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The liberals’ ghoulish foreign policy

October 31, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward

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“The Heritage report refutes utterly the statement made by John Kerry yesterday at a rally for California Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides,” columnist Michael Barone writes on his US News & World Report blog.

“The Heritage report refutes utterly the statement made by John Kerry yesterday at a rally for California Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides,” columnist Michael Barone writes on his US News & World Report blog.

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Just in time for Halloween, Heritage national security expert Peter Brookes provides a look at the scary liberal foreign policy agenda. If liberals take the reins of power in Washington, Brookes writes, “expect U.S. foreign and defense policy to veer sharply left, with little guiding philosophy beyond ABB—Anything But Bush.”

“For many Democrats and liberals, this vengeful approach may provide much-needed therapy after 12 bitter years in the minority,” he argues. “But it’s no basis for a defense or foreign policy.”

Brookes outlines what we can expect a liberal foreign policy to look like. Click here to read what he has to say.

Liberal myths about the troops

Liberals have a nasty habit of getting the facts wrong when it comes to our troops. In 2002, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) suggested that poorer Americans and minorities are disproportionately represented in the armed forces. And just yesterday, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) claimed that those who don’t perform well in school “get stuck in Iraq.”

Fortunately, Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis was there with the facts to debunk this liberal myth. “The Heritage report refutes utterly the statement made by John Kerry yesterday at a rally for California Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides,” columnist Michael Barone writes on his US News & World Report blog.

As it turns out, “wartime U.S. military enlistees are better educated, wealthier, and more rural on average than their civilian peers.” What’s more, the study finds that “whites are the most proportionally represented racial group among recruits.”

I encourage you to read the whole report, “Who Are the Recruits? The Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Military Enlistment, 2003–2005,” on Heritage.org.

Survey says: too much government

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem,” President Ronald Reagan said in his first inaugural address. “Government is the problem.”

A quarter century later, a new poll from CNN finds that a solid majority of Americans continues to share the Gipper’s belief in limited government:

Queried about their views on the role of government, 54 percent of the 1,013 adults polled said they thought it was trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. Only 37 percent said they thought the government should do more to solve the country’s problems.

Many of our elected leaders continue to believe they can put personal political gain above principle and still remain in office. But this survey suggests that these politicians completely misunderstand the electorate: the people want less government interference in their lives, not more. Many self-described conservatives in Washington are expected to fare poorly in next week’s elections, perhaps because they did not take this lesson to heart.

No matter who prevails next Tuesday, The Heritage Foundation will continue to provide the principles, facts and sound analysis that conservatives need in Washington. As we enter this uncertain time, it’s important that as many people as possible stay informed on the issues.

That’s why I’m challenging each MyHeritage.org reader to sign up five new readers: your friends, family members, coworkers—even the liberal ones.

An imperfect solution for education

“I talk about No Child Left Behind like Ivory soap: It’s 99.9 percent pure,” Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said recently.

Unfortunately, writes Heritage visiting fellow Eugene Hickok, NCLB is not “the formula for what ails American education.” In truth, “it would be a mistake to think that No Child Left Behind delivers the education system we need.”

The fault doesn’t necessarily lie with the law itself, he explains. “American public education—because of the way it is structured, administered, funded and understood by parents, teachers, administrators and taxpayers—is incapable of delivering on the promises of NCLB.”

Click here to read how Hickok proposes to reform America’s education system.

In other news

  • Liberal special interests groups are lining up to oppose President Bush’s appointment of Susan Dudley to be the new “regulation czar,” Congressional Quarterly reports (no link available). Dudley, who has been tapped to lead the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, has advocated paring back government regulation. Confirmation hearings begin in November.
  • Pakistani forces yesterday attacked a radical Islamic school, or madrassa, killing an estimated 80 militants. The raid had been targeted at aides of al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.
  • North Korea’s communist government has agreed to rejoin the stalled six-party talks on the status of its weapons programs.
  • A new scare report on global warming has prompted the British government to…call for new taxes. Unfortunately, warns Madsen Pirie of Britain’s Adam Smith Institute, these proposed “green taxes” will not be used to encourage new behavior but will instead be used simply to generate new government revenue.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.