I think I will take these step by step and run down. I dont think isolationism is wise for us in the total sense, but we do need to clean up our own back yard before we look into our neighbors.
1. We should step back from our present position as world leader.
We should step back from our position as world police, but I think we need to maintain our lead in terms of economy, technology, education among others.
2. We should limit our involvement on the world stage to “our fair share”.
Not a bad idea, this would cause a dramatic change in the everyday lives of Americans who are spoiled into having what we do.
3. We should no longer carry the ball for W Europe and Asia.
I dont know off the top of my head just how many bases and what force strength we have in W. Europe or Asia, but I would certainly vouch for minimzing them or at least have the host country cover much of the costs involved with that. Such as the S. Koreans.
4. We should limit our foreign aid to a few countries that have been our historic friends and to emergency relief efforts.
Interesting concept, I will say that we need to cut trade ties with countries that do not share our core beliefs of democracy and liberty. A perfect example would be the Saudis, and the Chinese.
5. We should scale back our financial commitment to the UN and ask that the UN relocate their headquarters to another country.
I think the only other place that would benefit having the UN headquartered there would be Switzerland, where in my opinion it should have been located in the first place or on a previously uninhabited island that becomes soverign territory of the UN. We also need countries to commit more capital to running it.
6. We should be far less militarily committed around the globe.
I agree to this, but see #3.
7. We should bring our military home immediately from Germany and Japan and as soon as feasible from the Middle East. Future involvement in foreign conflicts should be drastically curtailed.
I agree with the idea of not being involved in foreign wars, but that is an interesting concept that has not worked out historically.
8. We should do nothing that limits our national sovereignty.
I would say that your first 7 ideas contradict the 8th point. But fair enough.
The concept of isolationism has been tried before in this country and twice in the past 100 years with really piss poor results. The following is totally theoritcal and does not necessarily reflect our currect status in Iraq etc.
One often does not have to look for trouble, because trouble finds them as is a result of both world wars we said we would not be involved in, but of course later did. It may be possible that if we would have been a player from the start that things could have turned out differently. To sit in the corner with our fingers in our ears and our eyes closed makes it difficult to react to being punched. One can debate that my statement about that is not entirely accurate, but for conceptual purposes I will stand by it.
All this being said, there should be no reason why anyone should be without medical coverage in this country(do not see that as me suggesting a government monopoly) there is no reason for the rampant defecit spending our government partakes in, the immigration problem needs to be reigned in somehow, also our reliance on imported oil from countries who dont share our views on the world need to be cut off. Our totally inept policy towards the prohibition of drugs needs a close hard look as well.
