Official White House photo
George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act into law in 1990.
Last week, Senate Republicans effectively killed the Law of the Sea Treaty, despite the support of the Bush/Cheney administration, the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, and James Baker. And why did the Senate GOP do this? Because of paranoid fears about the U.N. among right-wing activists.
It's not the only treaty in trouble. The U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities also enjoys bipartisan support, with Republicans like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) arguing that it would simply extend our Americans with Disabilities Act to people around the world. But once again, the right, led by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), isn't happy.
"Parts of this treaty deals with abortion and the rights of children, issues that should be addressed by states, local governments and American parents not international bureaucrats," DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton told The Hill in an email. [...]
[S]ome home-schooling advocates are worried about "international bureaucrats" telling them how to raise their children. In a 2007 study, six percent of the parents of the nation's 1.5 million home-schooled students cited health or special needs as the reason for educating at home.
Rick Santorum is also helping rally conservative opposition to the measure, telling the right that the U.N. treaty would "usurp the rights and powers of parents here in the United States."
As a factual matter, this is absurd, but the larger takeaway from this is a reminder about the dwindling influence of the Republican foreign policy establishment. There was a time not long ago when a proposal on international affairs backed by Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) and every living former Secretary of State from Republican administrations would have been seen as a no-brainer.
But as the Republican Party has become radicalized, the influence of the GOP foreign policy establishment has dropped to a modern low point. We saw this in 2010 during the debate over the New START treaty, and now we're seeing it again this year on Law of the Sea and U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
My first instinct was to describe the larger dynamic as the "demise" of the Republican Party's foreign policy establishment, but that's not quite right -- the GOP's foreign policy establishment isn't dead; it's just irrelevant. There are elder Republican statesmen who still want to influence their party with sensible advice, but too many within the party choose not to listen. Even when nonpartisan military leaders urge the GOP to take certain actions, Republicans have decided they don't care about the brass, either.
Jacob Heilbrunn argued a while back that we're witnessing the "twilight of the wise man," and that 2012 may well mark "the last gasp" of the Republican foreign policy establishment. The party that once considered foreign affairs one of its signature issues may never be the same.
Leave a Comment:
"would have been seen as a no-brainer."
Brains and the Current crop of Republicans are mutually exclusive .
They only have reptilian responses .
Everything Obama bad
Everything remotely related to Obama bad
Block everything until we're in power again.
"Everything remotely related to Obama bad"
Even when it's their own damned plan ...
I think the Republican fear is deeper than just the anti-Obama meme. Right wingers deeply fear the "new world order." They want to stop anything that hints of granting "international bureaucrats" any power in America. It is a similar fear to the fear of Sharia law being imposed on America. Instead of selling the benefits of the treaty, DeMint is eager to exploit natural right wing fear.
America is in decline. At least that is what everybody fears. Important people say we are going to become a backwater as China and India rise to win the future. People on the right understand that a declining America means their futures look bleak. Their children are going to suffer. They look around and see that our "elites" are on the side of the internationalists, but they don't seem to be standing up for them. Right wing politicians aren't stupid. They see their opportunity and are eager to take advantage.
"They want to stop anything that hints of granting "international bureaucrats" any power in America."
But international financing of elections is ok .....
Which gives international bureaucrats an inside track to politicians is ok ....
And an inside track is power ....
I'm constantly wondering why Republicans can't see past where they are now let alone look so far into the future as to see their next move except to 'just say no'
Republican leadership is the oligarchy of the U.S. legislature, majority or not.
What was once said about South Carolina - "Too small for a republic, too large for an insane asylum" - now applies to the whole Republican Party. These people become scarier by the day.
And by the way, for those stupid enough to forget (or too young to remember) that Ronald Reagan really was That Bad despite wrapping him in gauze today for being willing to listen about taxes and turn himself into a guy who couldn't be elected in today's Republican Party, I really really really want to recommend Rachel's book, "Drift." Reading her account of Reagan's foreign policy, particularly Iran-Contra, reminds me once again about why I used to shriek about him once a week back in the 80s. He really was the guy who started the Republican Party into extremism, after Nixon started the party into evil. Today's bunch may be so bad that even someone like me who was on Nixon's "enemies list" can get nostalgic for him, but all that does is show how awful today's bunch is, because Nixon really was The Source Of All Evil and Reagan really was The Source Of All Extremism.
Fundamentalism is a response to and recoil from modernity. This is not the paradigm case (religious fundamentalism as a response to social change) but it's an instance of the same general phenomenon. It's not going to go away, just like religious fundamentalism isn't, but both are atavistic relics of a dead past. The political thrashing of a dying former hegemony is violent and destructive but in the end futile.
Here's an idea: Let's take all of the right-wing isolationist zealots and put them all in some interior central state - say Nebraska. Put up a huge wall around them to protect them. Nobody can ever get in or out - that way they will be safe from all the foreigners and those of us to disagree with them on social issues. They can run everything within those walls the way they think it should be - religiously, socially, financially, free market, you name it.
The only catch - they get nothing from outside the walls. No help from the Government (they shouldn't mind this since they want little or no gub'mint anyway). No public roads, school, police or fire. No taxes collected or distributed to them (no subsidies or entitlements - they'll love that). No interstate commerce - can't sell or buy anything beyond the walls. No regulations (except those which would potentially harm people outside the walls; maybe they'll need a dome instead of walls). They'll be able to agree on how to run things for themselves, right?
Maybe then the rest of us can live like normal Americans. At least for a monrth or two, until they start crying about how bad it is in there.
@KJ
Kind of fun to think about, until you actually think about what you are proposing and then - No!!
If only we had an ocean- or two-separating us from all those dangerous foreigners!
Oh, wait. . .
The Rise and Fall of Conservatism in America
http://webworldismyoyster.com/2012/07/17/the-rise-and-fall-of-conservatism-in-america
...and I am Sid Harth@webworldismyoyster.com