Leo Strauss is often blamed for inspiring neoconservatism, and by extension, the most zealous forms of interventionism it produced.
In his latest, @RonDodson adds to the writings of those who have worked to correct the record on a Straussian approach to foreign policy. **
A truly Straussian foreign policy is realist in understanding and restrained in action, because it recognizes that both domestic and international politics are governed by the tragic limits of human wisdom and the necessity of prioritizing one’s own polis. **
As Thucydides saw, nations move by fear, honor, and interest.
Realism teaches us to see the world as it is.
Restraint teaches us to act justly within it.
Together, they form the patriotic ethic of responsibility: do the right deed, in the right measure, a…
Leo Strauss is often blamed for inspiring neoconservatism, and by extension, the most zealous forms of interventionism it produced.
In his latest, @RonDodson adds to the writings of those who have worked to correct the record on a Straussian approach to foreign policy. **
A truly Straussian foreign policy is realist in understanding and restrained in action, because it recognizes that both domestic and international politics are governed by the tragic limits of human wisdom and the necessity of prioritizing one’s own polis. **
As Thucydides saw, nations move by fear, honor, and interest.
Realism teaches us to see the world as it is.
Restraint teaches us to act justly within it.
Together, they form the patriotic ethic of responsibility: do the right deed, in the right measure, at the right time. **
Straussian prudence—phronēsis—calls us to defend the good life of our own citizens, not to universalize our ideals by force.
Strauss notes throughout history, that empire dissipates virtue, and self-government cultivates it. **
By accepting the limits of power, restraint preserves both liberty and virtue. Both Washington and Lincoln knew this, and so too should our leaders today.
To recover that wisdom is the moral task of American statecraft in our time. **
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More from @theammind
Jul 22, 2024
🧵1/4: It’s now established that the primary results can be voided if poll numbers of the nominee are not sufficiently robust...Primary voters’ choice will turn out to be mere suggestion, reversible by party insiders depending on their political judgment.
This is not democracy.
2/4: What the Democrats are now attempting, then, is a last-minute switch to evade responsibility for the administration that they elected and supported for the last three and a half years. They are trying to hang on to power by desperate trickery...
3/4: We have reached a surprising point in our nation’s history. Leading Democrats need a remedial lesson in democracy. Let the primary voters choose the party nominees. Let the American people choose the president...
Read 4 tweets
Nov 20, 2021
.@martyrmade: “17-year-old boys should not have to take up arms to defend their communities from attacks incited by Democratic Party politicians & the corporate media & facilitated & carried out by organizations funded by multinational corporations.” americanmind.org/salvo/america-…
“We live in a society where mass political violence has been normalized, & because it’s being used as a political & ideological bludgeon to threaten & intimidate the people of this country, the authorities have abdicated their responsibility to protect life & property.” 2/
“The people who have created these conditions are the same baying for the blood of Kyle Rittenhouse for defending himself from three of their own.” 3/
Read 4 tweets
Nov 5, 2020
The 2020 election is not over. The fight has just begun. This is the moment that decides everything. Republicans must rise to the occasion. This means rallies and protests as well as investigating and ensuring that this election was lawful! americanmind.org/post/the-fight…
We are expected to sit quietly while the vote is counted. We will not. Instead, the President and his supporters must publicly rally and protest what any reasonable person would judge looks illegitimate.
First, President Trump should plan several more rallies. Huge ones. His supporters will show up to tell the Democrats that they will not sit back and allow them to cheat their way to victory.
Read 7 tweets
Jun 24, 2020
In this time of national insanity, what is needed is clarity and firmness...Republicans should tell the truth, without any attempt to appease the woke: BLM is racist, not America. In America, all lives matter! americanmind.org/post/stand-up-…
Only a few Republicans have been bold enough to speak the truth. As @RepJimBanks notes, “what’s happening right now is a fundamental shift in the narrative about who we are, what we are, and why we are a nation.” Understand what 1619 is all about. americanmind.org/post/exclusive…
.@marcorubio spoke the truth yesterday. “It is time we start being unafraid to express the common sense of Americans of every race and every background... [we cannot] give in to a bunch of crazy radicals who hate and want to destroy this country of ours.” americanmind.org/post/sen-rubio…
Read 4 tweets
Jun 3, 2020
Americans must decide whether their country is worthy of praise or contempt. The elections on November 3, 2020, hinge on one question: “Do you stand with the Party of 1619 or the Party of 1776?” americanmind.org/post/americas-…
“Politicians seeking election under the banner of the Dem Party, at all levels, can fairly be said to belong to the ‘Party of 1619,’ & politicians seeking office under the banner of the Republican Party, roughly speaking, can fairly be said to belong to the ‘Party of 1776.’”
“The ‘Party of 1619’ represents the multiculturalist view prevailing in almost all American institutions of higher learning, and in American culture, media, and big business.”
Read 5 tweets
May 26, 2020
“If Republicans conceived of their mission as preserving the American way of life, they would pay more attention to the institutions that nurture the foundations of that life—family, religion, education, & community. All else rests on those foundations.” americanmind.org/essays/preserv…
As the chairman of the Board of Directors of the @ClaremontInst Thomas D. Klingenstein notes, “Today those foundations [family, religion, education, and community] are giving way. Strengthening them should therefore be the top priority of the Republican party.”
Republicans must also understand that while these foundations are crumbling, “the American way of life is being attacked by proponents of another way of life (or regime.) That other regime is multiculturalism.”
Read 7 tweets