While I don't agree to ever vote for a politician with a "D" after their name (Democrat party), I had to agree with much that the interviewee had to say. See below.
Interview
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Exceptions and commentary:
About 2/3's through the first part Andrew Bacevich says that Reagan talked of smaller government and tighter spending and yet these things grew. Before all you leftists get all slap-happy, consider that it is primarily Congress that has control of the extent of government and it's spending, and during the Reagan presidency, the Democrats controlled Congress. The reality of politics in a representative democracy is that to get military spending to defeat Communism, deals had to be made to enable this. (As an aside, even Reagan didn't think that policing the Middle East was worth American blood. He refused military adventurism in the ME, but he had other operations going on in the Western hemisphere.)
And on a general note, the advent of cheap consumer goods is not always bad in that it has provided the opportunity for poorer people in this country and the world access to technology for which they might have had to wait another century (until their nation or economic status caught up). There might be some villages now that don’t even have running water, but the headman might have a cell phone and a radio. I advocate a greater opportunity for all peoples of the world, so there is a positive side to cheap goods. (Another downside is the exploitation of the workers—but that’s a topic for another discussion.)
Regarding Jimmy Carter, he may have had some insight to some of the problems besetting our nation, but for me, he has discredited himself by being overly supportive of the various Communist and assorted totalitarian dictators of the world.
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2 comments:
Do you think, as to his statement about how all these presidents have relied on the projection of military power, that the people of the US and the world could have been better served by investing that same money into alternative energy sources, space technologies, and the ability to feed people more inexpensively?
I think this would have kept the US in a position to retain hegemony through superior technology, also providing beneficial for the foreseeable future.
When I read the New York times magazine article about alternative energy technology like the Bloom energy for example and many like it that are waiting on capital to be deployed, I have to wonder how much technology would be able to see the light of day had we spent the budget of the Afghan and Iraq wars on venture capital.
In retrospect, after reading histories of the post world war 2 era it feels like we have been lead around and lied to by the likes of John Wayne type romances.
As the late George Carlin once said in one of his comedies. Its just a big d**k waving contest. (battle of egos)
This is what I have been saying since I was a child, at least in regard to the need to continue funding the space program. We have been stuck in low earth orbit for thirty years now (except for the occasional Mars probe or deep space probe). So much of the technology at the consumer level now had it's origin in the space program.
I have noticed from my reading of history that there is often a lag between when a technology or discovery is first realized and when it actually makes it into a product available to the common man. There seems to have to be the right social conditions for technology to be deployed.
In history or in any aspect of life there are natural consequences (good & bad) that follow for every decision. One could ask that if we (the USA) hadn't stuck our nose into World War 1, would there have been a World War 2? Would the communists have been able to gain such a foothold in vast areas of the earth? Anyway reality is what it is--wherever you go there you are.
But even if some of the lessons of moderation and realism spoken of by Andrew Bacevich are only taken to heart by a few of us, at least our lives may have some better margins. If God allows, I hope replace my gasoline powered autos with electric ones, and right now we (Janie & I) are de-cluttering our lives and when my bills get caught up, to live more simply.
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