. Another 22% are undecided.

Among voters not affiliated with either major party, the Tea Party comes out on top. Thirty-three percent (33%) prefer the Tea Party candidate, and 30% are undecided. Twenty-five percent (25%) would vote for a Democrat, and just 12% prefer the GOP.

Among Republican voters, 39% say they’d vote for the GOP candidate, but 33% favor the Tea Party option.

Oh damn!  They had better find a way to change the thinking of the American conservatives……along comes Sen. DeMint of South Carolina…..

“The GOP leadership needs to stand up for mainstream American principles,” says DeMint. The best way to do that, he says, is to “look to the great candidates we can support like Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, Chuck DeVore, and now Michael Williams. They’re exciting, principled candidates who have all stood up to the Republican party.”

“We need to stop looking at the tea parties as separate from the Republican party,” adds DeMint. “If we do that, we can stand up and create the biggest tent of all.”

As was posted in the past….the GOP has a “purity” list for the candidates it will support and those candidates are in line with the Teabaggers (Ha…there is that word again)….if they keep to the “purity” test thing the tent will get smaller and smaller….and it will look like that little car full of clowns we see at the circus…..

It sounds like the GOP is running scared for the up coming 2010 election…they are deathly afraid that they will lose ALL hope of a majority in Congress…..all the rhetoric about polls not being that important is pure crap!  The GOP has seen the writing on the wall and they are worried that it is NOT in their handwriting…..