[jpsb]

I like Paul but 19th century isolationism is not going to work in the modern world, plus I do not want to abandon Israel.

[GlockThe Vote]

I look at this way - no way a person ever gets 100% of what they want, paul included,

So say he was elected but got 50% of what he wanted - would you be ok wit that vs 50% of Newt/Romney ?

[B Knotts]

I like Paul but 19th century isolationism is not going to work in the modern world

You realize this is a progressivist argument?

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with the factual part of the argument, but just want to point out the presumption behind that statement.

[Ohioan]

America was not isolationist in the 19th Century--anything but. You have been misled as to traditional American Foreign Policy--the policy adopted by Washington & Jefferson, that made us the most respected peoples on earth.

See An American Foreign Policy.

The idea is--as it was--to treat all peoples with respect, so long as we receive respect back;--but in Jefferson's words, to "punish the first insult," because if unpunished it leads to many others. This was the policy under which Jefferson spanked the Barbary Pirates. But he did not try to set up a Swiss type of Democracy at Tripoli. It took a very shallow group of confused contemporary "leaders," to think that sort of idea was one whose time had come. They should rather have remembered what Madison had to say about "Democracy."

William Flax