Krauthammer's logic

Washington post columnist and self-defined democratic realist, Charles Krauthammer formally endorsed John McCain in today's Washington Post.

Not a big suprise, although in a editorial earlier this month he offered some praise of Obama, writing: "he's got both a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament. That will likely be enough to make him president." In this article he basically praised Obama's ability to not have any major gaffs in an election that seems to have all things falling in his favor. Like Reagan's 1980 easy election following Carter's unpopular term, Obama just needs to run a stable campaign and remain cool and collected.

In his endorsement of McCain, Krauthammer writes:

"Today's economic crisis, like every other in our history, will in time pass. But the barbarians will still be at the gates. Whom do you want on the parapet? I'm for the guy who can tell the lion from the lamb."

In my opinion, Krauthammer seems to carry this cold war mentality; a worldview full of binaries and Realist power balances. Krauthammer sees the world as an unstable place, where the US must act as a stablizing force. Most importantly, the US must continue to protect its own security and its own national interests and the best--and perhaps only--way to do this in his mind is through an strong leader who finds legitimacy from within and uses military deterence and power as the main strategy for security.

I believe this is an outdated mentality. I share Krauthammer's belief that the world is an unstable place. Maybe barbarians aren't at our gates, but he's right in writing that there are many threats to American security and interests. I believe, however, that his--and McCain's--strategy for confronting these threats is doomed to fail. We've seen it in the go-at-it-on-our-own, punish-don't-talk foreign policy of the Bush administration. More often than not, the problem has not been the inability of our leaders to "tell the lion from the lamb"; the problem has been that our leaders turn the lamb into the lion. A foreign policy course that continues to frown on the opinions of our allies and seeks to combat Islamic jihadism and failing states with bombs not diplomats is the wrong course. It is a course that Krauthammer has endorsed despite its utter failure over the past eight years. I believe that Americans have seen the failures of this course and are tired and frustrated with it. It is a course that can gain popularity in high times, but cannot be sustained in times of domestic struggle (specifically economic struggle). For this reason it is an ideology that, at least for now, "will go down with the McCain ship." I say good riddance for now.