Countering the Radical GOP

By E.J. Dionne Jr.

Tuesday, November 11, 2003; Page A25

Our foreign policy debate right now pits radicals against conservatives. Republicans are the radicals. Democrats are the conservatives.

That jarring but shrewd perspective, offered by Anthony Lake, President Clinton's former national security adviser, explains much that is strange in our national discussion. And while Lake is critical of President Bush's policies, he does not use the word "radical" to make a partisan point. He is also critical of his own party's newly discovered conservatism.

In Bush's speech last Thursday on the need to promote democracy, particularly in the Arab world, the president embraced much of what liberal human rights advocates have been saying for years. Lake himself, when he worked for Clinton, proposed the idea of "democratic enlargement" as the underlying principle of American foreign policy.

Bush explicitly rebuked a narrowly realist worldview. "Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe," Bush said, "because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty." The United States, said Bush, must promote democratic change even in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, nations ruled by America's longtime friends.

..."because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty."

A significant point missed by Mr. Dionne is that Howdy isn't practicing what he preaches at home. There are changes being made to the electoral system, across this nation, that would not be tolerated in an internationally monitored election in a third world country. Perhaps we should have international monitors at our polling places in 2004. At the rate things are going, we're gonna need 'em. And let's not forget that horribly mis-named "PATRIOT" Act and the Administrations attempts to strenghten many of its provisions. No, listening to Howdy preach about the vitues of democracy is like listening to a whore preach about the virtue of chastity in Sunday school.